Barut Hotels Arum

I have returned four times to the five star Arum Apartments in Side, Turkey with my wife and children, as it is spacious and accessible for wheelchair users.

I spend a great deal of time ensuring that our holiday destination is easily accessible without my being reliant on the rest of my family.

The Arum is paradise. The hotel, apartments, shop, restaurant and pool are all spacious and clean. The gardens and pool area are so huge that there is never a race for sunbeds, and despite the heat, the flower borders always looked delightful.

The pool bar serves a selection of sandwiches, while the waiters were always discreetly available to fetch our drinks if we were too busy sunworshipping! We also ate at the snack bar by the beach, where we could soak in the sea view.

Although we used the restaurant a couple of times, and found the food delicious, we mostly ate out at restaurants just across the road from the Arum, where there is a small selection of shops and eating places - We returned to The Brothers several times!! We always found the waiters - in fact the Turks generally - lovely people, who made us feel very welcome and special where-ever we went. They even helped me acroos the busy roads whether we ate in their restaurant or not!!!!

My son adored the place, and I was very impressed at how the staff took and cared for the children at the fortnightly garden party AND dressed them up and organised an impromptu concert for parents and guests - all this while we enjoyed our barbecue.
This is definitely a place to be recommended, and especially for wheelchair users - although it does get a bit more difficult outside the hotel grounds.

I am able to walk short distances, but throughout the holiday I was able to leave off my calipers and use the wheelchair. The hotel does have specific rooms for disabled and a huge disabled toilet on the lower floor. However, prefering more normal accommdation we opted for a one bedroomed apartment, which we found was easily accessible for my chair. Although it was a tight squeeze, I could also access the bedroom and bathroom, while large patio doors led onto the balcony. The grounds are set on a slope, but the massive gardens are designed around 3 levels which are all ramped and I found I could easily wheel myself up or down - although again help was always readily offered and available. The area around the pool is very spacious which meant that I was never blocked from getting around, and the pool even has a shallow end which a wheelchair could actually wheel into.

We did a boat trip called the Jolly Roger which left from the harbour at Side. To save boarding a coach, a taxi was arranged to pick us up and most of the crew at the harbour rushed to help with getting me and the wheelchair aboard. Steps had to be negotiated to go to the toilet, but I found the trip fairly straightforward for someone with limited walking ability.

We also took a taxi to Manavgat Waterfalls, where we found a lovely restaurant to eat and all the access again was ramped and negotiable.
On our last holiday we stayed in the hotel, having breakfast and our evening meal in the restaurant. All meals are self service, although there were always chefs or waiters on hand to carry my plate for me if necessary.
We had a standard room which was easily negotiable with a wheelchair - including the balcony with its gorgeous sea view.
We will definitely be going again!!!!