Marmaris Palace Hotel

Our first ever holiday to Turkey.
Marmaris Palace Hotel, after reading these old reviews I got a bit confused but it was hotels website that prompted me to book the holiday. Still having doubts, not knowing what to expect, in airplane we met a family who said that it is really a nice big hotel with a lot of ground, swimming pools, activities and you will be surprised as to how friendly the atmosphere is in the hotel.
They had been there the previous year and said, we can not believe that we going not only in the same place but in the same hotel but why chance it somewhere else knowing what a great holiday we had at Marmaris Palace Hotel. Once they told me of all the activities the fun and the games that children have I started to feel more relaxed.
We had a very nice room with the view to the sea. The food was very good, a lot fresh organic salads, all sorts of meat, burgers, chips, kebab, lahmajun, fried vegetables, pizza, pie’s, casseroles, soups, fresh pasta, fish, omelets, sausages, bacon of course, etc.
Then the sweets, oh the yummy sweets, try and stop yourself. Good, cold tuborg beer, the wine was ok as well, cocktails from local spirits, try the house cocktail (yazici) I think.
We only had 2-3 times breakfast as we did not want to wake up the children. Skipping breakfast did not matter as there was something to eat almost at any time. Because of all day activities when going to bed children would pass-out for 9-10 hours. There was two members of staff looking after the children, they would round them up and take them after breakfast, keep them busy and even go as a group for meals. Therefore sometimes you would not see them for the best part of the day.
Initially there was minor hick-ups with rooms being cleaned, but the hotel had only just opened for the season and they were soon sorted out. If you reported a problem to Mr Aziz, the manager, he would be on his mobile at once and sort it out immediately, on the spot. In the restaurants I saw waiters line up tables with string, talk of attention to detail.
I was surprised as to how friendly and helpful all the staff were, names that come to mind: Erdem, Zejnep, Nil, Sibel, Jakup, Umit, Danny, Hatije, Ismael, Hamdi, Riad ( I hope the spelling is correct for the names). Then, hear this, the owner lives in the grounds of the hotel and you will see him dine with everybody else. I am not repeating some information from other reviews so, You better read all the reviews.
I did not hear of any incidents at all. Majority, if not all, of guests were British being Easter holidays.
And yes we will, definitely, we will go back.

I had such a brilliant time here, no matter what company you go with family, friends, partners it was the best place to be, staff are very friendly and always try hard to make your holiday worthwhile. The food was fantastic lots a variety and you could always find something to eat, the times were:
Morning Breakfast, Late Breakfast, Lunch, Snack Time,
Tea and Coffee, Dinner &midnight soup.
During the day there are lots of fun activities to do like table tennis, darts, bowls, belly dancing etc and you could even win a bottle of wine like i did or even better a treatment and the salon.
Even so if you wanted to go shopping etc you can either walk or catch a bus/cab into Icmeler or catch a cab/bus to Marmaris as your right in the middle of both.
Evenings are the best with great fun entertainment at the amphitheatre which gets everyone involved and by the end of the night you'll be in stitches, after that you can either go to one of the bars maybe the lobby for a bit of fun karaoke or head to the disco to boogie the night away.
This has been one of the best holidays so far in which you don’t need to go anywhere and you will be meet a variety of people from all places. I would highly recommend this place to anyone.

1 reader found this review helpful

I am so glad that I trusted my own instincts and decided to go for this hotel, contrary to what others have said on various reviews.
The staff were friendly as we have always found in Turkey, the room was in good order with bedding and towels changed daily, all the usual facilities including mini fridge.
The food was excellent, bacon and eggs in the morning, plenty of chips/wedges every night for those that did not like anything else! there was a good variety of food and something was being cooked fresh outside every night e.g. steak, chicken kebabs (on Turkish night - Thurs). Plenty of sun beds for everyone, kids area well designed, watersides etc under cover of trees and decking around pools.
Hotel spa, good value for money, whole package including Turkish bath, peel, form massage, mud and hair treatment, anti stress massage and full facial for about £75, staff really welcoming and professional.
We did a scuba diving course, with the European Diving Centre, which is the ONLY PADI registered diving school in the resort, staff excellent and very helpful, location near 'turtle beach' in beautiful nature reserve.
Overall we had an excellent weeks stay although the weather was not fantastic (very early season), we would recommend this hotel to all family and friends, what more could anyone ask!

Stayed in this hotel in Aug 2005. A large group of use went four families in all.
On arrival the staff were very friendly and welcoming. We found on checking in that they new we were all together and because of this they tried to give us 3 rooms instead of 5.
We had had a long days travel so were not very happy.
After an hour of telling us they did not have enough rooms they managed to find 5. Two of the rooms very not what we asked for so we were told we would have to move again the next day! Our rep was no where to be found and did not answer there phone!!
This was a very common thing when we stayed other groups had the same problem apparently the Turkish like to save rooms...
Rooms were very basic and space is limited if more than two people.
Hotel is HUGE and some bungalows are far from the main building and are up and down stairs and slops, this nearly killed my dad...
Food was ok very much the same each day, a lot of salads and cold meats and fruit. The kids we went with hardly ate as they did not like the food, no chips and no meat made from pigs and it is against there religion so no sausages, bacon!!
Entertainment for kids was ok the evening shows were very much for adults and not always in English.
The hotel itself is in a poor location and needs a bus to get any where as there is nothing local. Only a five min bus run to Marmaris and Icmeler but the buses are full and are only little mini vans and the Turkish driving is not good!!!!
The weirdest thing about this holiday was the airport and transfer to the hotel. The airport is badly run and it took two hours to get our luggage. We were all crammed in a corridor which had glass windows filing through. It was mid day so boiling and we all felt like we were stuck in a green house. The transfer to the hotel took two hours in a coach with no air con. The coach takes you from the airport which is located high up and takes you down the steep hills which have no barriers and shear drops!!!! This scared the life out of me as I said the Turkish are bad drivers and I was glad when we got to the bottom of the hills.
Overall this holiday was ok I found it very boring as I like things to do but for a sun lover this would be a good holiday.

