Xanadu Resort

We stayed during the middle of June for a week with our 6 year old. We had been to the sister hotel Xanadu Makadi Bay in Egypt last year and booked Xanadu Resort based on our great experience with the hotel brand there. We found the complex to be smaller than thought from the photos, which was great as everything was close together with no hills and only a few steps and everything was within walking distance. The hotel is set is beautiful mature gardens and you wouldn’t know there are hotels either side and a busy road out front, it was so peaceful. The river is lovely with the bridge over it to the beach.

Room We stayed in a standard bungalow room, in the Julibrissin block which was nice and quiet, as asked for. It was a short walk to the secret garden pool and bar, as well as the lagoon pool. The room and bathroom were quite small but we were only ever in it to shower and sleep so it didn’t bother us much. The shower was large and powerful. There was a good sized balcony and a lovely view of the garden. The sofa bed was great as was much sturdier than a roll out bed. The double bed was massive. The mini bar was great, refilled to our liking each day. The cleaning was great also, and new towels every day. The little amenities in the bathroom were super too. Aircon was fab and you could adjust it yourself. Plenty of storage space in big wardrobes and plenty of hangers. Got robes and disposable slippers provided too.

Beach We found to the sea to be dirty and rough one afternoon which put us off. A few days later we returned and it was calm in the morning when we visited the adult only beach. Unlike its sister hotel, there was no drinks service here. The sand was great, with a little pebbles just before the water and a little when you get in. After this it was sandy and clear. It does get deep quickly though. We hired a pavilion one day near the Hula Hula beach area which was 100euro for front row and 80euro for second row. This included drink service, a fruit platter, a nut platter and a bottle of champagne. It was much needed in 35 degree heat. The morning we were here the sea was lovely and calm and by the afternoon had turned very rough again. Visited the bar on the pier for a drink which was nice. There was usually a sunbed or two free when we were at the beach, on either side. Watch out for the turtle nests on the beach.

Pools The secret garden pool was large and very quiet and had a kids pool. There were always sunbeds available here. There was a bar here that did sandwiches for lunch and had an ice lolly fridge. On occasion the waiter on roller blades visited but this was not a consistent service. It was nice to have shade from the trees in 35 degree heat as well as the umbrellas! The lagoon pool was much busier and super shallow for kids. It was nosier with the music and hard to get a free sunbed. Again the waiter skater frequented around here. There were plenty of sunbeds also on the shaded grass area. The antique pool was nice too, and had some activities in it. There were lots of lifeguards about all pools. None of us tackled the big slide. My hubby did the winding slide and I did the tunnel one – this was dark & fast and gave me a fright lol. We found the secret pool to be quite surprisingly warm and the sea not too bad either.

Kids Club Our child loved this and couldn’t wait to get in in the mornings. He was usually there from 10am til 3pm. It was great that they could come and go when they liked instead of the two hour slots that Tui do. There were different activities each day and such a fantastic space indoors and outdoors for them. At 2pm they took them to the small slides for 45mins which was the highlight of his holiday. The lunar park carousel ride was a bit young for him. He tried the climbing park once but as he was under 120cm, I had to help him with his carabiner which was fine. He only went to a couple of the mini discos (not many songs in English) and then they had a show after this for the kids for about half an hour which helped put the time in until the big show. The girls were fantastic with him and he won medals and made crafts. Think they did cinema showings but he never participated. He got his lunch each day at the snack bar in Fancyland and he just helped himself to whatever he liked. There was plenty of drinks available for them throughout the day. There were areas for younger and older kids (indoors and outdoors) which was a great idea.

Food We found the food to be of a good standard and a good choice. The grill area outside the buffet restaurant was expansive and had a lot of variety. It was great to have drink service at the tables. Our child loved the chocolate milk cartons and that he could help himself to at the kids buffet. The handmade pasta woman was excellent also. The fresh omelette woman at breakfast was yum. We booked the French a al carte for our first night for my husband’s birthday but this was within the buffet restaurant which was strange. The food was nice and service good. I had told guest relations that it was my husband’s birthday and they said they’d have the room decorated on arrival but sadly they did not. So I asked could they do it for our French dinner and again they did not. They did eventually provide a cake and after a 5 course meal when we couldn’t eat anymore, we asked could we take it away which they said they would send it to our room. Unfortunately this never turned up. The Turkish a la carte was our favourite. We were set down meze food and bbq food and helped ourselves. Such a lovely setting at the beach also. The Italian was ok, nothing special but great pizza which our wee one loved. Kids menus were available at each of these. We tried the forest picnic lunch on Wednesday in the gardens and this was lovely. They had drinks, starters, mains, desserts all set on picnic benches and rugs and you could just pick what you wanted. Was great to get crisps and nuts at the bars when asked for. There was scooped ice cream by the pool bar, near the gozleme tent and the waffle stand. All bars also had ice lollies in freezers which was super for the kids. We also had the afternoon tea in the piano bar on the day we left. This was lovely and meant we didn’t have to pay for an expensive dinner at Antalya Airport. Both the pool and beach bars serve hot food from a menu which is great.

Staff We found the staff to be hard working and of high numbers. We found it strange not having tip jars in the restaurants.

