Club Alize Apartments, Marmaris

I have recently returned from Club Alize apartments in Turkey and would certainly recommend staying there. We had not planned on going to Turkey particularly, we went to book a last minute holiday and found quite a good deal. We booked through First Choice so all the transfers were arranged through them and all of the reps there were first choice. The brochure looked nice and when we got there it was just as expected.


Prices.
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Club Alize is a self catering resort. In the resort there are 126 1 bedroom apartments A -1, 20 2 bedroom apartments A -2 and 4 hotel rooms.

The apartment was the first thing that we took notice of as we got there at 6am so we more or less went straight to bed for a couple of hours. We had a one bedroom apartment as there were 3 of us. I was pleased to see that the room was light and clean. It was a reasonable size ... more

I have recently returned from Club Alize apartments in Turkey and would certainly recommend staying there. We had not planned on going to Turkey particularly, we went to book a last minute holiday and found quite a good deal. We booked through First Choice so all the transfers were arranged through them and all of the reps there were first choice. The brochure looked nice and when we got there it was just as expected.

Prices.
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We paid less than the brochure price but listed in the First Choice brochure, the prices per week for this week are £349 for a one bedroom apartment per adult, £455 for a two bedroom apartment per adult and for the first child £209 and the second child £239.

The prices for two weeks listed in the First Choice brochure for this week (commencing 8/8/07) are £455 per adult for a one bedroom apartment, £445 per adult for 2 bedroom apartment (why that is cheaper I don`t know), and the child prices were the same as for one week.

I booked through First Choice and these are their prices, it may be possible to shop around for different prices. As I already said, we were offered a good deal as a last minute booking so it is always worth shopping around.

Apartments.
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Club Alize is a self catering resort. In the resort there are 126 1 bedroom apartments A -1, 20 2 bedroom apartments A -2 and 4 hotel rooms.

The apartment was the first thing that we took notice of as we got there at 6am so we more or less went straight to bed for a couple of hours. We had a one bedroom apartment as there were 3 of us. I was pleased to see that the room was light and clean. It was a reasonable size and had air conditioning. The bed was a fair size (either twin or double) there were several drawers to put clothes in and a large wardrobe. The floor was tiled throughout (ideal for a holiday resort).

The bathroom had three towels each and one on the floor to stand on when getting out of the bath or shower. There was a bath and a shower within the bath so it was possible to have a bath or shower depending on mood. The sink was a normal size. The toilet was nice. There was a bin next to it to put in your paper. There were spaces both in the bath and the sink to put your soap and shampoo etc. There was also a hairdryer.

The second room had a bed settee and another make shift bed (though we only needed one) and the size was good for our needs as we only had one child. I think that with 2 children it wuold have been spacious enough, though it may have been a bit cramped for 2 adults. There was a wardrobe and drawers in the room. There was no air conditioning in here though but even though the temperatures was 40 degrees, it was not a problem, it seemed enough to have air conditioning in one room. There was a small table with stools on the kitchen side of the room, the table had a toaster on it. There was also a microwave, fridge and two rings to cook on, though we had no intention of cooking. We did use the toaster though. There was plenty of water available but we were advised to use bottled water for drinking which we did and was available for purchase from the shop downstairs.

The balcony was at the opposite end of the room from the kitchen. A lot of them overlook the pool but ours overlooked the road and the kids club. It was not really a road but a lane but there was a busier road at the end of it. It was possible to hear a bit of traffic so it was not really quiet but it was not too noisy either. I would imagine that in another room the traffic would not be heard. The balcony was fairly spacious with a plastic table and chairs.

We only met the cleaning lady on our first day as she came around 10.30 daily. The bed linen was changed daily and the towels every other day. The rooms were certainly clean, light and bright.

The Resort.
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The entrance area was big and had three lots of settees for people to sit on. The shop was in this area which sold every day items suitable for self catering. The choice was not vast but it was enough. I considered it to be fairly expensive though but most of these places are, wherever you are. There was a reception desk in the far corner and in the other corner was the First Choice table. The representative was available there between 5 and 6 every day so you could book your excursions if required or ask her any questions. By this was a notice board with the timetable of events for the evening listed. There was also a notice on the opposite wall with the kids club time table listed (will talk about kids club later). Our apartment was to the right and accessible by lift or stairs. I always used the stairs (except with suitcase) but my son always liked to use the lift. Other apartments were around the pool.

Past the rep desk you could walk straight out to the pool down some stairs. The pool was a fair size with a shallow end and kids pool and a deep end. The kids pool had a little umbrella and slide going into it and was sectioned off from the main pool by a string of floats. At the deep end (which was about 2 metres I would say, I didn`t see it stated anywhere), there is a little bit sectioned off as there is a slide at the end. The slide is colourful and straight but with little waves going down. It deposits you under the water. The slide is only open between 10.30 and 12 then again 14.30. to 17.30. The water that goes down the slide is turned off when it is closed but there is always at least one child climbing up it when it is closed. When the slide is open there is always a member of staff there. The pool is fairly crowded mostly but if you get there early in the morning it is possible to swim some widths (not lengths as it is a bit too shallow). The pool shuts at around 7 (except when there is a pool party) and I think it opens at around 8 in the morning.

There are sunbeds around the pool (not that easy to get one) and there are more at the side where the food is served. Aparently you can get a waiter to move someones towel if the sunbed hasn`t been attended for a while though we didn`t do this. We could usually get one or two which is good enough when you are in and out of the pool.

Around the pool there are shops. A gift shop which we used on our last day with a variety of things suitable to take home. There is a tatoo and piercing studio, I don`t know how much custom that had. The hairdresser was next and I think they did quite well. My son had stars cut into the side of his head which seemed to be the craze there. A lot of the women and children were going around with braided hair which the salon offered. There was also a Turkish Bath which we didn`t visit at the resort and a gym somewhere. There is a fun pub by the pool though we didn`t use this except for our first reps meeting.

