Ultimate Guide to Complete Relaxation in Bodrum Turkey

Back in 2022 I visited Bodrum, Turkey. This was our main holiday of the year, but we managed to get it for an absolute bargain!

Our Stay was for 11 nights and booked with JET2HOLIDAYS from Stansted Airport (it worked so well for gran canaria, why not do it all again!)

We stayed at the Bodrum Holiday Resort & Spa, 4 star Rated Hotel & 4 star Tripadvisor Reviews.

Our ratings:

Hotel? 7/10

Would we go back to Bodrum? I would never say never, but i've been to so many places in Turkey i much Preferred. I know some people love Bodrum so i would definitely try other areas!

Would we stay at that hotel again? Yes, if it was a cheap get away.

Things we did? 7/10

Travel:

We flew into Bodrum BJV nd had a coach transfer to the hotel which took around 1/1.5 hours (This was included in the holiday price).

Hotel:

The hotel itself was clean and tidy. We actually upgraded to a standard room in the main building. The photos looks a lot bigger and spacious and they definitely were. Our room was lovely, it had a huge double bed and then a single next to it too which we used for storage. We also had a balcony, it did look over the restaurant which was a bit of a shame but behind that we had a lovely sea view. I'm glad we paid for the upgrade, from what i can remember it wasn't actually that much but people we spoke to moved rooms a few times being in the annex. They annex rooms looked cute from the outside but were apparently very small and not nice inside.

The pool was huge, it had a lazy river style around the outside, which is where we spent most of our time relaxing on our float. When booking we thought i had a swim up bar - IT DOESN'T! Not a problem, we just thought it was funny when we got there and it was just a big shaded area you could sit under next to the pool.

There were plenty of sunbeds around the pool, you get the odd early riser saving beds but we always managed to get where we wanted. We would get outside for around 9/10am ish every morning after breakfast.

The thing we wasn't so keen on was all the steps around the hotel. It does state this when booking but it really is a lot especially in the heat. For us it was manageable but if you're not too keen on walking or struggle a little, this may not be the hotel for you. There are steps all the way down the beach - where there is also the lunch bar, and all around the hotel getting to different levels. There were some ramps for pushchairs and wheel chairs, but they were a long way round the hotel.

The beach is just at the bottom of the steps where there is a pier you can walk out on and a small sandy area all the way to the right of the hotel. We didn't use this much as it wasn't a very large area so it got busy very quickly. Down by the beach there was also a snack bar which served food and a bar too (i'll dive into this a little more below).

The hotel has a few bars scattered around, some inside some outside which you can use in the evening. There are games inside where one bar is and an amphitheatre where they do shows. They also did karaoke near the beach, bingo and party nights. These were all good fun and very well thought out. There was always something you could do. Also for those with kiddies, there is a mini disco!

This hotel isn't near ANYTHING! and that's probably what put us off. Normally we don't explore too much, but it's still nice to be able to go out and look around. There is a taxi rank outside which is good and not expensive, but the driving was a little scary and around mountain windy roads. I think the drive was around 15 minutes and that was enough, I didn't enjoy it at all. For some this isn't an issue and to us it usually isn't but for 11 days it would have been nice to be easy to go out and about.

Hotel

Hotel

Hotel

Hotel

Hotel

Hotel

Hotel

Food/ Drink at the hotel:

In my opinion the food wasn't great. There wasn't much variety and for picky eaters there wasn't much plain foods to choose from. If we were staying for a week it would probably have been okay, but those extra days just made it so repetitive.

I definitely wouldn't say it didn't taste good, everything we had was cooked well and well seasoned. It was just the same thing most days.

Breakfast has pastries and some hot foods but nothing that we really liked so we stuck to fruits.

Lunch was better at the snack bar by the beach. Here you could get kebabs, salad, burgers, hot dogs, nuggets - things like that. But inside at the main restaurant seemed to be the same thing you would have for dinner. The snack bar was still repetitive everyday, but at least it was different food to dinner.

For dinner there wasn't much option indoors but they did usually have a barbecue outside of different meats etc that we enjoyed. The thing i didn't like most was the walk from the inside food to outside was so far, by the time you sat down it was freezing cold. I know you get this at a buffet anyway, but it just all seemed so far away from each other. You couldn't make a whole plate at once, unless it was cold salads.

They did do late night soup at 11 which we loved, we took it back to our room with bread and sat on the balcony.

I'm being super picky here but i like to be honest. For the price we paid honestly it didn't matter to us at all. But if you were spending more money on this, i would definitely think about the food etc as i have definitely had better at other hotel in Turkey.

Drinks on the other hand were amazing! So many options for cocktails. The bar staff even had their own signature ones they would make you. You could ask for a surprise and every time they would be something different and lovely.

The girls that worked at the pool bar were so great, we made good friends with them. They knew what we liked to drink and made sure we always had one by our sides. Could not complain about the service or the staff at all! Everyone was so friendly and helpful.

You could have anything from iced coffees (with baileys, was my go to) to Sex on the beach, slushies or Milkshakes.

Food

Drinks

Food

Near By:

As I said before, nothing was super close to the hotel. You could get a taxi into town that took around 15 minutes.

In town there was shops, restaurants and a marina. As you walk down the main strip there are so many restaurants to choose from.

We went shopping one evening but didn't enjoy it, it was way too hot and very pushy. But there are lots of different shops selling your standard look a likes and also some lovely little boutiques.

But we did go back into town for a meal one night which was absolutely lovely. We paid 20 euros each to be picked up from our hotel, 2 dishes from the menu and a drink. It was a Chinese restaurant - i know! I know! how can we go to Turkey and have a Chinese? For some reason its just something we do! The people that worked at the restaurant were advertising it around the pool which we weren't too keen on, but then if they weren't we wouldn't have gone so really it was worth it. The food was lovely and so so worth it!

Food

Things to do:

We did a Turkish Hammam Excursion, which we booked with the Jet2 rep in our hotel. This was really good, apart from the wait to get back to the hotel. We did it on our last full day thinking it would only take a couple of hours. But we ended up waiting 2 hours just to get back to the hotel. Apart from that the experience was lovely, you got the Hammam and then a massage each and you could chill on the rooftop in the sun with drinks while you waited to be called next.

Jet2 also did a boat trip over to Greece for the day which we were going to do but it was fully booked. If we go again i would definitely like to try it.

Other than this all we did was go to town, i'm sure there is more around but we didn't experience it unfortunately. Let me know in the comments if there are any experiences you've done in Bodrum you think others should try!

Excursion

Bodrum

Summary:

All in all i know this has been pretty moany but we did have a really good holiday. At the time i probably wouldn't have said a bad word but now we have travelled a lot more, we can see the things we didn't like so much.

Its definitely worth a visit to this hotel if its a great price, but i wouldn't pay over the odds. Value for money was insane which is why it was so good for us, we paid £900 for 2 people for all 11 nights all inclusive. For that how can anything be bad?! I just want you guys to have my honest truth. If this hotel ever comes up for that price again 100% i would re book!

If you have any questions or want to add anything feel free to post a comment! I'd love to hear about all of your experiences.