“Brilliant, could have been perfect”

Like the previous revew, we went here for the end of October/early November school half term. We had an amazing time - love that type of holiday, so much to do and the days flew by. The equipment is very acceptable given it iwas the end of the seaosn and I cannot praise the Mark Warner staff enou… more

Like the previous revew, we went here for the end of October/early November school half term. We had an amazing time - love that type of holiday, so much to do and the days flew by. The equipment is very acceptable given it iwas the end of the seaosn and I cannot praise the Mark Warner staff enough - every single one was just brilliant. Just a few points to hopefulyl help fellow travellers - they are negative but feel they may add to somebodies enjoyment and please understand that they did not take too much away from this being one of our all time favourite holidays. Would completely echo the point smade about the Turkish sailing regatta. We specifically checked whether there was any restriction to activities as it was so late in the season and was told there was not. The sailing fleet prevented us from using much of the beach and the tiki bar for most of our stay. My wife and I love swimming in the sea so this was a real disappointment to lose access to the main swimming area. There was a smaller swimming area but very shallow and by the time to got deep enough to swim, you were tasting diesal from all the exra boats used for the sailing fleet. We also asked if we should take wetsuits and were told categorically that they would not be needed. They were - the water was pretty cold at that time of year and once you had fallen in, the wind chill really added to it. After 40 minutes of windurfing I was shivering, despite having three tops on, and running for the sauna afterwards. On one day, a lady was in the water too long after capsizing and ended up in real difficulty from the cold. Please take wetsuits - shortie probably enough. Better to take one and not use it than wish you had brought one like we had. The swimming pool is beautiful but even colder than the sea and remained mostly deserted all week - I could only manage a length or two before I became worried about the cold (we swim and sail in the solent so know what cold feels like!). Our room was pretty small and we only had one small cupbaod that they expected us to put all our clothes in, with 6 hangers and two shelves (one of which had half it's area taken up by a safe). When asked, we were given some broken draws and a small set of shelves form an office. These helped but still ended up have a fair amunt of my stuff in our sons room and my wife using her suitcase. Room was kept very clean every day. Shame head office let the experience down with their advice. They were just doing their best but it was a bit off the mark. Customer services really didn't seem to want to accept our points, stating that because most people didn't provide negative feedback about the fleet and cold, ours wasn't valid.

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“Not the best visit this time, but the resort is still great.”

We have visited the resort on many occasions since Mark Warner took over the resort a number of years ago and have always had a great experience. Great site with lots of activities and normally fantastic variety of food, even for a vegan/vegetarian. We had visited Phokaia in June this year and had… more

We have visited the resort on many occasions since Mark Warner took over the resort a number of years ago and have always had a great experience. Great site with lots of activities and normally fantastic variety of food, even for a vegan/vegetarian. We had visited Phokaia in June this year and had a five star experience as always but this time the food did not live up to previous experiences. The quality and variety of the food had deteriorated on this visit since the last visit. Unfortunately on this visit the staff didn't seem to understand what vegan/vegetarianism is and thought meat was suitable for vegans/vegetarians on more than one meal sitting. After many happy and relaxing visits the resort definitely deserves a second chance.

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“Nice resort, let down by the sailing event and main food choices”

We spent the last week of the season at this resort as a last minute break before winter here. Had we been told the National Turkish Sailing Event detailed below was taking place we would not have booked and I would suggest if you are thinking of booking this week next year, that you get MW to conf… more

We spent the last week of the season at this resort as a last minute break before winter here. Had we been told the National Turkish Sailing Event detailed below was taking place we would not have booked and I would suggest if you are thinking of booking this week next year, that you get MW to confirm either way if this is taking place again so you can make an informed decision to go or not. We do intend to return to this resort as it is beautiful and the sailing is good. Starting with the bad points, the Turkish National Sailing Championship teams and their boats were staying at the resort, approximately 200 people (25% adults 75% children (aged 8 upwards). The whole beach bay area was completely monopolised by them for the week. Then Saturday was their de-camp day and removal of all their boats and equipment. Not a peaceful, relaxing environment. They spread themselves and their kit all over the beach sunbeds leaving no room for the MW guests or their things whilst they were on the water! When they returned from their sailing they hosed their boats down not really bothered about other guests. Had we have known this event was taking place we would never have booked as we are beach people not, pool people. Some mornings they were gone by 11am and then others not until later in the day, so were hanging around! To be fair have to say the Turkish competitors were very well behaved. The main course choices of food at the resort were very, very disappointing. Very limited choices. The salad bar and the desserts were to the normal standard. Not a resort for food lovers. Be aware if you suffer breathing problems, the hotel uses very strong odour products in its public spaces. Good points, the hotel and grounds are beautiful. As it was chilly in the evenings they had the log burners lit making it very cosy and heaters in the restaurant. The spa manager and his team are great. The two sisters who did our treatments were outstandingly good, best we have ever had.

