Yelken Hotel & Spa

When I first booked I checked tripAdvisor and panicked when I read about the annex!I phoned querty travel and got them to phone the hotel who made a note that we wanted the 5star rooms only and not the dreaded annex!I later found out that the annex is classed as a club room and we were family room!Anyways when we turned up our rooms were amazing situated almost on the beach we had coffee in the mornig on our balcony overlooking the sea! The annex is by the water slides and look like shaby run down old apartments I would have fliped if they sent me there so be aware if you think you have been sold a corker of a deal id check again coz they proberly have sent you to the dive of the yelken ha ha! The food is what youd expect from a standard 5star hotel like the yelken Its defonatly not a luxury 5star and food is more 4star! The main thing is its always warm and you dont get the trots! Every nite they have a diferent grilled meat such as chicken, fish,and some kind of burger like meatball oh and they do kebab on turkish nite!The rest of the food is in youre standard canteen metal trays such as chicken in sauce or vegtable or pasta mixed dish and most importently they constently have mcdonald style fries always hot for the kids so no 1 was ever hungry! The only thing id say about the food was that during the day and evening there was plenty ie breakfast , lunch, and poolside snacks such as fries pizza bread, burgers but after tea time 930pm there wasnt anythng else but soup at 11pm come on who has soup on holiday especialy watered down tin soup! they could have put on the snack bar again and done some fries so make sure you fill youre boots at tea time! The beach is practally by the pool so 1 could sun bathe by the sea wilst the other was with the kids in the pool!The slides were great but only open at desagnated times!There are 3 bars and a restaurant bar!The loby bar had 2 staff so hardly any queing and the pool bar had 1 but never full. The drink selection was a bit lousy they had vodka,brandy,rakia(pernod)gin,beer and wine!you had to pay for rum so no barcardi and coke! They did however do basic cocktails using flavored syrups and they are very strong! Tiping is esential if you want good service,I gave 5lire to each main barman on each bar I went to in the day! Soft drinks are great for kids and the coke is fine and so is the lemonade! The entertainment is good at nite for the kids but the bigest downfall is the lack of english speaking children! Dont go to the yelken if you think that you and youre other half can ship youre kids off with other kids because it wont happen!They made no friends and we had to constently entertain them in the day!The yelken book mainly germen dutch latvian and polish familys! Overall we payed 1800 for 2 kids and 2 adults for a week in the school summer holidays so it was good value but certainly not a british 5 star hotel! Aparently the yasmin is more luxurious but very pricey!The spa is a rip off and you will get midered to go so be strong and say no! The boat trip was good 50 quid but the drinks are pricey so the day out cost me a 100 quid in total!

I have just booked this hotel with Thomas Cook on line. I did check reviews to start with but couldn't find any as the hotel was New. After booking i checked Trip Adviser(which is the one i did forget) worried i telephoned TC they informed me that we where in an annex. TC web site has no mention of this. I then informed them that they are selling this holiday as if you are in the Hotel itself. which they agreed. They are now going to change the web site. We cancelled free of charge. They would not upgrade us for free they wanted £300. If you do book this make sure you are in the hotel(this costs more) and make sure its says so on your booking. It seems the annex is 2* accommodation. I google earthed the place and You can see the annex is a distance from the main hotel. Think we got a lucky escape.

Becareful when booking a room as with other travellers i was miss-sold a room in the main building only for my documentation to say club room. Thanks to the reviews on here i managed to sort out that problem before heading out there. The hotel is great, lovely reception area and rooms are cleaned daily and are what you would expect from a new hotel. The only down side is the smell of sewage that sweeps through the hotel in the evening. It is unbearable and having our room on the ground floor we could smell it all night. The food is good plenty of choice unless you are veggi, there was a large varity of deserts too. Waiters still are very promt at cleaning away plates, which you do get used to even if it is a tad annoying. The beach is ok, although it is rocky to start with as you go further into the sea it is sandy. On the downside there are reps from the spa constantly trying to sell you a treatment even when you a fast alseep sunbathing! There are night time entertainments which are maily for kids and families but it better than other hotels i have been to. The workers are all very friendly however some do need more language awareness.

