La Blanche Island

We chose this hotel-resort for our annual chill-out-an-do-bugger-all holiday. No excursions, no decisions to make, no time wasted trying to work out where the best restaurants and bars in a town are. Everything paid for up front and laid on a plate for you. La Blanche delivered in full.

For a start it’s isolated. Nowhere within walking distance, no bus routes. Unless you take taxis or organised tours or the once a day shuttle to Bodrum you’re staying there. But that’s fine: there are bars all over the peninsula…some at extra charge but plenty that aren’t. There are several beaches where it’s always easy to get a sunbed. The sea is crystal clear, gentle and deep enough to enjoy..

The main restaurant is fine…wide array of food and very good waiting staff. There are à la carte restaurants you can book too. We didn’t bother. You can even eat at the buffet between 12:00 and 02:00 should you be peckish. And indeed the Lobby Bar is open 24 hours a day - useful when you arrive at 02:00am from the airport.

The staff are universally pleasant, helpful and friendly. I’d like to single out in particular Yunus in the Lobby Bar who quickly recognised our routine and drink modifications. On drinks: there’s no categorisation of the all-inclusive you get in some resorts. It was international brands all the way. And you have no festival-style wrist-band to wear throughout your stay.

We didn’t try the entertainment at all preferring to sit in the main hotel or taking advantage of our balcony which had a good view of the bay.

We’d certainly stay again and I’d say this is one of the best all-inclusives we’ve enjoyed.

Just had a seven night stay here and on face value what an amazing place it was, as our week went on we enjoyed a really good time HOWEVER sadly a few things started creeping in that didn't live up to our expectations which we had originally seen on the Internet, in our opinions the breakfast was good with more than plenty of options HOWEVER a lot of foods were stone cold with the exception of the freshly made omelette which was really good. The best bits we liked throughout the hotel were the lunchtime snack bars we ordered via scan at the table each snack bar had several options which were really lovely, the evening meals for us were very disappointing as they were very repetitive and a lot of the items were cold even though they should have been warm, sadly we didnt enjoy the evening meals at all. We had one free ala-carte at the Asian option this was amazing!, we decided to chose a paid option for a second ala-carte so we chose Italian we were first at the Italian and sadly all our food was cold, we had our little grandson with us and was there one hour thirty minutes and didnt want to get them to do anymore as he was getting really unsettled, we did speak to guest relations and they apologised and said we should have told the waiter, we did but it was too late at that stage to do anything, guest relations said they would rebook us another ala-carte for Saturday at the earliest sadly that was when we were going home so sadly we didn't get this issue resolved, the alcohol option wasn't the best we've ever had the efes on tap was ok but constantly flat, some cocktails were really nice but some didnt taste anything like what we are used to, there was no pink gin unless you paid for it, we went to coffee la blanche in the morning and one waiter a young man called younis we think thats his name was amazing couldnt do enough for us and always every day remembered our orders, the waiter always talked football with us and had a laugh, the rooms were great the pools were great one of which was freezing btw overall an enjoyable holiday but sadly could have been far better, wouldn't go again which is a BIG shame.

Let me just start by saying this isn’t a 5 star. This is 3, with some 4 star services. This is a long one so strap in. I’d first like to start by saying what a beautiful area the hotel is in. Surrounded by breathtaking beauty, the views are amazing and the sunsets are perfect. That however really where the praise for this hotel halts. The pools were nice but weren’t ever clean. The kids pool was full of stones and dirt and the other pools unfortunately were covered in black mould in the pool drainage channel. The pools were nice to be in due to the amazing weather but that’s it. The hotel offers lots of food choice through the snack restaurants dotted around the hotel grounds. These are a real godsend otherwise my whole family wouldn’t have eaten the whole week. The food was cold every single dinner and tea time. We went for dinner right at opening time and every item of food, completely cold. This wasn’t just a one off. This was every single meal time, breakfast, dinner and tea time. The food was the same pretty much every meal time and was bland at best. The snack bars however were really nice, hot food and a variety of different foods which you will find are a treat when staying at La Blanche. The drinks situation is somewhat diabolical. I asked lots of questions before going, questions about alcoholic drinks and cocktails. Not one of the cocktails was done the same and every single cocktail that myself and my family had was pure syrup and they tasted nasty. The hotel boasts about having mixologists but not one member of the bar staff could make me any cocktail I asked for. I also shouldn’t have to be telling a “mixologist” how to make a pornstar martini. It’s not hard work to train bar staff properly. Whilst we are on the subject of staff, I think in the week stay I might have encountered 5 positive interactions with staff. And they came from only 3 people. Sergey, the entertainment team member. Boritek at the pool snack bar and Yunus or Younis at the coffee La Blanche. This isn’t acceptable when paying the price we payed and when you’re meant to be a 5 star resort. On the first day we were looking for frozen cocktails (who doesn’t on holiday?) and we were told not available, only at the beach bar. When we arrived at the beach bar we were not greeted, we were ignored by 3 members of staff. I stood at the bar and 2 members of staff were looking down at their phones. Looked up and then carried on looking at their phones. When one member of staff did greet me I asked for 4 frozen strawberry daiquiris, with their one ice blender that was available on the whole island. The attitude and response I got from asking for those drinks were despicable and really set the tone for the rest of the week to how we were going to be treated. And it was true. Every day we attended the beach bar for the same drinks and we got eye rolls, sighs, even one day refusal to make because the machine was dirty to which I said I was happy to wait for them to clean. This is not acceptable. The rooms were ok but not great, really dated and a little dirty but ok. The beds were comfy. The whole hotel you wouldn’t believe is only 12 years old. I think it looks older. This hotel has the opportunity to be great but it needs proper trained staff and staff who quite frankly can be bothered. It needs a better management team and someone to tell the chefs to cook food that actually tastes of something. The kids club was laughable. The place looks like it’s been trapped in time. It is possibly the worst kids club I’ve ever been. And the staff in the kids club who just sat on their phones with the mardiest face going should just get another job. It’s literally up to you what job you do. A shoutout to the Asian à la carte as this was really good in comparison. The Italian à la carte however was absolutely shocking. I refused payment as every meal for 5 people was cold and we had 4 courses.

If you’re thinking about going to La Blanche island I’d only do this if you’re paying under £1000 a person, otherwise you’re going to be annoyed. It isn’t good value for money and you’re better off booking a holiday on the fethiye strip or somewhere in Antalya, better value for money and actually good places.