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Danish families furious about holidays in hell

Lucie Rychla
September 13th, 2016


This article is more than 8 years old.

They were promised a dreamlike vacation, but it turned out to be a nightmare

Holidays in hell – that’s how 20 Danish families described their summer experience at the Kleopatra Royal Palm Hotel in the Turkish resort of Alanya this year.

After they had booked a holiday package with the Danish travel agency Detur, which promised a relaxing getaway, they were faced with human faeces floating in the hotel pool, empty food bowls at the restaurant buffet and generally rude service.

READ MORE: Fewer Danes travelling to Turkey

In need of a quiet time
“We deliberately chose the hotel because it was small and well-suited to our needs,” Marianne Haslev, one of the affected holiday-makers, told BT.

“My husband suffers from stress, so it fit in well with our plans for a quiet holiday.”

READ MORE: Danish delegation cancels Turkey trip

Crowded …
However, the Danish families arrived at the hotel just a day before the end of Ramadan, when many locals were flocking to the resort to celebrate the end of a month of fasting.

According to Haslev, the hotel was overbooked and there were as many as eight people staying in rooms designed for four, which meant there was a lot of noise and long queues for a buffet running on empty.

and dirty …
There was also not enough space for hotel guests at the advertised swimming pool.

Only the thick-skinned swam in it as kids peed into the water whilst standing on the side of the pool and human faeces was seen floating on the surface.

in more ways that one
Moreover, one of the local man was paying too much attention to female swimmers as he “explored” the insides of their bikinis.

“He swam first to one of the other Danish women and put his hand inside her bikini panties,” Haslev explained.

“Then he swam directly over to me and did the same to me. And afterwards he did the same to a 12-year-old girl.”

READ MORE: Danes escaping rainy weather to sunny Mallorca

Never again
Haslev and her husband eventually became ill due to the dirty pool water and bad food.

The hotel did not provide any room nor housekeeping service during their stay, and when the families started to complain about the lack of food, they were told to go and eat at another hotel, but the staff were not aware of this arrangement.

Despite numerous complaints to Detur, the families have not been compensated for their inconvenience, and the agency maintains that it sufficiently catered to their needs.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”