We stayed in Icmeler last year and had such a good time decided to return this year. Unfortunately the Hotel we stayed at last year was full and the tour operator recommended Marmaris Palace.
The hotel looked very impressive on arrival, but once you really looked it was very run down, broken chairs, peeling paint etc. The reception staff were friendly but not very helpful, I think it was a language problem.
It was a long walk into Icmeler or you could pick up a Dolmus
or taxi quite cheaply. It is well worth the trip as Icmeler is full of shops and restaurants which are very reasonable.
The room was OK, certainly not 4*, but clean and basic.
The wardrobe was a cupboard with a curtain! At night it
was quite dangerous as the stairs were hosed down and made them very slippery. Every single one of our party fell up the stairs in the dark. Be careful if your room is on an upper floor.
The management obviously do not know what All Inclusive really means. The drinks were limited to brandy, gin, vodka and Raki or beer and soft drinks./ PLEASE BE AWARE THAT BARCARDI IS NOT INCLUDED and is very expensive in the hotel. It is worth buying some in duty free and bringing it across.
The entertainment was centred around the Russian people.
A good 80% of guests were Russian, so you cannot blame the
"entertainment" team for that. We went to a couple of the
shows, but were not very impressed so either went into
Icmeler in the evening or stayed in the bar in the hotel.
Ice cream twice a week is a bit stingy, and we did not see
it at all! However, we did eat out on a regular basis as
the food was not to our taste. I will not go into detail, other
than we had to clear a table to be able to eat; the tables were dirty with lots of flies and insects about. They seem to
fry everything in a big wok full up with fat/oil (including vegetables)and if you do not like salad covered in odd dressing then forget it. The fruit was often mouldy or badly bruised and we got fed up picking it over to try to find one that was edible. The restaurant manager could not
speak any English and I believe the only vocabulary he had was "waiter".
Beware of the man that runs "boat" trips from the hotel.
We decided to take a trip to a market on an island and a
little fishing boat arrived to take us. There was 20 people
and we had to be seated in specific places to balance the
boat. It was the most frightening journey across; we were all afraid to move and on the way back we could not believe it when the "captain" made two people change boats in the
middle of the sea as there were too many people in our boat.
You have been warned.
I would not recommend this hotel AT ALL. Everyone to their own taste but try a REAL 4*+ hotel and you can really tell
the difference.
I awarded the 3 points purely for the maid service and the one waiter that smiled and said hello.

Overall this is a very fine hotel and offers great facilities and a good location for those seeking a quieter haven.
The hotel itself does resemble a middle eastern palace, with a spectacular reception and grand hallways. However the rooms are far from palatial. This was the biggest disappointment for the hotel - they are basic. You’d be lucky to find one with a sea view, and many are situated in 'bungalows' a good distance from the main hotel - a real pain if you’re not up to a bit of a hike. The rooms were clean, and reasonably air conditioned, but for a 4 star hotel you’d expect a little bit more.
The hotel offers great facilities, and the swimming pools are excellent - the main pool is mainly inhabited by families with kids, but for those seeking a quieter swim without being surrounded by urine there is a good sized 'adults only' pool with some nice shade under pine trees.
The food here is difficult to fault (especially in Turkey) and offers something for every appetite. There is a buffet system in place, which can get a little busy if you don’t time it right. There are a total of 7 mealtimes throughout the day offering everything from breakfast to midnight soup!
The all-inclusive package worked well - there was never any problems getting as much food and drink as you wanted up till 2am which is great.
Location was good - 20 minutes walk from Icmeler or Marmaris but not so close to be infected by the growing 'chav' mob flocking to Marmaris town centre which is starting to resemble Blackpool.
Plenty of watersports available - anything without a motor is free, and the hotel even has it’s own waterslides and ice rink!
One word of warning though to those who have not been to Turkey or Cyprus before - The Russians!! They are without doubt the rudest, most arrogant, miserable scum you’ve ever met (they make Germans seem like your best friend!) Don’t be surprised to see them jump in front of queues, push your towels off sun beds, I even heard one story of a Russian who threw a Swedish family's towels and bags into the pool because they’d dared to reserve his favourite sunbed before him! You have been warned!
Overall, we had an excellent, very relaxing holiday here and would gladly go back to the same hotel. Shame about the Russians though....

We originally booked the Hotel Pineta but upon our arrival in Turkey ended up at Marmaris Palace. Excellent holiday very friendly and helpful staff. The hotel was very clean. The food was very nice . My only complaint was there were not enough bar staff. Would certainly recommend this hotel.