Rixos Sungate

Me and my family had such an amazing experience at Rixos Sungate. It was a lovely atmosphere with shows every night for kids and adults. It is a very friendly resort with a lot of kids activities. The rooms were very clean, and I was surprised to see all the employees pay attention to every single details. The big stage is located close to the beach, that helps with having a very good sleep on the night due to very reduced noise. Amenities are excellent, actually you have something open every hour: big restaurant, snack bar, late night restaurant, patisserie, croissants bar and many more. I loved the Costa coffee, every morning woke up and had my coffee by the beach. I am looking forward to return to Rixos Sungate in future.

We stayed at Rixos Sungate in Antalya for one week in a Family Terrace Suite. The room was clean and comfortable, and overall, our stay was very enjoyable. The Rixy Club was especially attractive for our 2-year-old daughter, who had a wonderful time there. The food quality was good, and we would like to give special thanks to Maria Kaya, who invited us to the à la carte restaurants and gave us the opportunity to enjoy a greater variety of dishes. In a nutshell, Rixos Sungate offers excellent value for money. We had a lovely family holiday and would happily recommend this hotel to others.

I never leave negative reviews. In fact, this is the first time I have ever written a TripAdvisor review to warn people away from somewhere. We have spent a significant amount of money on this holiday, and if this review stops another family making the same mistake, it will be worth writing.

We stayed at Rixos Sungate from 12–19 September, and while the resort looks spectacular in the photos, the reality is completely different. The grounds are impressive, but they hide what is, in my opinion, one of the most disappointing “5-star” experiences imaginable.

Rooms – luxury prices, budget hotel standards

We stayed in one of the supposedly renovated rooms, yet the air conditioning barely worked, the fridge didn’t work properly, and the balcony door was literally left hanging off after repairs.

Reception staff were dismissive, abrupt and openly discussed us in their own language while we stood in front of them. Whether we understood the words or not, the tone said enough.

A technician cleaned the air conditioning, but it remained warm. We were then offered an identical room four floors down as though that somehow solved the problem. It didn’t. Our family, staying in the same block, experienced exactly the same issues.

Only after my husband left a public review did Guest Relations become involved. The fridge was replaced with one that was barely any better, housekeeping were told to leave the air conditioning running, and the balcony door remained damaged. Even with the air conditioning permanently running, the room was never comfortably cool enough to sleep properly or even get ready without sweating.

Food – genuinely shocking

This is the biggest failure of the hotel.

We are leaving hungry. I’m pregnant and have lost 4lbs during this holiday. My husband weighed 6lbs less after just four days.

The buffet is one of the worst I’ve experienced anywhere. The layout is chaotic, the quality is incredibly poor, and the food overwhelmingly caters to Russian guests, with very few appealing options for British families. The standard wouldn’t meet my expectations of a 3-star hotel, let alone a premium Rixos resort. I honestly wouldn’t feed much of this food to my dog at home.

After we showed Guest Relations photographs of the buffet, we were offered three complimentary à la carte restaurants.

• Miranda Chinese – Excellent. Friendly staff, smiles, and the only meal where we actually left feeling full.
• Cactus – Basic, but significantly better than the buffet.
• Bloom – Calling this fine dining is embarrassing. We were served a cut of meat I would have thrown away, while cats jumped onto chairs around diners. The waiters were rude and looked irritated that guests were even there.

Service – dismissive and rude

The service throughout the resort is consistently poor.

If you’re paying for something, suddenly everyone understands you perfectly. If you need help with a problem, communication somehow becomes impossible.

I wasn’t offered a single drink all week. Every time I asked for one, I felt like I was asking staff for their first born child rather than something included in an expensive all-inclusive holiday.

I’ve had pleasant interactions with perhaps three staff members. I’ve had unpleasant ones with dozens.

One example sums up the attitude perfectly: spa staff told my mum she “needed her moustache waxing.” You genuinely couldn’t make this up.

The resort is enormous – but impossible to get around

The size of the grounds initially seems impressive until you realise the logistics make no sense.

It’s around a 15-minute walk from the renovated rooms to many facilities.

There is a train that circles the resort three times a day, seating roughly 12 people, despite thousands of guests staying there. You’re driven to your room on arrival, then effectively left to walk everywhere for the rest of your holiday.

As someone who is pregnant and travelling with a child, this became exhausting very quickly.

Illness

Four out of seven members of our family suffered stomach problems during the week. We were fortunate that ours lasted around 24 hours, but another family we spoke to had spent eight days confined to their room with sickness and diarrhoea—while dealing with the same ineffective air conditioning.

Overall

Three complimentary à la carte meals and a bottle of red wine left in our room do not compensate for what has been an incredibly disappointing holiday.

This resort sells itself as a luxury 5-star experience. In reality, we experienced poor rooms, awful food, rude service, logistical chaos, and multiple cases of illness within our group.

The photographs online are beautiful. They are also deeply misleading.

Please think very carefully before spending your money here. I only wish I had headed the same warning