Entertainment There seemed to be a main show at the amphitheatre every other night. The standard was high and the shows were exciting. The Amazonica one was our favourite, with the motorbikes. The amphitheatre was massive so always room for everyone. There also seemed to be free kids entertainment each evening on the grass area beside Fancyland, including VR, inflatables, wooden games etc. This was a great idea and put the time in before and after the main show. We didn’t really stay for the Xanadu bar live shows and didn’t go to the hula hula disco. We participated in the air gun competition one afternoon and found it to be great fun. My husband won a medal. We tried the archery also but the queue was too long so left. There were electric light up car things for kids and a bungee jump thing that were 10euro which were available each night beside Fancyland.

Facilities I would not recommend the bowling at the hotel. It was 7euro per person. Thankfully we only paid for our wee one but the lane was so sloped to the right that he only managed to hit the pins once. The arcade games required tokens so we never bothered with them. We went to the patisserie one afternoon but the proper coffee machine wasn’t working and the cakes were the same from the buffet so we didn’t bother. Thought it was strange to have the shop and patisserie tucked away in the ‘basement’ of the hotel. There was a kids playground in the gardens, beside the pool and on the beach which were super. We asked reception to call us a taxi to Belek market on Saturday morning. This was 30 euro return for a 10/15 min journey. We paid for a family buggy experience one afternoon which was great fun, through TR Travel. Transfer here took about 50 minutes and was about 80euro. The airport is about 45mins away by private transfer. We had to pay 120euro to keep our room on until 6pm on the day of checkout as we had a late night flight. We were not offered a shower room.

We would highly recommend this hotel. It exceeded our expectations with the kids being so well looked after, as well as the adults. It never felt busy and it was so peaceful. We had heard reports that it was dated but we felt that this was very untrue. We hope to return one day.

So we just came back from a one week trip to Xanadu (4 adults and 2 kids < 12 yo) and this was our second time here.

I just want to say that we had a great time and also, there are many things that should be changed/improved.

The location is almost unchanged, perfectly maintained, great green areas, clean pools, lovely bars and sights, waterslides, etc. One thing disspointed us: the beds from the small „forest” can only be used during the picnic the hotel organizes once per week. This was hugely upseting, as those beds and that cool green area, was a great place to just lay down and hide from the sun – the beds are unusable at this time. We were actually waiting to get to that are more than anything.

We booked bungalow rooms, as they are away from the crowd, the area surrounding them is wonderful and you can also be close to the Secret Bar and Secret Pool and also next to the football field, archery range, yoga and other activities. Unfortunately, the rooms are sooo outdated – from my understanding, these rooms haven’t been renovated for more than 10-12 years and they are degrading (toilet seat, bathtub window, doors - we asked for repairs, but nothing happened), the mold smell and humidity are very high. If you are sensitive to this, book main building rooms. Also, there are a lot of mosquitos (our daughter is allergic to their bites), even if the management said that there are no mosquitos. I think there are more mosquitos in the area we were staying, the one between the secret pool and the football field. We went to the medical office, to see if they have a calming cream or some sort of medicine to calm the swelling/itching, but I only found an assistant who didn’t speak English and said that if I want anything else, I should go into town, order from the town, or call the doctor but I will be charged extra. I mention that this is my 13-14th hotel in Turkey and it is the first time that I ever heard of something like this – to have a problem caused by something from the resort, but nobody to help (except if I pay).

Besides this, most of the staff was great, at bars, pools, reception area, entertainment team and so on. Special shout out to the Egyptian godess Layla, who was always there to make you smile, one way or another, be it in daily sports or evening parties. Another mention is for Yunus, great guy, made boccia feel like an Olympic sport – good luck with your medical studies my friend 😊 Also,  I forgot his name, but I think it was something Mustafa and he called himself Hadji/Hagi as well (maybe because he heard we were Romanian) – our bartender from the pontoon, who always smiled and made you laugh and served you tripled drinks 😁

There was another thing I missed alot, but that is only related to my personal expectations: there was no football for adults! Kids played in the evening, but for me, it was dissapointing. Actually, some of the families there were requesting balls, including me, to just play by ourselves, nobody was organizing it - at some point there were no footballs at all.

And please, make the ladies at the lobby bar and terrasse move faster and better understand orders. I don’t think we ever got an order right and on time there – either the order was wrong, either it never came, or was coming after half an hour. We usually went to the bar to order, it was faster. There was this girl, tall and dark-coloured, who was always quick and responsive, but she was not always there to help us out.

The waterparks are fun, for all ages, I went to their kamikaze ride a few times, great experience.

The food is great, any time of the day, anywhere you are – snacks, gozleme, main reustaurant...the diversity is enough. However, there are no theme nights as they used to be in the past – we only cought one, a Turkish night. Still, the food was delicious. You could also find icecreams everywhere, waffle house, pizza’s and also, in the Irish Bar, during evening and night football matches, you got treated to snacks and a big screen. Guinness beer would be a good touch for such a place.

They had great daily and evening parties and shows, enough to exhaust you after a long day of activities.

Oh, and the ceiling fell in the reception area! Nobody was hurt luckily...but that is new! I think it fell because of some flooding or infiltrations.

Overall, we got what we came from, but were left somehow missing something, as the hotel is outdated in some areas, you can sense that they are tightening the belt (which is not a bad thing, in terms of food consumption at least).

If I were to come back here, I would come for the small forest (with available big beds daily), for the staff and after the bungalows are refurbished.