I'm a travel consultant and i Went here in May with my family, weather was lovely. Hotel immaculate. Food was great, so much choice and very good quality. we were on half board, but you get constant wine re fills throughout your evening meal for free. pool area nice and quiet. beach is lovely but gets full quick. Can't pay for anything at the hotel with cash its all on a card and you get a bill at the end of your stay. similar prices to uk for drinks and food at hotel. internet access at the hotel for good price. you walk out of the hotel and your on the sea front and its a lovely walk along the sea front, with lots of bars and restaurants and eventually you end up in the old town where there is a wide collection of shops all pedestrianised so no cars, and some historic sights to see here also. I would highly reccommend this hotel to couples and families. Although the guests are predominently German. the staff can't do enough for you.

went to the Acanthus first 2 weeks in august 2011 with Thomas cook, Hotel is lovely but be aware that the whole place is full of Germans! We found that we were defenitly in a minority. The food was geered around the german pallet and became very repetative, considering the fact that english guests stay there, no english food was served, i found most nights i would eat french fries and rice and in the mornings a croissant. The staff work hard but again they speak german and struggle to understand you this is in both the acanthus and the cennet. Our english Thomas cook rep was not very good, on our welcome meeting we were enquiring about trips and asked about local jeep safari trip, she said "don't go on jeep safari as they take you to see wild lions and bears!" I pointed out to her that we were in turkey not africa and that jeep safari's take you up mountailns, she also said don't book trips with the local tour groups as they will come back to the hotel saying you havn't paid! Again not true! We did go on a lovely bout trip with the local tour groups and it was much better than the one with Thomas cook.
Our room at the hotel was nice and cleaned everyday and it was quiet in the evening but i know that there was complaints about the noise in the cennet part of the hotel.
overall a good holiday but i wouldn't go back to the Acanthus or side as the english are not catered for at all.

We found our stay great value and loved the setting on the beach. Swimming was very safe and would have been great for children.

We actually enjoyed sitting with other people at the meals although the fact that I speak German was definitely an advantage! People were very friendly and the meals were very relaxed with a good choice of food and free wine or soft drinks. We had no problem getting sunbeds.

Side is a tourist trap but has a wonderful little museum amid the Roman ruins with hens running about its garden. Sunset at the ruins is quite spectacular. It is a good base for visiting Antalya with its beautiful old town and harbour and Aspendos with its stunning amphitheatre.

I just returned form a two week holiday in Side and stayed at the Acanthus. I am in mid thirties and went with my girlfriend.

Firstly I must point out that this was a relatively cheap holiday so my expectations were not as high as they would have been ordinarily but all future visitors should know that this is simply not a four star hotel, as they claim.

We arrived very late (about 3am) and were dealt with a "nightwatchman" type at reception who clearly did not speak English to any standard as my very simple questions of him upon arrival where met with a blank stare and ignored. I decised to wait until morning to ask about the hotel rather than soldier on with the uncomprehending chap in front of me.

We were shown to a room which was very small and oddly shaped and had a view over the car park and goods loading entrance. This was totally unacceptable for a hotel of any kind of standard. Needless to say the unloading of pallets of food and drink at 8.30am the next morning was unwelcome to say the least, particulary as it sounded like these Turkish delivery men where in the room.

I spoke to reception in the morning and told them that this was not acceptable and asked to change rooms. Luckily the day staff are much better and where pretty accomadating and eventaully we were able to change to a better room overlooking some grass and with a (very) partial sea view. I should stress that this was not a great room but was much better than the first that we were allocated.

We were one of the lucky one's though as there were a considerable stream of people complaining about there rooms pretty much everytime I passed reception and the vast majority of people where not able to change their rooms as they were told the hotel was fully booked.

Now I am no leisure industry expert and am not in the business of hotel design but even I can work out that if you build a hotel for these type of holiday, people are not going to be happy if they are overlooking a car park and are woken up by the incessant jabbering of delivery men, hotel employees, etc early in the morning.

If I had not been able to change my room my review of this hotel would have been considerably more scathing.

As others have pointed out this hotel seems to aimed at German retirees as the vast majority of guests are Germans over 60. This was not an issue for me as I wanted a quiet break but if you are looking for a lively hotel with a lot going on or have children and are hoping for a kids club and that sort of thing this is not the place for you.

The hotel has a nice (if small) section of private beach. However I am afraid to say that the old cliche of Germans putting beach towels down on sun loungers at the crack of dawn was demonstrated in all its glory. Everyday we went to to the beach EVERY SINGLE sun lounger had a towel on it (although very few actual people where sitting on them). I can only assume that our elderly Teutonic fellow guests where living up to their reputations. This meant that we used the public beach next to it which always had free sun loungers. This was not really a problem as you could hire the sun loungers for about the equivalent £1.50 a day. However it was annoying to see people putting towels on sun loungers that they were not even using.

Also the hotel provides you with beach towels but charges you for replacing the beach towels on a daily basis (about teh equivalent of £1.50). I don't know about anybody else but I have never come across such a thing and found it a very petty and cyncical attempt to drag a few extra quid out of its guests.

Also the cleaning staff seemed loathe to replace shampoo and shower gel and I had to resort to going to reception to collect refills and leaving notes for the cleaning staff to replace this stuff. Again I have never come across cleaing staff not repalcing obviously empty bottles of shampoo. I suspect that the hotel management had instructed the cleaners not to replace these unless specifcally asked in order to save a few pennies. Otheriwse the cleaners were fine and did a good job.

Another very wierd thing about the hotel is its seating policy for meals. I know that others have already remarked on this but basically the surly head waiter, who appears to be allergic to politeness, allocates you a table and you CANNOT move to another table for the rest of your stay. We were sat on a table with a German couple who were perfectly pleasant and civil, but the fact remains I would have liked to have had dinner at a table with my girlfriend and not with my girlfriend and two strangers. I cannot understand why the hotel does this and it seems designed as a rule for sake of having a rule rather than to serve any practical purpose.

My questions as to why we could not sit on a table for two (of which there were many available) where met with the nonsensical reply of "but that is not your table". Flabbergasted!

Lets just say the surly waiters do not like having their authority questioned.

The food is okay but very little Turkish food was on offer and whilst the food ingredients are of a decent quality they do tend to err on the side of bland in thier preparation. I suppose that is what the majority of their guest seem to want and appreciate but it was a little disappointing considering the flair and quality of spices and flavours usually used in Turkish cooking.

In short the hotel is fine but has a number of annoying rules that in themselves are not big issues but do start to annoy you after a while.

Also I cannot stress enough the quality of your experience will be enormously determined by your room allocation. Get one of hte many rooms overlooking a functional part of the hotel and, I'm afraid, it game over unless you can change.

All in all a decent hotel and worth it if you can get a good cheap price but otherwise I would look elsewhere.