Hotel Lighthouse

1 reader found this review helpful

Had a great holiday as the reviews mainly say the food wasnt great but you can find something to eat so you wont go hungry. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay many of the staff knew a little english so it was easy to communicate. The hotel is in a fantastic location and very relaxing a great place to unwind.
Even though being all inclusive we did venture out a few times. We ate in a couple of restaurants by far the best was Viras the food was superb and good value for money. We also ate in bodrum one night in a restaurant overlooking the castle but to be honest for all the hustle and bustle it wasnt worth the trip in. Couldnt wait to get back to ortakent.

2 readers found this review helpful

This was not our first choice of hotel but due to unforseen circumstances this is where we ended up, I was very dubious at first as none of the reports were that good but have decided never to take any notice in the future!! 11 of us travelled here ranging from 65yrs to 2yrs and we had the most enjoyable time. The food was great never went hungry those who have complained should book for blackpool next year! no queues, staff very friendly especially to the english, room was cleaned every day, kids entertained every day except sunday, entertainment at night was good, with shows, belly dancing, bingo, miss/mr lighthouse. Went snorkelling saw plenty of fish of all shapes and sizes even an octopus. Will book to go again and will recommend.

1 reader found this review helpful

Lovely location but terrible hotel. Staff very unfriendly and unhelpful especially if you are English. If you dont tip your cleaner at the beginning of holiday your room will not be cleaned. By the end of 2 weeks our bathroom was practically a health hazard.
You need to be fit to cope with the stairs and three lifts required to get down to the beach.
We went bed and breakfast and were constantly pushed to change to all inclusive.
Would not recommend this hotel to anyone.

1 reader found this review helpful

Anyone from England should not go to this hotel. It changed hands in 2007 and the new owners are very anti english. No one talks english and any complaints you have are very hard to get across. The food is uncooked and the ques are long. For the size of the hotel, they can not cope at feeding times. Very limited drinks on all inclusive. Not only us but other people had money or things going missing out of the rooms. Not one person at the hotel had a good thing to say about the place apart from it looks nice and the views are ok.
For a holiday go to your local seaside resort rather than this place, you will thank me for it

