Palm Wings Ephesus Beach Resort

Beautiful Grounds, But Our Holiday Was Ruined by Serious illness! Please proceed with caution!

We stayed at this hotel in early August as a family of four two adults and two teenagers. I am writing this review because I feel a duty to warn other families considering this hotel.

Within two days of arriving, I became violently ill and was admitted to A&E in Turkey, where I was put on two IV drips, had blood tests taken, and was prescribed antibiotics used to treat a parasitic infection (most likely water contamination). Over the following days, my partner also became ill, then my son, and finally the fourth member of our party fell ill on our travel day home. Upon returning to Ireland, I had to attend A&E a second time, where I was formally diagnosed with a parasitic infection, most likely contracted through contaminated food or water.

This was not a minor stomach upset. This was a serious medical situation that affected every single member of our party and effectively destroyed what was supposed to be a family holiday.

We had booked and paid a significant amount for an all-inclusive package (including a swim up room). Due to the illness, we were unable to make use of the vast majority of what we had paid for the food, the drinks, the facilities. We received almost no benefit from the all-inclusive package whatsoever.

To make matters worse, during the period when members of our party were falling ill one by one, we requested an additional room so that those who were sick could be isolated and we could try to prevent further spread. This request was not fulfilled. As a result, three of us were forced to share one room for two nights in an attempt to protect the fourth person from becoming ill a situation that was distressing, uncomfortable, and entirely avoidable had the hotel acted on our request. The fourth member of our holiday was in fact my son's friend and as a result spent a good proportion of the holiday alone as the rest of us were sick.

The grounds of the hotel are genuinely beautiful, and the guest relations manager was responsive when approached however, the response felt surface-level and nothing substantive was done. The food & drink is absolutely terrible and general service throughout were poor, and our experience with a member of management on our very first night set an uncomfortable tone from the outset.

I am currently pursuing a formal complaint regarding this matter. I would urge any family, particularly those travelling with children, to carefully consider this before booking. This has had more than a huge financial impact on us. Be careful.

Hotel grounds are nice and well kept, splash park/ pools are plentiful but that’s pretty much where it ends. Food was ok but repetitive. We were a large family group and every few days someone else had gone down with a sickness bug. Whether it was from the pool, sea, food, people who knows as the hospital staff kept telling us different things 🤷‍♀️ but either way the holiday was completely ruined as we were constantly on edge and we’re about to travel home and feeling very uneasy so I guess it’s our turn to be ill- let’s hope we make it home! Staff were ok, some brilliant really friendly and work hard but majority very clearly didn’t want to be there and staff that are meant to set an example to the rest were the worst. Rooms need a major update. They were lightly cleaned daily and you got clean towels. The beds were clean and were changed a few times during our stay but the furniture in the rooms are falling apart and very tired looking. Bathrooms were mouldy, dirty, shower had no power and you had to stand right close to the wall over the drain to actually use it (some example photos attached) The toilets around the whole site were gross, always dirty, wet and the toilet roll you either couldn’t get out or were empty. Beach sand was lovely but water was polluted from the constant water activities going on. These activities along with the photos, games room and the onsite shops were ridiculously expensive and all in euros. Hotel management deemed it acceptable for children to ride scooters and bikes up and down the lobby in the evenings, not only is this dangerous it’s incredibly inconsiderate to the other guests, clearly the parents have no decency for others and just let them carry on but you’d expect the hotel staff to put a stop to it. Using the hotel lifts is a mission within itself, doesn’t seem to be a sequence to any of them and can be waiting ages for them, also the amount of people that think it’s perfectly acceptable to push themselves in when it’s already full is worrying, have they ever considered if it breaks down or if someone is nervous in small spaces? Using the stairs is not an option with children if your on level 3 upwards. Also be warned the amount of mosquitos around this hotel is ridiculous, previous reviews that have mentioned this are true. Anyway could go on but this is the main gist of our experience. All in all wouldn’t return and would advise people thinking of booking to maybe consider booking somewhere else, real shame as holidays particularly in August aren’t cheap.