The Hotel Ephesus Princess is an all-inclusive facility situated in its own grounds. There are no adjacent shops or other facilities nearby. You can get a small bus from the end of the hotel road to Kusadasi for about 3 Euro and it’s worth the trip for wide range of shops, cafés and restaurants and a walk along the harbour area. The shopping area, adjacent to the mosque, is busy and you can pick up the usual range of souvenirs from Turkish delight, lucky/evil eyes, to carpets!

I last visited Turkey about 10 years ago and said I would never return because of all the hassle I got from people aggressively trying to sell you everything and anything and wanting tips for smiling at you. It’s nothing like this at all now though; we had no problem and a polite ‘no thank you’ was all that was needed if you were not interested in buying things.

The hotel has some good facilities. The private beach is a sun trap and the 180 plus steps are a delight because there are terraces on different levels where you can stop and rest, look at the plants, watch the butterflies, birds or insects or rest on the hammocks etc, if you don’t want to do it all at once. Alternatively you can get a free ride on a tractor pulling a carriage with seats up and down at regular intervals so you don’t have to walk. The beach and outdoor areas have a range of snack bars which provide ‘lunch’ usually chips, pizzas, hot dogs and burgers. Not particular adventurous or to everyone’s taste, but it is cooked on site and is usually hot and of course it appeals to kids. Kayaks and pedalos are free to hire on the private beach but provision is limited and they could do with some new additions to the fleet!

We visited at the end of the summer season (Autumn half term) and I expected it still to be warm but the weather was variable and there were days when it was actually quite chilly (I never thought I would say this about Turkey!). The beach area is always a few degrees warmer than the pool. Very few people ventured into the pool; it was too cold! One young guy was foolish enough to dive in without testing the water and almost suffered from hypothermia, frostbite and various other sub zero temperature related problems! I bet its crammed in summer though.

The rooms were spacious and the bed linen clean and the rooms were serviced every day. We had a room facing the beach and the view from the room was fantastic. Our room was on two levels with a fridge and two televisions. The beds were very comfortable.

The restaurants were okay and most of the staff were friendly, but if I did have a criticism, it was that there was a very ‘last day of term’ feel about it all. The range of food was limited, and not always warm, although to be fair, the ambient room temperature in the open dining room was often chilly so the food may have actually just been put out! The food in the evening was better but again slightly limited in range – perhaps because it was the end of the season. The hotel was closing down for the season after we left so it was understandable that the supplies would have been more limited.

We didn’t have a problem with the all-inclusive package and the staff were only too happy to serve you with as much food and drink as you wanted. The bar was good with a live music act on each evening, usually someone playing an acoustic guitar and singing popular standards in English. Most of the acts were of a reasonable standard. The bar staff were friendly, pleasant and helpful; you didn’t have to wait long for a drink. There was a small range of souvenir and clothing and jewellery shops inside the hotel adjacent to the bar, but some of them closed for the end of the season before we left.

Overall I enjoyed the hotel and facilities I would say that it was particularly suited families and young children.