The below review is an overview of my holiday to Gumbet Turkey, staying in Litera Royal Marin resort, traveling with Goldtrail holidays in May 2008 for 1 week. Holiday cost around £300 each all inclusive booked 2 weeks before.

The flight was delayed by 1 hour outbound and inbound. Onur Air do not charge extra for leg room seats so when checking in its worth asking for row 12 to get the extra leg room. Flight attendants were polite and helpful although did not understand much English. It was very hard to understand any of the announcements or the safety instructions. No on flight entertainment so take a book or MP3 player to keep yourself occupied. They sold drinks, a small selection of sandwiches and duty free. A small packet of Pringles cost £2.50 and a can of coke cost £2. They accepted Turkish Lira, Euros or Sterling.

Got to the bus for the transfer and had to wait 1 hour for the rep to come to take us to the resort. This was not good in the early hours of the morning. Our hotel rep was fine, he made sure we got a new room when complaining and was not pushy with selling trips. Main problem was that our return flight was due to take off at 6pm and they told us we had to be at the meeting point for 12:50. (Bearing in mind all inclusive lunch began at 1). Transfer time was only 45 minutes. We felt this was a bit early to pick us up. They ended up being 1 hour late. Please be aware that Goldtrail rate their own hotels. Teletext stated it was a 5 Star resort, when complaining about our rooms the rep told us they are not 5 Star they are 5 Suns! It was more like a 2-3 Star however this is what we were expecting based on previous reviews written online about the hotel.

As already mentioned the resort is advertised as 5 star however it is not. I would have been very disappointed had paid full price for this holiday. We saw 4 room in total. Room 105 was the first room which smelt of damp, plaster was falling off the walls, when we opened the window we could see a building being built in front of us and had the smell of sewage. There were dubious brown stains on the carpet by the bed. The next two rooms were slightly better but still smelt and had other faults. We finally ended up in an internal room, we had 1 internal window that looked out over the corridor, however it didn't smell and it was clean (Apart from a red stain on the bedding top sheet) so we took it. Many of the guests were complaining about the rooms. Don't expect to get a balcony with a decent view although some exist. The beds were comfortable, plenty of cupboard space. We had a TV with a few English TV shows on them and hair dryer. You had to pay extra for air conditioning and safe which I thought was a cheek as it was supposed to be 5 Star. The rooms are all under reception and the lower levels are called the dungeon!

The hotel offered a free shuttle bus to the beach. It is a very steep hill to climb. There is a bar where you can get drinks (free with all inclusive tags) and you walk down some steps to free sunbeds. The beach is gravel rather than sand. We found a few nicer spots a bit further down the beach.

The food was ok. Luckily I'm not a fussy eater however if you are then you have trouble finding something to eat. For the first 2 days the only meat we saw was frankfurters and spicy spam like ham eugh. The food did get better though and there was plenty of it. There were lots of vegetables, salads and pasta. The bread was lovely, as were the puddings yum yum! Meal times were 8-10 breakfast, 10-11 late breakfast, 1 - 2.30 lunch, 2.30 - 5 snacks by the pool, 7.30 - 10 dinner. All inclusive drinks were available from the pool from 10am till 11pm.

> Gumbet & Bodrum

Don't book trips with your rep, walk into Gumbet and book them. There are loads of tour agents selling the same trips and you can get them much cheaper, remember to haggle.

> Bodrum Airport