2 readers found this review helpful

but was very spacious and the curtains had been drawn and the air conditioning left on to keep the room cool for our arrival (it was about 45 degrees that day). We were shown how to operate the safe (the battery had run down and so he left us the key with a very apologetic promise to get the technical staff to fix it later).
There was a TV, free air con, the bathroom was nice with modern fixtures and fittings, plenty of hot water at all times of the day (not found in all hotels, believe me!). There was a slight leak in the plumbing with the shower which meant that the room did get a little waterlogged after we’d both taken long showers, but there was enough towels (which were changed daily) to soak it up.
The mini bar had a two litre bottle of cold water in it but nothing else. You are encouraged not to take food and drink to the rooms so we only used this for our bottles of drinking water.
The balcony was large with a clothes airer and overlooked the sea, affording a fantastic view of the lighthouse, the bay and the beach below.
We did hear that a couple of other people had rooms that were not as good. The hotel is split level and goes up the hillside. At the top level, this is across the road from the lobby and does not have sea views. A lovely northern couple we met, Danny and Katie, had trouble with their room flooding from the toilet. We had no such problems though. If you want to guarantee a good room, email them and ask them for room 3202!
The main clientele of the hotel are from Eastern Europe and Russia. They tend to be very rude to the hotel staff, though they were friendly enough with us. I learnt a few words of Turkish prior to going out there and what a difference it makes with the staff! The Turkish are a very polite people and they respond really well to ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in Turkish and favour you if you are English.
We found the food a real treat. I have read several reviews where people moan about how they couldn’t get a full English or that they only catered for the continental taste. Well yes. You’re on holiday! If you want a full English, stay at home or go to Benidorm.
On offer for breakfast they have fruits (fresh and dried), yoghurts, honey, jams, cheeses, meats, breads, salads, eggs and sometimes even sausage or bacon dishes – though not bangers! You could sit inside or out to enjoy your start to the day – we always chose outside, what a lovely way to start off your day with a nice breakfast overlooking the sea to one side and a cool pool to the other. Coffee and tea were always on offer, though not fresh fruit juice. Outside was a hotplate and you could either have a fresh made omelette or pancakes on alternate days.
Lunch comprised mainly salad dishes but there were hot dishes on offer too if you felt up to it in the heat. We mainly ate breads, Tzatziki, Humus and some cold meats, but there was plenty to fill you up.
Dinner saw a wider choice on the salad bar, great selection of sweets and puddings and hot food. All of it was very nice, very fresh and very tasty. Outside at dinner you would find a barbeque with a different meat each night, along with a clay oven making fresh baked pitas and Turkish flat breads. Lovely!
A tip: most people are – as previously mentioned – from Eastern Europe. They have a habit of getting all three of their courses at once and then finding a table. This means you can pick a nice table first and get yourself settled with a nice glass of wine (the red is usually chilled – surprisingly refreshing actually) or beer!
There is an A la Carte ‘restaurant’ upstairs. This is really just Al Fresco dining by the pool upstairs but is a pleasant change to be waited on. They alternate each night between Fish (try the sea Bream, it’s fantastic) or Italian. It’s not a true A la carte and you don’t get a choice, they just bring the dish of the day to the table. Saying that, there are lots of courses and we were very full. It’s a quieter atmosphere and if you arrive early you can get a seat which overlooks the bay. You need to book this at least 24 hours in advance at the little office at the entrance to the main restaurant.
The Beach was great. We got there early every morning because it’s all we wanted to do, but as long as you got on the beach by 9, you were guaranteed a lounger and parasol. The towels for the beach are free and clean. People come and go all day and you can usually find a spot somewhere anyway. Tip: If you get there really early, the spot near the steps to the restaurant near the shady pine tree is great! The beach is a sand and shingle one. It’s very pleasant and despite what some others say on these sites, it was very, very clean. The cleaning staff hit the beach around 6 each night and waiters from the beach bar constantly scan for glasses and plates. The sea is cooler than in some other locations (not Blackpool cool though) but was really refreshing; DON’T buy a snorkel... there’s absolutely nothing worth looking at on the sea bed! The beach bar opens in the morning for soft drinks around 8 but is open for alcohol from 10 – a natty little tune and a good morning from the animation staff alerts you to the fact that you’re on holiday and can now obtain your first gin and tonic of the day! You can always get a seat in the shady beach bar. The staff there are very friendly and again, if you try a bit of Turkish they love it. You can get snacks and burgers and things all day at the beach bar. We never tried them though, we were too hot to bother with anything but beer and gin – a good staple diet! You can get Rakki (like Ouzo or Pernod), local vodka, gin, wine, beer along with the usual mixers and cold drinks.
We never sat by the pool (of which there are two main and a children’s one), favouring the beach; however it has it’s own bar and was very clean. The pool upstairs was more of an ‘adult’ pool and one by the main restaurant with a slide for the kids. Again, I was told that despite it being busy, you could usually always get a lounger. The pool is fresh water (some in Turkey are not) and warm enough not to take your breath away when you dive in.
There is a spa where you can have a Turkish bath (really recommended). We treated ourselves to one, along with a Balinese massage in the purpose built pagola overlooking the sea. The bath started with a sauna, followed by a gentle exfoliation (good for maintaining the tan) and a foam wash down. Put the massage afterwards with this before you go out on the night and you feel great! Ask for Seref (pronounced Sheriff) and he’ll see you right for this, all for £25... bargain!
There’s not a lot to do on the night time to be honest, but that’s ok. The hotel is more of an adult place and though there are kids there, there’s not that many. No Karaoke or bad cabaret here. It’s a short (ten minute) walk around the corner to Ortakent where you will find restaurants, and a couple of lively bars. We never ate out because we were all inclusive and the food in the hotel was great. We had a beer or two out and to be honest, we’re glad we went all inclusive because the cost of eating and drinking out isn’t as cheap is it used to be. The average beer was around 4 YTL (around £2). Ortakent itself is just really a series of restaurants and hotels and it’s a fairly quiet resort, but you can stay out until 5 in the morning at Rakkas bar which does get noisy if that’s your thing. The animation team organise games on the beach all day and do the occasional thing at night. Beware the Bingo though... it cost 10 TYL a ticket and went on and on and on... plus some of the ‘wonderful’ prizes were actually money off vouchers rather than the prize. Apart from that, Deniz, DJ Junior and the team tried hard to make your holiday fun. There is a ‘mini-club’ for youngsters though.
Overall then, this was a fantastic holiday destination made even better by the polite helpfulness of the staff and the location which was both quiet and unobtrusive. First Choice advertise it as 4 star. Of course, it isn’t. Any rating in Turkey needs to be knocked down a star compared with everywhere else. But to be honest it's a pretty good three and a half. Iff you want 5 star luxury, go to Dubai. If you want an English crowd and a hotel that cooks pie, chips and beans alongside an all-day breakfast, go to Majorca. If you want a lovely straight forward enjoyable trip away from yobs and crowds, this is for you.
The lack of a large English crowd gives this an almost exclusive feel, as though you’ve been let in on a great secret location. I would recommend it as a location for couples old and young but not for families with kids to keep occupied or youngsters who want to go clubbing. I would have no hesitation in recommending it to a friend or family member and we would definitely go back again and at the end of the day, that’s the biggest recommendation anyone can give. Hope you found this useful. Feel free to email me for any more questions...
fozzplod@o2.co.uk

1 reader found this review helpful

Lovely location with superb sea views from our room. Location is perfect, just around the headland from Ortakent, about 5-10 mins walk along the beach. Hotel is built on a steep slope with a series of lifts available for those that don't want to use the stairs. Breakfasts are typical continental, with a reasoable choice.
Two pools are available, one by the main restaurant near the beach, the other by a pool bar higher up the hill, this second one was great to swim in as it was quiet for much of the day.
The beach stretchs out below the hotel, with free sunbeds and towels provided by the hotel. It was a mixture of sand and shingle and sloped gently into the sea, remaining quite shallow for some distance.
Ortakent provides a good choice of restaurants, bars and small shops, but retains a peaceful feel to it. There is also a regular bus service to Bodrum.
I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a decent quality hotel, in a peaceful position close to a quiter resort than most of the Bodrum Peninsula.

