We were greeted by Tannah & i'm guessing Erhan and shown to our room....The Attic Room!
In fairness when booking we did ask for a top floor room, solely for the views, but what we got was far from what we expected.
The room was ridiculously hot, especially the lounge area. We turned the Aircon on, and after an hour, with the correct settings on, it was still blowing warm air out, even though it was set at 16 degrees c.
Still, first night so would sort it in the morning, but thought we'd have a cuppa and sit on the balcony.
No kettle!!!
Went down to the kids room, and theres was ice cold. So we all decided to go see if we could find a bar to have a drink.
A guy on a scooter came past, now approx. 3am and asked what we were looking for...."Come to Jimmy's Place (AKA The Garden..Opp Dejavu), i'll open up for you."
Sure enough,a 3 minute walk later and his wife and daughter had been awoken and were taking an order for drinks.
Maxi, jimmys wife, then opened the kitchen and cooked us all chicken doner wraps and home made chips.
The perfect start to our holiday.
Left there about 5.30am and wandered home and me, anita & my daughter rested on the balcony, as the rooms was too hot.
At about 8am, after me having wandered to the beach and taken some pics of the sun rising went back to speak to tannah about the room, and also pointed out the towel rail had fallen off one end after having a shower.
He said no problem it will be fixed today.
So we all went off out, had a wander and settled on the beach for the day, stopping off in a bar on the way home.
Went back to our room, and nothing had been fixed, aircon the same, no kettle, towel rail dangling.
So i went back down and he said "Sorry, i forgot."
So i asked to be moved rooms, which if you stay there or have stayed there, will know is the norm.
I got shown every other attic room, which were all stiflingly hot and unsurprisingly empty, but refused to stay in one of them.
I then got told to come back at 12 noon and they would move us to another room.....and not an attic room.
We were then given room 501, a vast improvement on the attic room.
I think in short, if you're the type to sit round the pool all day, like most people did, you will be treated like royalty at the senem, but if you're like us, and you come to another country to explore outside the boundaries of the hotel, you WILL be treated differently.
One of the main reasons we didn't stay around the hotel other than wanting to show the kids icmeler, was due to the depth of the pool...1.75m all round,and no shallow end. Sadly Anita is not a swimmer, and i'm not a strong swimmer and won't go out of my depth so the pool area was a no go area. Plus the music was way too loud all day long, to the point you would have to shout to get a drink at the bar.
So we went to another apartment, with a decent depth pool and spent many a day there in between sight seeing.
We asked several times if they had some bread, to which each time it was a "No!" Yet if you were paying for a breakfast bread suddenly appeared! It's self catering, so surely they don't expect people to eat breakfast, lunch & dinner there every day!
We did the Thursday Night BBQ.....which was brilliant, lovely food and superb entertainment, we all really enjoyed that, and it was nice to interact with the other guests, as we didn't see them during the day.
So, all in all, if you like all of the above, ie staying at the hotel all day & are a good swimmer you'll love the senem.
But for us, the staff seemed very false when talking to us, because we were not there much, so would definitely be one to strike off our list of been there, done that, won't again.
Places we went to dinner.
We ate out at the Buffalo that first night, as we had been in touch with Sugar and Oz (who has now moved from the Dilhan) and they had reserved us a table.
Was lovely to catch up with old friends and we had a great night, lovely food and cheap efes
We had 6 very special evenings in The Red Lion on the main stretch. Absolutely wonderful people in there, and nothing is too much trouble for them.
The Garden (aka Jimmys opp Dejavu) - Superb food, and excellent hospitality from Jimmy & Maxi, such lovely people.
Made In Asia - down near the square and a chinese/indian restaurant - Very nice food, good service, but felt like once we'd finished they wanted our table free, so we didn't stay for extra drinks like we normally would, but can't fault the food.
Coco Beach Restaurant - Having been here last year and had a superb meal, we took everyone down there for dinner, wow what a difference a year makes. The food was not a patch on last year (no doubt another establishment that's changed chef's) and out of 10 meals (we had 3 members of my stepdaughters bf meet us out there) only 1 meal was finished and the rest were mostly 20 - 45 % eaten at best. Such a shame, as last year it was so impressive.
Scotia Bar - We had many a lazy afternoon in here, using their pool and it was a real fun time.
Brilliant, fun staff and they were more than happy to let you have use of their pool in exchange for buying drinks.
We had several lunch time meals in here and the food was delicious.
Senem Apartments - We had an evening meal in here, and can't fault the food, very tasty and nicely presented and decent value too.
We did however have a serious problem 9 days into our holiday, of which i won't put on here now, as i will email JT first to see if it's ok, but if he says yes then i will edit the review or put it in the main forum.
Alternatively you can email me on [email protected] and i will be happy to explain more.
Well that's it for now folks, to all those on your way out, have fun, enjoy the sun & stay safe.
Chris & Anita
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