My husband and myself stayed in the Grand Cettia Hotel from the 3rd - 10th October 2011. We booked with Thomas Cook and we were originally were meant to go to Kusadassi but the flight was taken off from Belfast. When changing the Thomas Cook rep assured me that this Hotel was nearer to Iclemer than Marmaris, this is not the case!!
On arrival we were shown to our room in the new building, on inspection we had been given a twin room and were facing residential houses. We had been assured that we would have been given a double room with a decent view. But we brushed this aside and decided to get freshened up and go down to have a look around, as in the pictures on the website and Thomas Cooks brochure it looks like they have extensive grounds, all that i can say is that for the many people that are staying in this complex there is only one pool that you can use as the other is across the road in the apartment complex and you have to pay for your drinks here, all inclusive or not. All the sunbeds were very close together, in fact i think that unless you were up at 6am in the morning you would have no hope of getting decent sunbeds. Another thing is is that there isnt much room to walk from the hotel to the only bar as the sunbeds take every space apart from a meter gap to walk past, and we seen numerous people slip and fall because the sides of the pool are so slippy and dangerous.
There is not good service on the all inclusive for drinks either, please note that in the morning you cant get drinks like soft drinks or coffee etc until 11am and if you want tea or coffee etc you have to brave the packed out restaurant to get this which is something i will speak on later. If you drink alcohol the choice of all inclusive is ok if you don't mind local brands which are normal in any hotel with all inclusive but there is not great choice if you don't drink, i decided to get a pure orange one day as there is no way that i could drink coke etc all day and it had to be the most vile tasting orange i gave ever tried, it was only after this myself and my husband seen the machine being filled up and it was powdered orange. I would say that the cleanliness of the cups and glasses aren't the best so please check them before using them. The Cleanliness in the restaurant seats, tables, cutlery, floor etc left a lot to be desired.
Because we had been given a twin room we had pushed our beds together and on a couple of occasions when the maids had changed our beds but had only left us one single sheet between the 2 of us, I said that I would use the throw thing that was on the bed, but only the next day I looked at the underside and it was disgusting with stains etc. The furniture on the balcony was old and tatty and very small also.
On the day after we arrived we had a Turkish bath package, which myself and my husband thoroughly enjoyed, the man in charge was lovely and didn't pester us at all too much.
Another upside was the Jeweller Gino, we were passing and i seen the most beautiful eternity ring, my husband went to enquire about it and he took the time to go through different rings with me and we decided the one he recommended, on getting it home We then had it valued and it appears to be worth considerably more than what my husband paid for it. He also took our wedding rings and my engagement ring for free to dip and repair, so thank you very much Gino! You def did fix it (that's what it said at the bottom of the receipt 'Gino fix it' ).
In the restaurant there was very little variety, we have been on many all inclusive and full board holidays and this had to be by far the worst. Chicken or Turkey was on the menu every night and maybe a couple of kinds of fish but everything was cooked the same, and if it was chicken one night then the next night it would be turkey cooked exactly the same way. The bar food was horrible, fast food like chips, chicken nuggets, pizza etc.I ended up with a very bad stomach bug on our 4th day there and after numerous tests when we came home it was concluded that it was probably with the salad etc being prepared with contaminated water. Breakfast wasn't great either, i lived for a whole week on pancakes and choc dip. Me and my husband went for our meals just after all mealtimes had started as the restaurant is so busy and not really big enough for everyone at the same time. Another thing you cannot get the likes of icecream or lollies etc on the all inclusive as you have been able to on other all inclusive holidays we have been on and there was many parents complaining about this as there were many small children there and all inclusive is after all meant to save you money in the long run.
Marmaris itself is horrid, we went to the market and only stayed 10 mins and then left again, stall holders pulling you in and trying to put stuff in your hands so you have to pay for it, i had only wanted to go here to try and get clothes for my 2 children back home but we ended up just going to the shops on the walk down into Marmaris. Most of the shop owners on the walk back to the hotel are like that too trying to sell you something like excursions etc but everytime we were approached we just said we were going home the next day.
You can purchase phonecards that work out far cheaper than your mobile and please be warned Dalaman airport is scandalous with security and with their duty free prices so if you can purchase your stuff before and put it in your case its a lot cheaper.
Another thing about Grand Cettia's location, there are a few shops on the walk down which you can get supplies, clothes, cigarettes etc but there is a very steep hill going back to the hotel so if you have walking difficulties it wouldn't be recommended!
The day before we came home there was torrential rain, the hotel is not well suited to cater for this as the main bar is situated outside, after about an hour of people crammed in here they opened the restaurant to let people sit in there, by a couple of hours later the rain had been so bad that the whole outside bar was completely flooded.
My husband and myself would like to return to Turkey but we will def not be returning the Grand Cettia!
Room Tip: The rooms in the new building have air conditioning that you control,whereas the rooms in the main b...
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