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“Phokaia Beach Resort, Turkey”

We have just returned from a week at this hotel - 4 adults. Key takeaways: 1. Turkey is more a lot more expensive than our last trip. A glass of house wine is £10. A bottle of house wine is £35. A beer is £6; 2. the hotel is very nice, although the rooms are slightly small. All of the staff ar… more

We have just returned from a week at this hotel - 4 adults. Key takeaways: 1. Turkey is more a lot more expensive than our last trip. A glass of house wine is £10. A bottle of house wine is £35. A beer is £6; 2. the hotel is very nice, although the rooms are slightly small. All of the staff are excellent, especially the room service; 3. we found the the Spa treatments to be both excellent value and quality. We booked 3 massages and were given a healthy discount - £55 per 1 hour massage; 4. the bikes were very well maintained by Gary and Jason. Much better than at other resorts. The road cycling is not amazing - busy roads - but the rides are well led and it is nice to get off the resort; 5. we have never stayed anywhere with so many sun beds, cabanas etc; 6. the main pool is unheated and was super cold. I expect in July and August, this is lovely, but we all struggled to stay in for more than a minute or two; 7. the food is typical buffet style, with a good selection. However, if you are vegan or have allergies, you will need to be very careful. The chefs do not appear to have fully worked out the importance of food labelling. There is a "vegan corner", but that only applies at dinner time. The hot vegan selection was extremely limited with the same dishes produced each day. This became a source of some frustration. Overall, the hotel is really well run, and very pleasant, but felt expensive. There are also lots of other guests (not Mark Warner) arriving over the weekend when noise levels really escalate. We had a good holiday, but will probably not return here. There are other (smaller/exclusive to MW) resorts we prefer.

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“A potentially great holiday ruined by late night noise”

This was my fourth windsurfing holiday at MW Phokaia. In 2020, 2022 and 2023 I had a glorious time, and I booked early for the same room and much the same fortnight in 2024, expecting the same experience. There were lots of positives. Leah, the MW resort manager is, as ever, excellent - switch… more

This was my fourth windsurfing holiday at MW Phokaia. In 2020, 2022 and 2023 I had a glorious time, and I booked early for the same room and much the same fortnight in 2024, expecting the same experience. There were lots of positives. Leah, the MW resort manager is, as ever, excellent - switched on, energetic, guest-focused - although she has been in the difficult position of doubling up as tennis coach for the last five weeks (a poor reflection on MW HQ‘s manpower planning, and relevant to the problems described below). Her MW staff are a delight. On the waterfront all the British staff were new to me, but carried on the MW tradition of being extremely kind and helpful to a keen but older windsurfer. Çagatay, the Turkish beach manager, now manages the waterfront jointly with the senior British instructor, Ollie. I have known Çagatay for years, and he is a calm, mature, reassuring presence on the beach, watchful and wise. His colleagues, Berk and Naçi, often man the safety boats, and again I know I am safe in their hands. The windsurfing kit at Phokaia has never been great, and this year I was startled to see how few sails had survived the summer, with a large gap around the 5m point. But a mass of sails (33?) were sent for urgent repair on the first full day of my holiday, and they had been returned and many were re-rigged exactly a week later. This was an impressive effort by the beach team, who simply put their heads down and got in with this tedious work. Another message for MW HQ: it’s time for some new sails! The food at the hotel was varied and delicious as usual. I have seen suggestions that it is “samey”, but there is always a huge range of options, even if the same options recur. The restaurant staff are enthusiastic and charming. The housekeeping staff keep the public areas and rooms immaculately clean, and again are lovely people. So … why a three-star review? In one word: noise. And now that I have seen the reviews from guests who overlapped with my first week, it is quite a relief to see that I am not alone. In my previous stays at the hotel, in the same or similar top floor rooms facing the beach, there has been loud music from the beach bars in the evenings, but it has always stopped at almost exactly 23.00 (or been turned down so low that it cannot be heard in the rooms). This year, highly amplified music with an intolerably loud bass has routinely continued beyond 23.00, sometimes to midnight and (in the worst case) beyond 01.00. If you ring the hotel Reception to ask for it to stop, the response will be that he/she will speak to the duty manager. Quick as a flash nothing will happen. But if you ring again, the noise will reduce or even stop about ten minutes later. I have had several very difficult daytime conversations with the hotel about all this. The reception staff, who are front of house for the hotel, do not on the whole speak good English this year, so you are stuck talking to those that do, and they may not be sympathetic. If you ask to see the hotel manager, you will be told that he doesn’t speak English and /or that he isn’t on site. If you speak to an intermediate manager (I dealt with Zeynep (not sure about the spelling), who has always been sensible, considerate and compassionate), you will receive a more thoughtful and professional response. But essentially the hotel’s position is that: (1) Turkish law allows bars to play loud music until 01.00 [some guests have been told midnight, but I understand 01.00 is correct] ; (2) as a matter of policy, agreed with MW, the volume here is turned down at 23.00/23.30 [both times are quoted to guests]; (3) but if there is a “special event” the normal policy rules don’t apply (which is why both my weekends were particularly awful); (4) as to why loud music continued beyond 01.00 on the worst occasion, this was because the bar was full of guests, including some from MW, having a good time … I was finally able to talk to Leah about all this on my departure day (previous attempts failed because she was running the tennis sessions). She has been tearing her hair out. Apparently the noise issue has arisen only in the last fortnight (my fortnight!). Something unexplained has changed in the behaviour of the hotel’s “animations” (ie entertainment) team, and they seem to be a law unto themselves. Moreover the duty manager who is called on at night if guests complain to Reception is not (as I had assumed) a hotel manager; it is a MW staff member, with no management responsibility for the animations team - hence presumably the difficulty in getting them to pipe down. Indeed there appears to be no hotel management presence at all overnight, which would explain why, in the morning, a guest will meet a wall of indifference, even denial, if you try to complain about the previous night’s noise. I think this is what incensed me most - being told that there couldn’t have been excessive late-night noise because the hotel’s policy said there couldn’t! So I had an increasingly sleep-deprived holiday, which made windsurfing more taxing than it normally is and really killed my enjoyment of my second week. I can understand why some guests are saying they will never return here. I was thinking the same dark thoughts as I waited for the second week to end. But knowing how lovely the holidays here normally are, and hoping that MW can really get a grip on their management counterparts on the hotel side so that this year’s problems are not repeated, I think I probably will book one more time. Zeynep and Leah have both suggested I ask for a room in a much quieter part of the hotel. So we’ll see.

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