Le Bleu Hotel & Resort — Hotel in Kuşadası

So this place isnt 5 star. We booked with Jet2 and knew this going in (they rate it 3 star). That being said, whilst we had a great Holiday, the hotel was disappointing to the point we wouldnt return. ||Starting on the good things:||1. The location is incredible, its right on the sea and the views from our balcony were amazing. ||2. The room and public spaces were exceptionally clean and tidy, with lots of staff regularly collecting empties and tidying up. ||3. The snack bar food is made (mostly) fresh to order||4. The entertainment/animation team were brilliant with the kids, special shout out to Asma and Alina. ||5. I liked the fridges full of bottled water throughout the hotel which madenit easy to stay hydrated in the heat. ||The negatives/areas for improvement: ||Whilst very clean, the rooms are small and there's very little space to hang clothes etc so it felt cramped for our longer stay. ||The food was very disappointing, very little turkish food on offer which was surprising for a turkish hotel. They try to cater for lots of different people which means every night was the same selection of bland pasta and overcooked meat/fish stews with no flavour. They have a grill outside which i tended to go for most nights. Some nights it was turkey and fish. Most nights was just whole, unseasoned fish. ||All hot food is kept in hot water tray things (even pastry) so the steam makes everything soft/mushy. If that wasnt the case, the lids would be left open meaning the food would be cold. Maybe the hotel should invest in heat lamps for dry items?||Im not much if a breakfast person but did enjoy the cereal/yoghurt, although some mornings the yoghurt was very runny-clearly topped up with water! ||The desserts were an assortment of identical-tasting (flavourless) cakes in different colours. No ice cream and no baklava which was crazy for a turkish hotel. They did have baklava on "turkish night" but only once in 10 days. For some reason this Turkish hotel has Turkish night only once per week. ||They have an a la carte restaurant you can use once per week of your stay. We went for sea food but you have to order in advance and this was basically the same food from the main restaurant served by a waiter. (except the semolina dessert, which was delicious in fairness). ||The snack bar, as mentioned previously is made fresh/reheated to order, but it was the same thing every day. The flatbreads were very good though. ||Ice cream is only available 4-6pm at the snack bar which was flabbergasting considering the amount of children in the hotel and the fact is was 30+ degrees in September. ||The coffee from the machines around the hotel was truly abysmal. They do filter and turkish coffee in the lobby bar, but not the restaurant which means if you want a decent coffee with breakfast, or after dinner, you have to walk to the other side of the hotel and bring it over. ||The beach, whilst aesthetically beautiful, is all stones, and you have to climb over a concrete ledge to get to it. Its small so not much room for loungers which were all reserved (contrary to unenforced hotel policy) by 8am. ||The terrace where they have entertainment is not large enough to accomdate the amount of guests, so you end up wandering around trying to find spare chairs to sit on the grass. ||The entertainment is exceptionally loud, to the point where it was impossible to sleep on the other side of the hotel with the balcony door closed until it finishes at 11.30. It was even worse when it was on our side (they alternate which side its on). ||Most of the staff were pefectly pleasant but some were rude and clearly had no patience for english speakers who they seemed to struggle to understand. ||When we checked out, we accidentally left passports and car keys in the safe, our fault. Realised a few hours later and reported to reception but when they asked the cleaner, they advised when they cleaned the room, the safe was empty. This set us to panic as we absolutely had not opened the safe before checking out and this would mean our passports had been stolen when we were due to depart that evening. The guest relations lady got involved who was very lovely and helpful and it transpired that new guests had since checked into our room which was why they wouldnt let us in. She went to look for them and managed to find the person, who fortunately was happy to let us into the room and access the safe, still locked with our pin code, and still containing our items. This means either there was a communication issue or the cleaning staff lied about the safe being empty which made the whole situation much more stressful than it needed to be. I nevertheless was very grateful to reception staff and guest relations for getting...

This is definitely not a five star resort. In fact, we stayed at a resort last year (stated as 3* plus on Jet2) which was miles ahead of Le Blue in terms of rooms, staff, food/drink and entertainment. I've seen reviews on here from people who believe that the food/drink from the hotel made them ill and, whilst I'm unable to confirm for myself 100%, I believe that this was the same reason that I had diarrhoea for my last three days and since I returned back to the UK. As someone else has stated, we spoke with many other people who were experiencing the same.

The food/drink:- The buffet is below average and trust me, I'm not expecting amazing food from an all inclusive, but myself and my partner both agreed that we had experienced a lot better elsewhere. Bland, tasteless, oily and very strange pairings of dishes. I'm by no means a fussy eater but i was struggling to put a decent meal together that wouldn't make me deficate in my pants. The alcohol is so obviously watered down it's actually mind blowing, you can drink the draught Efes without feeling a thing and I'm a massive lightweight! - we went into Kusadasi for the day and the three pints of beer i drunk in a private bar were on another level, so I know I'm not wrong. Same with the vodka and "cocktails" that they pour out a machine.