There are tables to eat and drink near the pool all with waiter service (everything seems to require a tip in Turkey). You could also visit the bar by the tables but they didn`t seem to like people standing there propping up the bar. Most people ate outside but it was possible to eat inside. There were 2 large television screens on the wall.

Just inside was a pool room and table tennis which you paid a man for time on.

Club Alize operates a band system though we didn`t use it. With this you pay at the end of your holiday for your food and drink, charging it to your band. We prefered to keep track of our money.

Food.
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The food was pretty English, in fact not just at the resort. We only ate there a few times as we were out a lot of the time. The prices seemed comparable to English prices aswell though we paid in Lira. We had an English breakfast twice on days that we didn`t go on excursions to set us up for the day. It certainly did this as it was huge and very nice. I found the menu a bit limited as there was not a great selection. I had a fabulous salad, really well presented and tasty. My husband had spaghetti bolognese which he though was nice but it was a bit bland to me, not much sauce. I had a chicken and onion dish which was really nice, my husband had spaghetti bolongnese again. We both had steak one night which was really good and reasonably priced. After this I didn`t really fancy anything else as it was just basic like fish and chips and things. I did spot a small Chinese menu but it was the night that we had steak so I didn`t look at it.

I could not fault the food, it was good, a large quantity, the service was good. I just would have prefered a larger selection of food that was not typically English.

There was always a happy hour between 7 and 8 where the drinks were buy one get one free. There was also another one at 10 where the cocktails were buy one get one free.

Entertainment.
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There was entertainment every night though we were not there every night. The entertainment went on until midnight. On Wednesday night there was a barbeque. The food was very good. You had to help youself but the selection was great. I don`t always like this type of food but there was so much and it was so tasty. The entertainment afterwards was a Turkish night with Turkish dancers and break dancers. The break dancers were excellent, very professional, fit, strong and with exceptional balance. There was also a Belly Dancer and members of the audience had to get up and have a go, me included. I don`t usually like this type of thing but I like belly dancing, though my son didn`t like me doing it. This was a good evening and at the end, in fact every night, everone had to get up and dance to a few cheesy disco records in a line. Each night at about 9 there was a kids mini disco which was a similar sort of thing.

Another night there was a pool party. I didn`t go in but the pool was open until 10.30. I had eaten a large steak so didn`t thik swimming was a good idea. They had lots of activities for adults and children. The children has to jump in and out and collect ping pong balls and the adults had to cross on surf boards with eventually 4 adults on. It was all good fun.

There was a comedy night. Some of it was funny and some most definitely wasn`t.

There was another night with break dancers which we missed because we were out.

Although we didn`t see the entertainment every night, it was on every night and was good and varied. You just had to be prepared to be picked to go on to stage.

Kids Club.
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We didn`t go on holiday to sent our son to kids club, but a couple of times he insisted on going. He went once between 21.00 and 23.00 to watch DVD`s. He loved it and it enabled us to go out and enjoy a nice meal as he is not a big eater. He also went during the day for a couple of hours. It was open every day except Saturday which is their day off. The kids club was free except on DVD night when they had to pay a small amount.

The age of the child detirmined which group they attended though the club was called the Bugs Bunny Club. 3-5 year olds were Sylvesters and 6-8`s were Taz. My son (and everyone) received a free hat and a free tasmanian devil t shirt.

Nearby ammenities.
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There were lots of shops in Marmaris about a 10 minute walk from Club Alize where you could buy most things clothing, bags etc. There were enough shops here to keep you busy. There were supermarkets closer than this but most things were available on the resort. The beach was just a bit further 850 metres from the resort. Not too far but we went mainly on excurions for nicer beaches and experiences as the beaches are not that big here. There are many restaurants along the beach front offering a fantastic view and atmosphere. Mostly the food was English but some Chinese and Indian. I found a really nice Indian Restaurant, the Taj Mahal. The food was fantastic. We did try another Indian which was not as nice. Some places sold Turkish kebabs. There is also a restaurant right accross the road which we ate at one night. It was possible to book your excursions along the sea front at a cheaper rate than through the reps, though cannot pick you up from your resort, they are not allowed. The coach journey from the apartment to take you on excursions was not far for cruises. The longest one we went on was about 1 and a half hours but it was well worth it for the mud baths and other things. We were out for 11 hours that day and had a fantastic time. I won`t go into too much as the review is about the resort, it was just to let you know how far things were. There were several water parks within walking distance which we didn`t visit as we were busy doing other things.

Transfers.
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We flew to Dalaman airport and the transfer time was 2 hours, though it took longer when we arrived. There may be quicker transfers but we were close to the heart of Marmaris so I felt that we were ideally situated. We were offered a resort with a 6 hour transfer time which we refused.

Would I go again?
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Whilst I prefer to go to different places, Turkey was great and we had a really fantastic holiday. I would certainly recommend Turkey and Club Alize. I think we were incredibly lucky to have stayed at Club Alize. I was talking to someone staying at nearby apartments complaining that they were dirty and ours certainly weren`t.

For someone who has not visited Turkey before, it is definitely worth a visit. I heard that it was cheap but apparently Marmaris isn`t and I thought we spent quite a lot on eating out.

Club Alize had a good atmosphere, was clean and had good facilities and the staff were really friendly. The location was good if you don`t mind a ten minute walk to the beach.

The temperature was 40 degrees but the air conditioning, the light rooms and the pool it was not too hot.

Club Alize has a website, www.clubalize.com where you can obtain more details. There is even a video of the resort whch lasts a few minutes though I consider that it looks better in real life, it looks a bit dark on the video. 

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