Avrora Plyus — Hotel in Issyk-Kul Region

Despite a few good points I can’t justify giving the Aurora any more than two stars, since the bad outweighs the positive. This will also be a lengthy review as I have never stayed anywhere so bizarre. The hotel was a one night stop off on a 10 day coach tour itinerary booked through a travel agent, and our small group travelled with a both a local tour guide and British tour leader. The hotel is listed as four star, according to local Kyrgyz standards.||||Our arrival wasn’t the most auspicious, as the coach pulled up outside what looked like the gates to the hotel grounds, only to have the driver accosted by several military looking gentlemen wearing camouflage uniforms telling him to move the vehicle and park instead on a weed strewn gravelled area in front of what looked like an empty office building. This was the entrance to the hotel “compound” - I can’t call it anything else, since the whole area was surrounded by high walls and was patrolled by the military style guys, who seem to double as security, drivers and porters. As a welcome, this was distinctly underwhelming, and quite frankly, bizarre. I have never, in many years of travel encountered paramilitary style heavies as the “welcoming” committee to a hotel. A rather more civilian looking lady arrived and our UK tour leader discussed room allocations as usual, but she didn’t seem to want give these out as yet, despite being asked “shouldn’t we have the room numbers now?” - instead we were directed to get into golf carts (cue “Prisoner “ theme music...) driven by more of the camo clad guys. These whisked us past some attractive house like blocks, laid out Village style to our designated rooms, again arranged in apartment like blocks three storeys high. The camo guys didn’t really help any - my cases were carried up to my second floor by our tour guide. One of the golf cart drivers then reversed over our guide’s suitcase.||||The good points were that my room was large, well furnished, and with a spacious balcony. Unfortunately it was also like a furnace, since an electric heater was on full belt, the in room thermometer on the wall reading 86f. The bathroom also had excellent, underfloor heating. Unfortunately it was too hot to walk on the floor until an hour after I turned the heating off. Since there was no air conditioning, the only way to cool the room down to liveable temperature was to leave both doors open. The room was luxuriously, if insanely decorated. There was a kettle and mugs, but no tea or coffee supplies and nowhere to plug the kettle in. The flex on the kettle was six inches long. Pride of place in the middle of the wall was a safe - the sort you usually find in a wardrobe. This one was centre stage, but couldn’t be used since as soon as you touched it an alarm went off. The bedspread was a curtain. The bedding had a bottom sheet in orange houndstooth check, a duvet cover with cherry red spots and flowery pillows that clashed with everything else. One towel was blue with cartoon dolphins on it, another was plain terracotta. Other rooms had 360 degree mega shower cabinets with jets that whipped you like the Spanish Inquisition, though I just had a very nice ordinary bath. I couldn’t have a bath, mind you, as there was no bathplug. The information book in the room, not surpringly was in Kyrghyz and Russian but it wasn’t possible to call reception for any information in English as there was no phone system. ||||Dinner was at seven. The starter was a plate of grated carrot. It had a lovely dressing, but was still a plate of carrot. The main course was fried mince between two layers of potatoes. No veg, no bread, no salad. ||||One of our group said casually that they had no power sockets in their room. They had two bedside lights, but couldn’t plug them in. Another said that one of the 360 degree shower jets had whacked him in the eye. Another couldn’t turn her bedroom heater off. I am not sure what, if any complaints were made as a result of this, but, at least I had managed to turn off my heater, plug in my bedside light, stop the bathroom floor from melting my shoes, and the manic safe alarm had fizzled out after five minutes. ||||On the plus side I did have a good night’s sleep, the bed was very comfortable, and WiFi access was excellent.||||Breakfast, which was already laid out, consisted of a bread roll, two small slices of cheese, and two of an unnamed variety of salami. This was rapidly followed by a bowl of semolina, such as is beloved of school meals in the days of yore, and a square splodge of something omlettey, which I passed on. Forgive my irony, but the food was so institutionalised that it could have stood up at the old Bailey and been given life with hard labour and no chance of parole.||||The hotel is set in the lovely surroundings of Lake Issyk -Kul with its own beach, and there are glorious views of the mountains. Unfortunately the management have not maximised the benefits they have in attention to detail or...