Ok; you get what you pay; we all know that. Not always though! You see no one told me that when I paid Yelken standard clud, meant that I would get a small semi dirty 20 to 30 years old room. “club” is a dull, plain building that has nothing to do with the nice picture of Yelken hotel we see on the internet . It’s their trick! for higher profits. Simple as that. I only have 1 thing to say, why on earth should someone stay in this “Club” foxhole?? To save 100 pounds (130 euro – or less for the weekly package) from his vacation budget? and face a so depressing, old, 2 star room? (not to mention the smell) The food is ok, salads are good, average service as regards the drinks (on purpose), one person serving, so less consumption due to standing!! Be ready for Turkey Cola(ok), and Tang(bad), beer and wine is ok, but no ice-cream, and not enough fruits. The sea in frond of the Yelken is dirty to very dirty. Only people never swam before in the med sea will not tell. Get one of the daily near-by cruises and you will see and feel unique med waters. The main building is new, clean, and nice. The (new!!!) Yelken Hotel, is a new and average 4 star hotel.

BE WARNED ON Arrival put in annex even after faxing hotel and asking travel republic for main hotel been informed they would not budge. to describe the annex as a two star would be insulting air con broke down every other day toilets would not fill it took thrree days to get this to work and what i can make out these problems are the norm in theannex which is very old the people in next room were moved twice and got fed up.now the food poor but edible they bring scrabled egg out cold and let in warm inthe server water (sammonella here we come) i have been 19 times to turkey 19 times and used to ther star system been lower than anywhere else but if this was the first time to turkey i would never go again . turkey is beautifullbut not the yelken annex. the only time you got the annimation team rond the annex swimming pool was when they wanted to sell something like bingo

