Kirman Calyptus Hotel

We stayed at Kirman Calyptus Premium for 10 nights as a family of 3 and overall had a mixed experience.

Location: The hotel is approximately an hour from Antalya Airport depending on traffic. We found the location quite far out and when we did venture outside the hotel, our experiences with local Turkish people were friendly and welcoming.

Room: Our room was on level -1 and was lovely, spacious and very clean. In fact, cleanliness throughout the entire hotel was excellent. Staff were constantly cleaning, we regularly saw the pool water being checked and there were lifeguards around the pools every day. The hygiene standards are something I genuinely could not fault.

Value: Overall, I would say the value was okay. The hotel itself is beautiful, modern and very well maintained, with good facilities.

One of the biggest positives was the staff. Guest Relations, waiters and bar staff were lovely and particularly sweet towards our son. Unfortunately I cannot remember individual names, but we had some really nice interactions with them throughout our stay.

The poolside snacks were also great, particularly the jacket potatoes which were brilliant for children.

Unfortunately, there were several things that affected our overall experience.

The language barrier was difficult for us as an English-speaking British family. The poolside and evening entertainment was mainly presented in Turkish and then translated into English. We appreciated that English translations were provided, but we sometimes found it difficult to fully follow and engage with the entertainment.

The evening food also became repetitive particularly over a 10 night stay. There was always plenty to eat, but we would have liked more variety and themed evenings such as Italian, Asian/Chinese or other international cuisines, which we have experienced at other all-inclusive family resorts.

The pool facilities were good and the children's slide pool was enjoyable. One observation however, is that it would be nice to have a designated shallow family swimming area for younger children who simply want to swim without using the slides. The shallower area of the main pool could become very congested, particularly with adults and children sitting there with very large inflatables. We also regularly noticed sliders/flip-flops being left directly at the pool edge where people were getting in and out, which we felt could potentially create a trip hazard.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest things that affected our experience was how we sometimes felt as a Black family at the resort. We experienced a lot of intense staring and looks from some other guests, which at times made us feel very uncomfortable. I cannot speak for anyone else's intentions and do not want to generalise about an entire group, but it was noticeable enough that it affected our experience.

Importantly, this was not our experience with the Turkish staff or local Turkish people. The hotel staff were lovely towards us and our son, and when we went outside the hotel we found local people friendly and welcoming. The uncomfortable staring we experienced seemed to come predominantly from some other European guests at the resort.

We had heard so many positive things about holidays in Turkey before travelling, so unfortunately our overall experience was quite different from what we had expected.

A useful thing to know is that there are no irons in the rooms. We were told this was for fire-safety reasons. The hotel offers a paid ironing service, which we chose to use, so this was not a complaint but is useful to know before travelling.

Overall, Calyptus itself is a lovely, exceptionally clean hotel with some wonderful staff and there were definitely things we enjoyed. However, the language barrier, repetitive evening food, overall atmosphere and particularly the uncomfortable staring we experienced meant that it was not the right fit for our family.

Animation team,food,service and shows are great,enjoyed every moment