Kirman Calyptus Hotel

We are very happy with our stay and would like to say thank you!

A special mention goes to Emine Savas, who cleaned our room. She was always kind, smiling and very professional. Every day our room was perfectly clean, fresh and beautifully decorated. Thank you, Emine! ❤️ Overall, the hotel staff were very good, with only a few small exceptions. The weakest point of the hotel is definitely the beach, which unfortunately is not very inviting. Also, there is no tunnel passage to the beach. The swimming pools are clean and well maintained, but the sunbeds are placed very close together, so an additional pool would definitely help reduce the crowding. The food is tasty, although we found the selection a little repetitive and not very varied. Overall, we rate our stay 5/5. The hotel is beautiful, modern and very well maintained. In our opinion, it may not be the best hotel in the KIRMAN chain, but it is still definitely worth recommending. Thank you for a lovely stay!

We stayed at the Calyptus Kirman Premium in September as part of a group of 8, although this review mainly reflects the experience of our family of four, with two adults and two children aged 8 and 6.

Overall, we had a very pleasant holiday and I would recommend this hotel to other families. There are some things I would change, particularly regarding housekeeping, the spacing of the sunbeds and the consistency of the drinks offering, but there are also some really good features that made this a lovely family holiday.

The room - We had originally booked a Superior Sea View Room. On arrival, the room had a double bed and a single bed, which wasn't sufficient for two adults and two children. A further fold out single bed was provided, but with all three beds positioned alongside each other there was virtually no space between them and the only practical way to get out of bed was from the bottom. I spoke to reception about whether there was a larger room available and they were incredibly helpful. We were told that the Superior Sea View rooms are actually slightly smaller than the Superior Pool View rooms, and we were shown the alternative. Ultimately, a Family Room became available for an additional upgrade cost, which we decided to pay. This made a huge difference. The Family Room has two separate bedrooms, a double bed in one and twin single beds in the other, with each bedroom having its own balcony, air conditioning controls, wardrobe, safe and fridge. There was plenty of wardrobe space and plenty of hangers too. The mini fridges were replenished daily with bottled water, soft drinks, two beers and a couple of snacks. A particularly nice touch was that the children's bedroom had small cartons of different flavoured milk. For families of four, I would definitely recommend booking a Family Room rather than a Superior Room if your budget allows.

Housekeeping - This was probably the weakest aspect of our stay. Our room wasn't particularly clean when we arrived, with some rubbish behind the curtains and in the wardrobe. Although the room was cleaned every day, it never felt particularly thorough. The floors were often left sticky and on some occasions there weren't enough towels. On one occasion the old, dirty towels weren't removed. The shower is very large, but if the water was running for a while, it would start to fill up and eventually overflow because the drain wasn't clearing quickly enough. We also found that the Do Not Disturb sign wasn't always respected and housekeeping would sometimes enter the room regardless. The towels were replenished daily, so this wasn't a problem throughout the stay, but overall I think the room cleaning could be improved. The Family Room is exceptionally spacious, so I did wonder whether the size of the room makes it more challenging for housekeeping to maintain consistently.

Pools and sunbeds - There are no real sunbed wars here, thankfully! I was usually down by the pool before 7am as I am normally up early and enjoy sitting by the pool reading first thing when it's quiet. There were still plenty of sunbeds available and even around 8-9am there were still good locations available. There are signs stating that towels placed on beds before 6:45am will be removed, although I never personally saw this happen. Very few people were actually reserving beds that early anyway. The one significant criticism I have about the sunbeds is that they are far too close together. You are sitting very close to the people beside you and it can be difficult to walk between the rows. We mostly used the main pool. It is around 1.4m deep in most areas, which suited our two children well as they are strong swimmers. The pool was lovely and quiet in the mornings and generally became much busier around 1-2pm. The pool was being cleaned when I came down every morning but the sunbeds and tables weren't the cleanest/well maintained. The children's splash pool is great. It can be a little chaotic, but it is exactly the sort of thing kids enjoy. The large slides were also a big hit. The slide area was generally quite quiet and most people seemed to go over there specifically just for the slides before returning to the main pool. A particular mention has to go to the lifeguard on the big slides. He was incredibly friendly, brilliant with children and particularly lovely with our daughter. He really stood out.