As an experienced traveler, I only expected to see another too fancy hotel, this time in Bodrum area, as I already have seen in many tourist guide booklets, depicting shiny, entertainment overcrowded, expensive, all-inclusive with huge extra expenses hotel, where everybody (from hotel management to the last cleaning person) wear sleazy smiles, trying to get under Your skin, in order to get bigger tips. Those were my prejudices, and they were very persistent, until I passed the entrance door of this hotel. The first impression was quite opposite. Modest and almost spartanic lobby, large enough to accomodate approximately 100 guests in cozy armchairs and sofas, nothing too shiny, nobody too pushy, but all of the personell 100% at Your service 24 hours a day. We were met by concierge, lovely turkish young lady Fabiola, who was of the utmost help in introducing us to the hotel, in perfect english. Since there was a little problem with rooms, I was offered a deal - to spend two nights in a sweet of a lower class, until a room with real 5 stars gets vacant. In return for this favour, I was to get a free massage for me and my wife, free safety box in the room, a room with an exquisite view and a right to remain in the room on the departure day, longer than the hotel rule says, i.e. as long as it takes for a transfer bus to come to the hotel. It sounded fair enough to me, so I took the deal. Lovely 3 star sweet, two rooms, two bathrooms and two balconies, decorated in a colonial style, with not too much furniture, but providing a kind of "soul" to the room. My 4 years old daughter was delighted with her own room and bathroom. I wanted to stay there for the whole holiday, but my wife (as wives always do) said "NO". So, after two days, we moved to the regular 5 star room. What a difference! From a comfortable and lazy 19th century, I stepped into informatic 21st century. Every aspect of the room was meant to satisfy the tourist. We were simply speachless. There was even a PC socket in the room, for the Internet. Large bed and additional sofa (which could be reverted into a bed), opposite of which there was a plasma TV. Balcony provided excellent view both to the sea, swimming pools and to the hills behind the hotel. The position of the room allowed the direct sunlight in the afternoon, all until 19:00. FOOD AND BEVERAGES: The most important thing - never, and I mean NEVER drink tap water! It tastes strangely. Bottled water is available everywhere, but if You are not on the all-inclusive, it is charged. There is famous EFES beer, as well as domestic spirit "Raki". Soft drinks are available from dispensers, but most of them are of "TANG" brand - instant drinks. Sparkling water is pretty good, but it seems like it has been prepared on site and therefore contains more CO2 than usual. Coca-cola and similar drinks seem to be weakened by adding sparkling water. Coffee is filter or turkish, various LIPTON teas are available. Most of the beverages are counted in all-inclusive, except imported spirits and energy drinks. Gee, I got 20 pounds during my stay here. Food is excellent and a lot of different meals are available, even for people on specific diets. But what killed me were the sweets - famous turkish specialities, at least 20 kinds of different sweets. I couldn't resist - it was like Heaven, really. STAFF: every guest request is processed immediately. There is enough understanding of various needs for all of the guests. Only waiters are a little bit annoying, taking plates away before Your very nose, no matter whether You have finished Your meal or not. Every request is processed by the reception clerks or by the concierge. Concierge is very helpful, but it is a little bit difficult to communicate with reception clerks, because their english is insufficient. Most of the staff are season workers and are not enough experienced yet, since the hotel was opened this year for the first time. Hygiene of the rooms and the hotel in general is OK, especially in lavatories, bot in rooms and in lobby. Not a trace of dirt could be seen in the most visited (and usually the dirtiest) men's rooms in the lobby. Security is visible, but quiet and cool. In specific cases You can get some help from them, but they speak very little english. SWIMMING: Pools are cleaned every evening at 19:00, until morning hours, by an automatic cleaning system. Large outside pool is 140cm deep and is suitable for water recreation. Children outside pool is 50cm deep, but is very close to the cheslonges where parents are situated, so there is no danger for the small children. Life guards are always nearby the pools. Covered pool is situated inside the building and can be reached either from outside or from inside the hotel, passing through spa center. There is a shower with both cold and hot water at the inside pool. Outside pools share cold water showers with the beach, so there is always some sand in the shower tub, although it is regularily cleaned every 2 hours. The beach is about 50 m away from the outside pools. Sand and tiny rocks are on the way to the water, but about 5 meters in the water there are very sharp rocks, so some kind of shoes are required. This can be overcome by using docks, which are approx. 100 m long, and which take the swimmer into depper water (about 1.2m deep), with smooth rocks on the seabed, so no shoes are required. There is borderline of safe water, where the seabed is prepared for barefoot walking. ANIMATION TEAM: animation is performed from 10:00 until 23:00. Team consists of 4 guys and 2 girls, and all of them are versatile in various activities (water aerobics, exercises, yoga, various dances etc), as well as in performing small stage productions for evening entertainment (thematic nights, cabarets, game shows, etc). There is always a mini-disco for children at 21:00 (which my daughter enjoyed best), supervised by one or more animators. Anyway, the animation team here is much better and more liked by the guests than in other places I have visited. It is always very pleasant to watch their coreographies of ethnic or contemporary and disco dances, owing to the abilities of their coreographer, Tatiana from Russia. Stage productions and game shows are scripted and directed by the whole team and have a lot of speachless humor. SPA CENTER: I myself only took a massage, and I have to say that female masseurs are better than male (and my wife says so). Spa treatments are extra charged if You take professionals for treatments, although You can do some of treatments by Yourself (like turkish bath and sauna) for absolutely free. OUTSIDE THE HOTEL: the environment is not very pleasant - approx. 500m from the hotel there is a large sewage collector, whose stench is intensive when the atmospheric pressure is low, but in nice weather it disappears. Also, there is a block of abandoned houses, presumably to be destroyed for acquiring place for a new hotel or something like that. The "dolmoosh" (shuttle bus) stop is some 500 m away from the hotel, so there will be much of walking if You want to go to Turgutreis or Bodrum for shopping or entertainment. However, since the most of the services You would probably need, are situated in the hotel (hairdresser, shopping center, jewellery shop, disco), it is adiviceable not to leave hotel, unless You have arranged a guided tour, but in that case, tourist buses come to the entrance of the hotel. OVERVIEW: Well, if there weren't those several little omissions, this hotel would have deserved five points for sure. My wife liked it very much, my daughter was delighted, and I was pleasantly surprised by invisible but always present high quality of service. If You need a place to forget all of Your problems, this should be Your choice. I suggest all-inclusive arrangement, because it gives much more freedom in choosing Your enjoyment.

