Marmaris Bay Resort — Hotel in Marmaris

11-21 sep. 2022 BEST EXPERIENCE I'VE EVER HAD IN TURKEY This review contains some VERY SMALL work points just as advice for the hotel.

LOCATION Very beautiful Close to city Perfect for tourism Lots of shops Beautiful culture

STAFF Kindest staff I've ever met. Literally everyone would happily help with any of your requests. Perfect service Very fun people They looked happy themselves, so work conditions should be fine I think. Special s/o to Aran (he departed the same day as us), the waiter at the main restaurant, amazing dude and a really hard worker! Altho everyone else was great too ;)

PARK Sometimes a little dark, like the paths to our room Very well maintained and clean Really tropical Disability and pet friendly More than enough place for everyone at beach or the two pools

ROOMS Coffee and tea available in the room. TV available. Fridge and safe available. Cleaning team did a great job every time. A/C worked perfectly fine. Maybe a little dark sometimes, but we didn't really need more light. Our room was close to the Zest beach and if you wanted to go sleep early, there was a noise problem, the evening entertainment was loud and went on till 23:30. We only experienced that problem the first night after our flight tho, the other nights we were enjoying the evening entertainment.

ENTERTAINMENT The hotel offered sports material to rent, but it was quite expensive Example: €10 to use tennis rackets for 1 hour If you bring your own stuff it's free tho The entertainment team was sometimes a little boring, but I think it was because of low experience. Olajay (sorry for name butchering), was really fun and seemed like the more experienced one and there is nothing to note about him. Great guy, but the rest was had little interaction with the people. There were a lot of activities each day, which was great, but they often overlapped because there were so many. You often had to choose between which ones you wanted to participate in and that's also one the reasons why some activities couldn't happen because of little interest. My advice: Lower the amount of activities for each day and switch between activities every other day. The watersports were too expensive compared to other hotels where I've been. Besides all that, the park was great and there were enough places to enjoy some sports and some of them were free. The trips offered by tour operators were great too and at a reasonable price.

FACILITIES The yellow and green sunbeds at the beach were perfect. Those at the pool were not comfortable when you wanted to lay flat, but when slanted they were fine too. Spa was a great experience too, altho also at a little expensive price. You could ask staff to bring you around the whole park with a golf cart whenever you wanted. Toilets were always clean.

RESTAURANT & DRINKS Enough choice for all-inclusive cocktails Once 00:00 the alcoholic beverages came at a very expensive price, which is not advertised enough and is very weird I think. If you book an all-inclusive you would expect 24/7 drinks at your choice within the package, but that was not the case. The food was amazing. Enough choice and some food was made at your request instead of buffet. Fruit was always fresh, all the meals were really amazing. Enough places to sit, inside and outside. Everything was always very clean and beautiful. The special restaurants, 1 included for each 7 days of stay and choice between seafood or grill, was really good. We went for the Grill. The food was amazing, but the place was very boring. A little decoration and designwork could be done here. If you wanted to sit outside during the day there was A BIG PROBLEM WITH INSECTS. There were a lot of wasps and flies. At the entrance of the park there were traps, but at the restaurant there were no measures.

OVERALL I want to thank everyone there for their great service. We had a really great experience and were very sad we had to go. Would definatly recommend this place and would want to stay...

Had a great holiday. Amazing location, well laid out. Stone clad chalets on a wooded hillside with a good 500m plus of private and accessible coastline is not what I had expected in Marmaris. All felt very secluded, private and quiet. Staff friendly and helpful and 90% of the time very friendly and helpul. Guests also pretty friendly and respectful of each. None of the sunbed or food self serve angst you often get. No central main block with core accommodation, reception, bar, restaurant. There was a central open reception adjoining the main restaurant, below which was the main pool and 24 hr bar. There was a bar for the second pool, and 2 further bars for the two separate private beaches, one of which did cafe style food 1pm to 5pm. The spread out nature was nice, and the views and setting gorgeous.

I had seen reviews about being overrun with insects, poor maintenance and a broken safe. I saw about 4 insects the whole 10 days (August). There was a constant background chirp of cicadas, but these don't bite or target food and drink. They added to the atmosphere of the place however. The safes use keys rather than keypads, so whilst the picture I saw of a "broken safe" looked like a keypad had been ripped off the door, it was simply the key hole.

When I booked the room it was sold as 'garden view' which I assumed meant a lesser room. However, it did face the sea but the view was part obscured by trees. This was true of most of the rooms I think, and was great and added to the sense of luxury and privacy.

A few minor negative comments. The food was very good but not the best I've had. Plentiful salad but maybe not very imaginative. Imaginative vegetables but maybe not very plentiful. Surprisingly few fish options. The last place I stayed at was known for its food offerings, so I think I had been spoilt. The restaurant was however stunning. The rooms were not the biggest I've had but again the place was such that you wouldn't want to spend time in it other than to sleep and get ready/changed for meals. Yes, the floor tile spacing didn't match the wall tile spacing, the sealant round the shower was a bit rough and ready, the finish on the exterior air-con units was peeling, all of which made it feel not 'five star', but it didn't affect the functioning of anything, and I appreciate that the costs of constantly dealing with issues like this for the sake of perceived luxury would probably put the price out of my reach. I thought it offered good value.