Service and staff:- Some of the bar staff were great, lovely with my four year old son and good to chat with. Same with the entertainment team, especially Arslan, who was great at interacting with guests every day and tried his best to put on a good show with a good attendance each night. Others, especially the front desk reception staff, were awful. Baffled when spoken to in English which then made them come across as very rude. Then you get the staff from local businesses trying to sell you stuff all day. One guy, Bayram, followed us everyday trying to get us to go to his chinese restaurant in Kusadasi which, although was really annoying, we probably should have tried because I might not have soiled my pants after eating his food.

Pools:- First thing, watch your step everywhere you walk around the main "loud" pool. Seriously slippy and I've injured my back from falling badly on it. Also saw several other people slip when moving at walking pace - it's a serious hazard and there should be signs. Really dangerous!! However, the pool and slides are great and my son loved spending time between the pool and the smaller kids pool located next door. BUT, the loud noise from the entertainment and large subwoofers playing songs constantly with no periods of silence does become irritating after spending most of the day by the pool. Which brings me to my next issue, they state that they have 2 large pools but this is not necesserily the case as the other one does not allow children! This is the "quiet" pool where it would've been nice to get some quiet time in the afternoon away from the constant noise of the other pool. We witnessed other travellers complain to hotel staff about kids. Understandable if they're making a lot of noise, splashing in the pool etc. but we witnessed families being asked to move from the poolside even though their kids were not making noise and in one case, a one year old baby who hadn't even been in the pool and was sat in a pushchair next to their parents lounger! We were happy to follow this rule but make sure you are advertising this with Jet2 so that people are aware they only have access to one pool (and a smaller very shallow baby pool).

Location:- Perfect, not going to get much better in my opinion. Cannot really fault it, the views, the private beach, easy access to taxis for getting into Kusadasi. This is the best part of the hotel for me.

Room:- Good views but aircon was faulty and the room was too small for a family

Another thing to mention, the A La Carte Italian option is an absolute joke. The worst meal me and my partner have experienced in 11 years of being together! It was so awful that we spent most the meal laughing at how bad it was. The highlight was feeding our bread rolls to the...

This is a reasonably nice hotel. The front staff are friendly and helpful. The guest front of house staff were very helpful when my husband had a nasty bite and needed medical attention. Unfortunately, when we were staying there, the cleaning staff forgot something every day. Some days it was to refill the coffee/ sugar. The first day she forgot to leave toilet roll. We were left complimentary slippers on our last day. We were not given a do not disturb sign. The cleaning staff knocked multiple times during the day.

It is always kept spotlessly clean, and there are fresh towels available for the private beach and the pools.

The main lift was very unreliable. It would jolt strongly when you reached the second floor, sometimes hard enough to spill drinks. Sometimes it was out of order.

The grounds, beach and sunbathing jetty are very attractive. It's a shame that the loud music from the hotel next door spoils the peace. There is a roped off area of sea, surrounded by the jetty and deck on two sides. You can walk in from the beach end or climb down ladders into the water. The jetty has sunbeds, umbrellas, cushioned, roofed seating area and showers. The hotel has two pools, one either side. One is a relaxing pool. The other a fun pool with slides.

The food is reasonable. If, like me, you need gluten free, then you can have salad, meat and cheese, or yoghurt and fruit for breakfast. There is also a hot selection of eggs, sausages and potatoes. The rest of you can enjoy freshly made pancakes or bread and cakes. (Just be careful not to go down too early or you will find rice gruel, Brussel sprouts and other strange offerings.) Lunch and dinner offer a couple of freshly cooked items, fish or meat, a selection of stews and meats, chips, pasta and a good salad bar. The dessert bar has fruits and a selection of pastries, sometimes rice pudding. The cocktails vary. Sometimes, one bartender makes excellent drinks, as long as he isn't too busy. The others struggled.

You are entitled to eat at the Italian restaurant and the Fish restaurant once a week. (The same place, different nights) The food in the Italian restaurant was inedible. It was very over seasoned with black pepper and cheese. The chicken was so overcooked that I couldn't eat it. We left halfway through.

In contrast, the fish restaurant was fantastic. Far too much food, but beautifully cooked and presented.

The hotel has a spa. We did not use it. I wanted to. One of the staff came over to us to remind us that we could have a free massage. Unfortunately, when I said that I wanted to book a package, suddenly the free massage was no longer available and the woman started to get quite unpleasant, trying to force me to book several packages and not accepting that I only wanted one. I was so stressed that I decided not to have any treatments at all.

The hotel was full of coach parties, some of whom had different food provided.

The surrounding area was a building site while we were there.

It is a short walk to Ladies Beach, which is a pleasant public beach, backed by restaurants and shops. The usual Turkish pushiness is evident. Prices were very reasonable. The local bus stops a short walk from the hotel, either just before, or just after Ladies Beach. If you are a nervous passenger and can walk, I recommend walking to the far end and catching it there. The dolmus, (a small white minibus) comes regularly and is very cheap. It takes you to Kusadasi, to the castle or the...