Rixos Premium

6 readers found this review helpful

My husband and I stayed at the Rixos Premium in Turkey mid September for our Honeymoon. On arrival at the Hotel we were greeted by a smiling lady who gave us some Turkish Delight and a Cocktail. We didn’t have to stand waiting at Reception & were asked to sit in the Lobby with our drinks while another member of staff checked us in.
Our room was decorated with rose petals and a bottle of champagne was on ice waiting for us! Our hotel room was smaller than expected with a couple of marks on the carpet (not what we expected from a supposed 7 star!!). The shower was also broken and sprayed out from the ceiling all over the bathroom when you turned it on, we called reception and someone came up within 45 minutes and fixed the fault, not ideal for your first night but they did apologies and sort it out.
To say the Hotel is big is an understatement – we were given a map which we kept by our side for the first few days!! :-) Even though the hotel is enormous (Inc: A Bowling Alley, Tennis Courts, Full size Football Pitch, Cinema, Spa, Shopping Street, Outdoor Theatre & Water Park etc.) we found the Hotel easy to get around as all the main Restaurants & Pool etc are all quite close together & if you are interested in going to the Water Park there is a little boat that leaves every 20mins that will take you there in a pretty 5 minute ride through the Hotel Grounds.
The Shopping Street was pretty & realistic with even a coffee shop, the shops however are all Designer and extremely expensive so unless you are wanting to spend thousands it may just be worth just window shopping!! :-)
The Food was excellent & even the Buffet was impressive, with a large choice of food. The meat was always tender & bread would be made in front of our eyes - still warm from the oven! There are a choice of places to dine in the Buffet – A room for Adults Only, Family Room, Turkish Themed Room & a Main Room which made it feel different every time you went there. We tended to have lunch in the Fish Restaurant (also did Salads & Pizzas etc.) as it was by the beach, its all on decking & looks over a pretty stream – really pleasant!
There weren’t a lot a spare sun loungers by the pool but there was always space on the decking over looking the sea (on the beach) – which was much more romantic anyway (not great for families though). There seemed to be plenty of entertainment for children including a kids club & play area. There were watersports on the beach and plenty of adult activities to get involved with if you wanted (Football, WaterPolo, Yoga, Aerobics, Ping-Pong Championships, Volleyball etc).
Evening (A’La Carte) Restaurants were lovely and all have a different theme however were difficult to book. All Restaurants are booked through a Kiosk which you would swipe your room card through – choosing your restaurant, amount of people & time etc. Unfortunately you could only book up to 3 days in advance so a 12 midnight every night there was a rush of people at the Kiosks to trying and book the restaurants – this was fine for us as the nightlife was excellent but some of the older guests would go to bed and then set there alarms for midnight & come down in there dressing gowns … not quite the evening they had planned I’m sure!!
The evenings entertainment was good, with different themed nights, including a beach party & Turkish nights. As it was the end of Ramadan the week we stayed the Hotel was full of Turks celebrating & it was a really fantastic atmosphere! The Amphitheatre shows were also really impressive and the Light Show (everynight) was really good especially as some of the Restaurants look over it so you can sit having your glass of while watching the show! The Spa was great – with lots of treatment choices & plenty of Saunas & Stream Rooms (they even had an ice room!)
The Hotel staff were friendly & helpful (though some of there English wasn’t fantastic!) but it didn’t really matter. The maids even decorated our room with balloons and a chocolate cake for my husbands birthday while we were there (we didn’t even tell them – they must have seen his date of birth on his passport when we checked in)
We have stayed in various 5 star All-Inclusive hotels across Europe (including the Rixos Bodrum) and this is certainly the best one we have stayed in (but it’s also the most expensive). We would stay at the Rixos Premium again & recommend it to anyone looking for a relaxing 5 star (not 7!) all inclusive holiday! :-)