We have been to this hotel for the past 2 years and have booked again for May 2008, we have always had excellent service, our room was very clean and the staff are very pleasant and always helpful. My husband is on kidney dialisis and the staff have always been excellent with the medical supplies. We have used the resterant many times but do prefer to walk to Jimmy`s for our evening meal where we have always been made very welcome and are treated like old friends. If you want a real quite holiday then book early May and you virtually have the place to you`re self and get more personal service.

My husband and I chose the Lighthouse resort for our two-week honeymoon. We were pleasantly surprised to find the hotel and the facilities to be a lot better than we had expected. The view from our room was stunning, and everywhere was spotlessly clean and tidy. The staff were fantastic and couldn’t do enough for us. Kevin and Claire made us feel very welcome and it was nice to be able to chat freely in our language!
The food was amazing, and always beautifully presented. We especially liked the A-la-carte menu. This is a lot better than the buffet they offer if you are on half or full board. We were glad we did bed and breakfast as it gave us the option to eat out in the evenings, although half the time we chose to eat at the hotel's own restaurant. The service was excellent; they threw in some freebies too on more than one occasion.
Turkish night was great - fantastic dancing! For eating out we found Vira’s great but a little over-priced. Jimmy's was nice and you got more for your money (If you go, look out for our little message we wrote on one of the posts - '6 days married'!). The owner of the Big Brother restaurant scared us a bit so we didn’t try that one out! China Town in Gumbet was very good if you fancy a Chinese and they do amazing desserts. Nothing we ate in the whole two weeks made us ill.
The Turkish bath and spa at the hotel was wonderful, they also have a hair salon. All the staff there were great too. Morat took some beautiful photos of us, which we really treasure. (How many people are offered a professional photo shoot on their holiday?!)
Early June was an ideal time to go, there weren't many people there and we often had the pool to ourselves.
We highly recommend the Lighthouse and would love to go again one day, so long as it doesn't become too popular and 'touristy'!
THANK YOU to ALL the staff for making our honeymoon a perfect one.
Holly & Simeon Hawkins / Kent, U.K

We wanted a peaceful, sunny week away with our daughter before she went back to Uni, so this hotel seemed a good choice. After a rough flight from Exeter on a basic plane with awful food, tiny seats and no film we couldn't wait to get to the hotel. Unfortunately it took nearly 2 hours to get the Entry Visa at airport and the mob turned rather desperate. Anyway, we got to hotel and were booked in by a lovely receptionist and then taken to our rooms. Beautiful views from all balconies and rooms were clean on arrival and large.
Cleaning of rooms was awful and it took three days to get someone to do this - even had to empty own bathroom bin in the meantime because of hygiene risk! Cleaning did start from day 4 (of a 7-day holiday) but it wasn't brilliant and bath drain overflowed. Also you couldn't leave air con on when you left the room as once the key card was removed from the holder, all the electricity went off.
The main pool has too many loungers almost in a fixed position with only 3 parasols, so we opted for beach. Nice little bay with sand/mud and shingle and glorious clear sea, but the guests from Slovakia etc took all the best sunbeds before they had eaten breakfast, and the beach was full of cigarette butts and the bar music was so loud you couldn't have a conversation. Still, beach bar staff responded to kindness and humour as they were fed up with the rudeness of other nationalities, so we were treated royally. Due to limited space, it must be hell in the High Season.
Breakfast was awful, beach bar good for lunch and eating out was fun and although everyone raves about Jimmies (which is good), by far the best place is Vira's - wonderful food, great Rose local wine and excellent service. The walk back to the hotel along dimly lit road and then on to beach can be tricky, but a brief stop at hotel's beach bar on the way back prepares you for the many steps and 3 x lifts till you get to the bedrooms - disabled people beware - it's not easy!
As the temperatures hit 42C in mid September, we came back with tans and unexpected mozzie bites, and overall it was enjoyable. Don't think we will return though as there are many other places to see in the world.

We had a lovely stay at the Hotel Lighthouse, the rooms were spotless and all the staff are very friendly.
I expected a bit more entertainment during the evening but as the hotel is situated only 5 minutes walk away from Yahsi beach we always had somewhere to go. Yahsi is a lovely quiet resort with a nice beach and promenade.
We ended up staying in this resort most evenings I warn you though we tried a lot of the restaurants along the promenade one to avoid is Jimmy’s.
The market in the local town of Ortakent is better to visit than Turgutreis or Bodrum you can buy all the same things at a lower price and without the hassle.
Overall we had a lovely holiday in this resort.