World of Wonder Topkapi Palace Hotel, Antalya

Turkey has never been anywhere that I have fancied going on holiday, but in 2006, I took the advice of a travel agent friend and booked for and All Inclusive stay at The Topkapi Palace, departing on 2nd June. Our friend and many of her colleagues had stayed at the hotel and rated it alongside 5 star hotels in The Caribbean. It also had the added bonus of being a direct flight from Newcastle to Antalya. I won't go into detail about the flight as that ...
...flight, which was just short of 5 hours, we were very impressed with Antalya airport on arrival as it was new, clean and operated very slickly. Don't forget your £10 note per person on arrival to purchase your visa. We boarded a minibus and were at our hotel within 15 minutes.

On arrival, we were greeted by a bell boy who unloaded our cases and told us to leave them at the entrance whilst we checked in. Check in reception was well ... more

Turkey has never been anywhere that I have fancied going on holiday, but in 2006, I took the advice of a travel agent friend and booked for and All Inclusive stay at The Topkapi Palace, departing on 2nd June. Our friend and many of her colleagues had stayed at the hotel and rated it alongside 5 star hotels in The Caribbean. It also had the added bonus of being a direct flight from Newcastle to Antalya. I won't go into detail about the flight as that is another review in itself!

After the flight, which was just short of 5 hours, we were very impressed with Antalya airport on arrival as it was new, clean and operated very slickly. Don't forget your £10 note per person on arrival to purchase your visa. We boarded a minibus and were at our hotel within 15 minutes.

On arrival, we were greeted by a bell boy who unloaded our cases and told us to leave them at the entrance whilst we checked in. Check in reception was well signposted and after completing a visitor form, we were given a free safety deposit box key, an visitor information booklet (which was our bible for the 1st few days), and some stickers for our cases so they could be brought to our room by the bellboy, which they did about 20 minutes later. The staff were friendly and spoke varying amounts of English but were happy to help wherever they could. We were given directions to our room and off we went.

Our room was not as plush as I expected and felt quite dark due to the dark furniture. We had 3 single beds and a playpen style cot for our youngest daughter. The beds were comfortable and the linen clean, but we did have to ask for extra pillows as the ones provided were about 1cm thick! The bathroom had a full sized bath and shower and was clean and modern. The TV in the room showed mainly German or Turkish channels but there was BBC News 24, a daily English language film and a music channel, so there was sufficient to keep us entertained when we were in the room. The free safety deposit box was a welcome surprise, as they are generally chargable. There was also a fridge in the room which was restocked each day with Pepsi, Fanta, Lemon, Beer and Water. It was really hot (32C) when were there so the very efficient fan and air con were a welcome relief from the heat, especially for the children. The room was overlooking the quiet pool so was nice and quiet when we wanted to relax or get the children to sleep.

The facilities in the hotel were excellent. As well as a private beach, there was a Olympic sized swimming pool, a children's pool, a wave pool, a general family sized pool and a quiet pool. There was also a small waterpark which had 4 pretty decent sized slides. There were always plenty of beds, but as with anywhere you had to be up early to grab the ones in the best locations. You did not need to worry about towels either, as each guest is given a towel card which they exchange for a fresh towel whenever they want.

When it came to eating there was an abundance of choice. Breakfast was served from 0700 - 10000 in the main restuarant and was generally buffet style. You could choose from cereal, fruit, yoghurt, sausage, potatoes and pastries. You could also go to the outside cooking area where a chef made fresh omelettes and pancakes to order. They were delicious and were a staple for us over the 2 weeks. A good breakfast like this set us up for the day.

Lunch was also served in the main restuarant from 1200 - 1430 where they was generally soup, pasta, various hot and cold dishes. If you wanted something else, there was a beachside burger bar and a more traditional Turkish restuarant which served delicious kebabs and pitta breads. These were open 1200 - 1600.

Evening meal was served in the restaurant from 1900 - 2130, and again there was soup and various hot and cold courses. The outdoor grill was used to cook meat and fish, and fresh bread was cooked constantly. There were often themed nights in the restuarant such as fish night, Turkish night and Italian night, where there would also be themed entertainment. We found the food to be enjoyable, but it could become mundane. We were glad that there were also 3 speciality restaurants that you could visit twice each over the 2 week holiday. You had to call the extension from the telephone in your room on the morning you wanted to visit to book your table. I heard many people complaining they could never get through but I never had a problem. Our favourite was La Gondola, the Italian, after that we liked the traditional Turkish restaurant and finally the beachside fish restaurant. The main restaurant also re-opened at 11.30 - 0500 for late night snacks, so there were very hours of the day that you could not eat if you wanted to. If you wanted a snack then there was snack hut open from 1200 - 1800 which served pastries and ice creams.

The same could be said for the bars. The lobby bar in reception was open 24 hours a day, and served hot and cold drinks. There were 2 poolside bars, both opened at 10am, one of them closed at 5pm, but the other stayed open until 2am as the main entertainment square was on the other side to the pool. The beach bar served drinks 10am until 5pm.

The activities started at 8am each day with a local bike ride and ranged from pool games, to tournaments at the beach (archery, football, volleyball etc). There was also a watersports section on the beach which is the only place on the whole complex there was a small charge for anything other than a pedalo. A children's activity playground was set just off the beach. It was well set up, full of Little Tykes houses, slides and swings. The attention to detail was impressive. We found the entertainment team to be first class, and very friendly. Each night there was a show put on by the team, or an act from the local area, such as traditional Turkish dancers or a circus act performed in the 1000 seater ampitheatre. The kids club was well used by my oldest daughter. It was open from 1000 - 2100, and there was always something going on.

The beach was private so no annoying sellers to combat. Again, there were sunbeds galore and also sections of the beach were under cover for when the sun became too hot.

The hotel's guests are mainly affluent Turkish families, Russians and Germans. Thomas Cook is the only UK operator with any rooms here. The maximum number of Brits at any one time would be 40. This is a positive for us though as we tend to be quite insular on holiday and not out to meet new friends.

No sooner had we landed home than I booked up for 2007. The price had risen by a few hundred pounds but it was well worth it in our eyes. 

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