We have just arrived back from an awful holiday in Turkey and it all started at the Yelken Hotel & Spa. Like the other reviewers we had booked a 5* all inclusive holiday at the hotel (we booked through Bookable Holidays and it was a Goldtrail Holiday), however on arrival we were shown a room in an old dilapidated building next door! It was dirty, falling apart and probably wouldn't gain even 1* (even by Turkey standards!) - the room was small, the bathroom was disgusting and made me feel physically sick every time I had to use it - mould all in shower, shower water didn't drain away, dirty around taps and plug holes! We requested to be moved straight away but reception told us that there was nothing available (honestly the hotel didn't look that full). We decided to talk to our rep the next day at our welcome meeting - she never showed! When we eventually got hold of her and arranged for her to come and meet us she told us that there was nothing she could do for us as she only dealt with airport transfers!!! She was also 45 mins late for our arranged meeting and spent most of her time trying to sell us excursions!!! She also said that she never bothered turning up to the Yelken welcome meetings! Great service! She did however tell us that the company who deal with Goldtrail holidays in Turkey is an agency called Vasco Tours and we should try them. The lady on guest relations at the Yelken was brilliant and she chased up Vasco arranging for somebody to call us back at 2pm - they never did! Guest Rels. called the person back and he arranged for us to be moved the next day at a charge (however this amount increased massively a couple of days later) to a resort across the bay (it was lovely and where all that loud music could be heard from at the Yelken - but it's not a problem when you've got double glazing!!) All in all we spent a vast amount of time sitting around and waiting for people to call us (or spending a fortune chasing people up by calling from UK mobiles) or to actually bother to turn up to meet us - so even though we did get moved to a fab hotel it was always hanging over us! In the end we were dealing with a company back in the UK who advised us not to pay the guy from Vasco and that they would deal with him but again they said they would call us in our rooms at certain times of the day but never did. The company did at the eleventh hour however, sort out the bill for us. What I would say is seriously just don't bother with this hotel at all - it's much less hassle just to go somewhere else and there are much nicer places about! By the time we got there 12 Sep the a la carte restaurant had already closed - the Yelken was basically in shut down - yet the hotel we were moved to had 4 a la carte restaurants all in full swing! The food at the Yelken wasn't great either and there wasn't much choice. The hotel is in a nice area though it's right on the beach and it's very quiet - but if you're after some night life it's a pain to get to Bodrum as you need to get 2 separate buses and I don't think they run very late. We don't know who really is to blame for the misrepresentation of the holiday we purchased and we are in the process of lodging a formal complaint - if you do decide to go here please ring the hotel before you go to check what room you've been allocated because although the voucher you have may say Yelken Hotel & Spa on it ( as ours did) it doesn't mean you're staying in it!

Just got back from Yelken Hotel. We booked a holiday at the 5 star Yelken Hotel and spa, We were anticipating a possible problem having seen a few bad reviews on Tripadvisor . The Onur air flight was actually better than I expected from LGW, one hour delay, but large Airbus, plenty of legroom. Our transfer should have been to 40 mins, ours took 4 hours including the one hour wait at the airport for other passengers, the coach dropped off via coastal route. On arrival At the Yelken the main hotel was full and we had to have rooms in the "club", a word i'd never heard before. If you go round the opposite side of the building you will see a "Yelken club" sign on the building, this is a completely different complex to the new hotel and has no reception. The first room we were shown was filthy, smelled damp, wasn’t even a 2 star and unfit for habitation, after looking at several rooms we were shown a suite with 2 rooms which wasn't a great deal better, having no other choice we decided to use it as a base, hoping we'd be able to resolve the issue. Our room was never cleaned not that it would of made a difference. As for the rest of the Hotel, Food was rubbish, cold, not a lot of choice unless you like salad or chips, Tables not laid, tablecloths unchanged (even when stained), a waiter did sweep ours once with a dustpan and brush (unbelievable), we had to ask for everything. A couple of other things worried me were safety issues, hot steam coming through cracks in self service work tops, food left uncleaned on floors. Pool water, level with ground and unattended and unmarked, Outside pool deck boards not fixed down and lifting.Pool bar/snack area filthy and food left out all afternoon in sun. The bar was a joke, one person serving, you had to stand in line like children then there was little choice and what they did have was poor. We were getting taxi's to Turgetreis to eat and drink. "there is nothing near this hotel". It is a shame as it could be a nice Hotel, stunning view from rear, but is spoilt by whatever is going on with the room bookings and lack of management. The last thing is entertainment, or lack of, nice crew trying their best but still rubbish. Unless you can confirm you are in The new Hotel be very careful, How you do this I don't know.