Pool atmosphere - The atmosphere around the main pool varied quite a lot depending on the other guests. The animation team and music start at around 10am, with the animation team coming around during the day to encourage people to participate. The inflatable assault course was particularly popular. If you sit at the end of the main pool furthest from the slides, the music is considerably quieter and less intrusive. This was particularly helpful for us as we have an autistic child and appreciated having somewhere calmer to sit. Unfortunately, some guests were not particularly tolerant of children. This is a family hotel and there isn't an adults only pool, so I found some of the attitudes towards children disappointing. We experienced one particularly unpleasant incident where an older guest purposely splashed our child in the face after getting accidentally splashed herself. We have travelled to Turkey before and have also visited a number of other countries, and unfortunately we found some of the guests here to be among the rudest and least considerate we have encountered. There were also instances of guests ignoring queues in the buffet restaurant and simply pushing in. I don't think this is something the hotel can control, but it did affect our experience on occasions.

Food and drinks - The main buffet was good, particularly in the evenings. Breakfast and lunch were average, with breakfast having the most limited selection. There was plenty of choice overall and, despite having some very fussy eaters in our group, we always managed to find something to eat. The quality was generally good, although not perfect. It was somewhat repetitive, but there was always something different available each day. The children's section was very limited and repetitive, but this wasn't problematic for us and can be fairly typical of all inclusive children's sections in our experience. The freshly made omelettes at breakfast were particularly good. There is also a lunchtime snack bar with a smaller selection. We used it several times and enjoyed the food, although it wasn't as clean as the main restaurant and, despite being shaded and outdoors, it wasn't particularly cool. The patisserie is another nice option, offering cakes, pastries, cookies, ice cream and iced coffees from late morning through the afternoon. There is also a freezer next to the pool bar containing branded ice lollies and ice creams. Our booking was All Inclusive Plus, which was advertised as including branded drinks. I did find this somewhat misleading because branded drinks aren't available at every bar. The cocktails were also very hit and miss, with quite a few not tasting as I would expect them to. One small example of inconsistent service was a waiter repeatedly bringing me a Diet Coke and my husband a full-fat Coke when I had specifically asked for two Cokes. This happened multiple times. However, the drinks service was excellent at other times, particularly thanks to some of the wonderful restaurant staff. Ahmet, Ugur and Memhet in the main restaurant deserve a special mention. They were extremely attentive, helpful and fantastic with the children. Memhet in particular was exceptional. He remembered our drinks order for our table of 8 every single evening without us having to repeat it. We also ate at the Turkish à la carte restaurant, on our final evening. We had a lovely evening. The food was good, but it was the service that made the experience particularly special. The staff were exceptionally attentive throughout the meal.

Hotel - The hotel is very attractive. The main lobby is particularly impressive and extravagant looking and makes a great first impression. There are biscuits, chocolates and juices available in the lobby, which was a lovely touch when arriving and checking in. Generally, the hotel is nicely decorated and relatively clean, and nothing we saw appeared particularly dated or tired. There are plenty of fridges around the complex with bottled water available for guests to help themselves to, which is very useful. The lifts were fine. I saw around six, and although the hotel has around nine floors, we generally didn't have to wait very long. On our final day the weather wasn't great and often rained which gave us a chance to see what the resort is like when the outdoor areas can't really be used. Unfortunately, the indoor communal areas became extremely crowded and felt quite uncomfortable with so many people concentrated in them. Obviously this was only one rainy day, but it is something I'd bear in mind if travelling at a time when poor weather is more likely.

Location and beach - The hotel is around 80 minutes from Antalya Airport by private transfer. There are local shops a very short walk away, and there is a free hotel shuttle to the nearest beach which takes around 10 minutes. The beach has a dedicated section for Calyptus guests, with sun loungers available. Guests can also access drinks and a small selection of snacks there while wearing their hotel wristband.

Entertainment - Our children weren't particularly interested in the entertainment, so I can't give a detailed review of the children's activities. We heard the evening entertainment most nights and there appeared to be a good variety of shows and activities. Bingo was also available, although this wasn't free, with the animation team selling tickets around the pool during the day.

Overall - This was our second hotel stay in Turkey and, compared with our previous hotel in Lara Beach, we found Calyptus significantly nicer. We had a pleasant holiday, there is a lot to like here, and I would recommend Calyptus to other families, particularly those with younger children.