I travelled as a group of 4. If you are a couple, there are no issues. The place seemed more set up for that. There appeared to be few rooms with twin beds. I had emailed ahead of arrival (twice) about having one double and one twin room. This request didn't get through. We ended up with two doubles but as the allocated rooms were adjacent and in a good location it was not worth moving. Also in the restaurant there were far more and generally slightly better located tables for 2 than 4, and so was moderately annoying when couples sat at the tables for 4, limiting further the choice.

The public minibus service to Marmaris ran every half hour from right outside and cost 20 TL. There was a three times a day boat taxi at 15 euros each return. The car taxi was 15 euros per vehicle one way. I used the minibus once and was fine.

For me and my group the off the beaten track nature was great. Two pools, 2 beaches, a long waterfront concrete promenade with sunbeds, loads of fish to see with the naked eye, googles or snorkel, several bars, the normal sorts of activities, meant you never felt claustrophobic and could happily spend all day at the resort. It does limit the number of excursions that pick up from the resort though and made them more expensive than locally sourced ones. Having the assured transfers was great though and made it worthwhile. I had pre-booked a Marmaris Bay gulet cruise and a half day 4x4 jeep safari both of which were great.

Hope this helps and feels like a realistic and balanced review. Would have no hesitation in recommending...

Max 3 star hotel - completely Misled, Holiday Ruined, and No Accountability Taken. We stayed at Marmaris Bay to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary—a trip that was supposed to be special, relaxing, and memorable. Instead, it turned into one of the most disappointing experiences I’ve ever had on holiday. I booked this resort through Lastminute.com, where it was advertised as a luxurious 5-star Ultra All-Inclusive experience. What I actually received was nowhere near 5 stars. If anything, this place barely reaches a 3-star standard, and I feel completely misled. I raised a formal complaint, but the hotel took no responsibility whatsoever for the issues I experienced. Here’s a breakdown of everything that went wrong:

Food & Snacks The food was repetitive, poorly prepared, and sometimes cold. Undercooked wedges, stale fries and chewy chicken wraps were just a few of the daily disappointments. The à la carte seafood was completely overcooked and ruined. The pancake station was a joke—dry pancakes, no jacket potatoes or fruit as promised, and not even a drink available except water.

Drinks – A Total Scam The so-called Ultra All-Inclusive international drinks were mostly cheap local alcohol served in secret from under the counter. A few international bottles were there like Kahlua and some whiskey. No rum or vermouth options at all. Cocktails were inconsistent and tasted different every time depending on who made them. Bars had very limited hours for cocktails, and main bar looked abandoned with almost nothing on the shelves. The coffee shop advertised online? It didn’t even exist. Just an empty, dusty space. Half of their bars offered a single cocktail and beer option, which is absolute scam.

Beach & Pool Areas You had to fight for sun loungers by 8am on the beach, thankfully there were more free lounges near the pool. The sea looked nice but had a stony bottom—you needed water shoes.

Bad Weather? Good Luck. It rained one day, and the hotel was completely unprepared. The only covered area was main pool bar with uncomfortable seating, and the staff didn’t even understand the word umbrella. There is basically no inside space, all felt more like glamping than 5 star hotel. The evening entertainment went on, but all the chairs were soaked and nothing was done to fix it. People were just standing around. We ended up going back to the room early.

Rooms – Bad Smell and Zero Privacy Our room smelled awful, the bathroom had no ventilation, so all smells went into the room and the balcony doors\our entrance (only window) couldn’t be opened because other guests had to walk through our balcony to get to their room. Privacy = zero. Other rooms had proper entrances and balconies, so it felt like we were just stuck with the worst option available.

Resort Grounds – Neglected and Worn Down Yes, the natural location is beautiful, but the resort itself is falling apart. Broken railings, worn paths, and shabby maintenance everywhere outside of the main areas. It felt tired and unloved.

Entertainment Staff – Uncomfortable and Unprofessional Entertainment staff member, Can, made me feel deeply uncomfortable. He constantly ignored personal space by touching people and keep calling people losers out of nowhere, just walked past and said "Hello, loser" to me and my husband on several occasions. I was shocked. Even after apologising, the damage was done. It was rude, unnecessary, and completely inappropriate.

Overall? Not Worth the Money or the Stress This was supposed to be a special anniversary getaway—our first holiday without the kids in 12 years—and I left feeling upset, frustrated, and desperate to get home. I paid for a 5-star luxury break and ended up with a poorly maintained, low-quality experience that ruined our celebration.

We raised a complaint directly, but the hotel has refused to take any responsibility. That just adds insult to injury.

If you're looking for a real 5-star experience, I’d strongly recommend you look elsewhere. This was a complete waste of money and a heartbreaking...