We booked this hotel as a treat for our 12th Wedding anniversary thinking we would have a nice weekend away together. ||||Unfortunately Aurora Plus did not live up to our expectations, it was more of “Aurora minus”.||||We stayed here May 31st - June 1st, the hotel was nearly empty, maybe the season starts later, I don't know. ||||When we arrived at 9am, reception was closed, no one was around. Eventually someone turned up who did not speak a word of English and gave us a key, there was no check in service. In the booking we asked specifically for a double bed (being our wedding anniversary), we got two singles. ||In the room was a kettle and cups but no coffee tea, sugar, or milk and no one around to ask.||The booking said there was Wi-Fi in all the rooms. We asked for the password, no one knew it. There was Wi-Fi in the restaurant. ||On the Beach there was no sunbeds, loungers or facilities. ||Our booking was Room only, but when we went to the restaurant to log on to the Wi-Fi we were told out lunch would be served at 1pm. We understood this to mean a complimentary lunch as most of the facilities were not open yet. Lunch was ok, it was a set Meal and you had no choice or any idea what the cost was. ||In the evening we came to the restaurant and asked for the menu, we were shown what we would be given, there was no choice or cost shown to us. ||We are travelling on a tight budget so need to be careful with what we spend so would usually chose to eat lightly. ||The following morning a rather stressed employee who spoke no English at all came to us at breakfast trying to say that we had to pay for all the meals we had been given. At the same time breakfast arrived, again, we had not ordered or chosen anything, it just came. Then we were told we had to pay for it. ||Paying for the food is not a problem, we knew we had only booked the room. But to have a choice is expected, the food was only OK, but not what I would have chosen. ||Over all communication was very poor, I expect a large hotel to cater for multiple language groups, my wife and speak a little Russian, if we did not, our stay would have been even more difficult. ||We needed a good night sleep after travelling but to our surprise there was work going on in the building we were sleeping, they worked to midnight, hammering and banging! This really highlights the poor planning, it was early in the season, most of the blocks were empty, but they decided to put us in the one they were working in! why?||||We told the staff that we wanted to leave at 3pm, they arranged a taxi for us. We asked for the bill to be prepared and ready for us, this was a massive drama, the staff had great difficulty putting the bill together, the one for the food we didn’t order and the accommodation. I asked for a written receipt, we were given a scribble on a piece of paper.||I asked if we could pay by credit card but they don't accept credit cards, cash only, better make sure you have cash on you.||||I will say the staff were friendly and tried hard to help us, but No one spoke any English, or hand any ability to organise anything, I would hate to think what the hotel would be like when it is full in a month.||||Over all the Aurora had potential, it is well played out, the beach was clean. The service let it down, maybe in the high season service would be better. We only experienced very average service, I think we could have stayed in Cholpon Ata, much cheaper and received better service. We were disappointed that our special anniversary weekend wasn’t...

Well what a shocker. This hotel is the worst hotel I have ever stayed in as a business traveller that has stayed in hotels in Africa and the Middle East. Firstly arrival is along a dirt track with no other facilities other than a petroleum station near by. Make sure you pack enough food to sustain you and bring water for your room. It takes the meaning of a health spa hotel to a new level as for sure you will be losing weight here. Food is set and the portion size measly. There are no menus nor anything that would make you feel like you had a full and hearty meal. They even kindly measure your teaspoon of tomato sauce and pre load it onto your plate - now that’s service. You will go hungry here. Bring plenty of towels for your stay as they don’t clean the rooms or change the towels so make sure you dry them on one of the radiators that don’t turn off. Bring your own bucket to wash as the showers don’t work and make sure you bring plenty of laundry powder as they don’t offer washing facilities. Checking in well they have a tiny reception that is not staffed and there is no one on sites who speak English nor any materials in the rooms in English which makes orientation tricky. That said the 5ft walls that surround the compound will give you that reassuring feeling that they are committed to protecting you as will the special forces porters dressed in navy camouflage who take turns in throwing knives into trees at the main entrance. This really gives you the impression that your safety is the heart of what they do here, of course the multitude of cameras that follow your every move will also provide the additional reassurance if the knife throwing porters don’t. Make sure you ask for the WiFi code as it will not be volunteered to you and complaints are predictably ignored giving confidence in the transformational style of leadership that the hotel no doubt would benefit from. So bring your own food, condiments and water, extra clothes and towels, cleaning products for the room and translator would be useful and remember most of the electrical sockets don’t work nor the showers. Apart from these mildly frustrating pointers book this hotel at your own risk and don’t forget to bring your own soap as that’s right you guess that not supplied either. Fancy a cup of tea or coffee from the luxury of your own room well think again that’s right not supplied either so bring your own coffee, milk powder and sugar so you can sit back and clean the dust down from your clothes afterwards. Want to use the room safe well you guessed it that doesn’t work either. Do not think you will be enjoying a lakeside view it’s a 5min walk to the very small private beach. I was here in winter and there was no one else at the hotel, I suspect it would be chaotic in summer which will really push the staff to the maxim. There’s is absolutely nothing to recommend this hotel at all. I have seen better accommodation on Cell Block H. Avoid at all costs. Note they don’t respond to users feedback because they genuinely don’t care for customer service in any...