Having been sold this holiday on the basis that we would be staying at a 5* all inclusive resort with all of the accoutrements that connotes, we were pretty disgusted to be shown to a room measuring 9'x9' with a balcony meaning that we touched knees if we sat on it and a third world quality bathroom. Apparently, there is a little known turkish-english translation that means if you have booked a 'standard landview' room you get a 'standard club' room. The rooms are very badly insultaed and so you get treated to bad euro-techno (I know enough about music to knowe it ws bad....) from a club across the bay until the early hours of the morning It is cheesy, loud and extremely bland. For those who like thier sleep - be warned. Yelken have leased a former mark warner holiday village adjacent to the hotel and are putting their guests up there. the accomodation would struggle to be a 2* and is dirty and run down. We were eventually moved after, having booked from teletext with Holiday Brokers (note to self, never, ever again) to a different hotel which had considerably better accomodation, but lacked a lot of the charm of the seafront. The facilities of the hotel itself are passable, they are not 5*. I found the staff to be either pleasant and accomodating, or downright rude and unwilling to make any effort if you were english. The reception staff were okay until I continued complaining and then became hostile and obstructive The food was okay, if a little samey and uninspiring (for god's sake don't waste your money on the 'a la carte' restaurant...it basically serves up the stuff that comes from the buffet, with a couple of exceptions, and you are expected to pay for the wine that is free only 10 yards away). It was a nightmare though if you are vegetarian. Even non-meaty dishes had it added to them, and there was no veggie alternative, which given the size and boasts of the hotel is somewhat rubbish in this day and age. If you get to the main restaurant early enough, you can enjoy a beautiful sunset with your meal....however, once the sun dips beneath the horizon it is time for the god-awful kiddie disco to begin. Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against the idea in princple, but when due to an extremely poor location, it becomes the focus of the evening, it kind of ruins your coffee and dessert. Proud parents egging on little hansi and gretchen into an ecstatic fervour is either cutesy and heart melting, or, if you don't have kids, frankly nauseating...particularly when the same tunes are played EVERY night, to the extent that you could set your watch to them. However, the delicious irony of the kiddie megmix, including versions of the match of the day theme tune, scotland the brave and (I'm not kidding) the Dambusters is wonderful. The sight of a load of european kiddies swaying to bomber harris et al is truly spectacular and something that raisea smile even now. Not that the french DJ could in anyway be considered cynical perhaps? There's a good blend of all nationalities which was a saving grace, and no apparrent scuffles over sunbeds and the like. The beach is clean and accessible and boasts a good range of watersports for those interested. All in all the Yelken is probably a good place to stay IF and only IF you get the rooms in the actual hotel. i would echo the previous review - check what is going on with your booking before you arrive and insist on being moved elsewhere if you are not guaranteed accomodation in the main hotel. I wouldn't go again. i don't appreciate the cavalier way in which the hotel treats its guests and the continual lies about who/why/ etc originated the problems.

The Hotel opened on the 20th April 2007. There are 235 rooms, although more if you include the substandard complex next door, operated by the Yelken Hotel. The beach is 250ms in length and very clean and user friendly, although it does have a lot of rocks just as you enter the sea, so take some rubber shoes or similar. The airport is some 55kms away but I would recommend private transfers to avoid this taking hours. I am surprised the hotel does not have its own private transfers, even at additional costs. All other hotels we have stayed at that are 5 star, collect and return their guests, although for a small charge it is so much more convenient. Bodrum City Centre is 22 kms and the small town of Turgutreis is 4kms, and well worth a visit. We arrived at 7am in the morning after an evening flight. Reception was very friendly and the place was pristine. After being escorted some distance from the main hotel, we were shown to a room that was not fit for human habitation. It had a single bed in it, was very badly lit and stank. The porter said, "We shall put you up a metal bed so you can sleep two people in the room". We rejected this and got offered a slightly better room, having been informed that the main hotel was full and that this was the best they had. We had no alternative but to accept the room. The Hotel, from what we learnt later, continues to take bookings for the "5 star" aspect of the hotel even though they are full. We are taking this up with the people we booked through. The food is good, although a little repetitive and of a UK standard, including chicken steak and salad items. The service is good in the restaurant but sadly lacking in the bars where quicker service would have avoided long queues. The grounds of the hotel are well kept and very clean. All the staff are friendly and work extremely hard. Overall, if you are booking, phone the hotel and make sure you are in the new part of the hotel. Make sure they give you a room number as well. If they cannot, do not go, as the other accommodation is not worth the money. The Spa element of the hotel is excellent, although some 4 times the price of other spas in the area, such as in gumbet, but the service exceptional and you don't have to travel On a really positive note, my wallet fell out of my pocket in the bedroom and I could not find it, assuming it was lost elsewhere. The cleaner found the wallet and returned it to me. Very Honest! Security at the hotel is very visible and organised, making everyone feel at ease. If they gave the rooms they advertised, I would have no hesitation in saying I would return or recommending them. So continue with caution, particularly in the months July and August. I will post photos at a later date. Have a good holiday wherever you decide to go…