Lujo Hotel Bodrum — Hotel in Milas

For context we are a couple in our 30s with a one-year-old baby. We came to the Lujo for 10 nights all inclusive for our Honeymoon. The Jet 2 private transfer didn’t offer a car seat for our baby so I contacted the hotel who sorted us out a luxury private transfer as part of their honeymoon package. This was excellent.||Writing this review to be as honest as possible and hopefully some tips and suggestions for the hotel which can help them make it even better than it already is :)||Firstly, the hotel is massive. It is all on a cliff so there are lots of steep Hill walking and steps and escalators. There is a buggy service which goes around the resort.||The Great:||(And each is done so so so well)|| Food in the restaurants is excellent. Not a single restaurant was disappointing. Shout out to a few staff members who stood out: Umut at Koza, Orhan & Mahsum at Gaia and Gul who’s first day at Sorriso was lovely. There are a few you can pay extra for, but we stuck to the ones included in the AI| Drinks options (lots of excellent branded spirits and Liqeurs - Monkey 47, Hendricks, Tanquary 10, Havana Club, St Germain etc) - you will not struggle!| Clean resort & nice intertiors| Service: the staff are all really friendly and cannot do enough to help| The beach! That was something we loved as each sunbed station has a button and a QR code where you can order drinks directly to your bed! Sinan at the beach was lovely as was Zelal, others were too I just forgot to take their names. The sunbeds are really comfortable and made and refreshed for you with fresh towels| Kids Club - special mention to Ece who was excellent! There is SO MUCH to do for kids here! They also offer you nappies, wipes etc - top notch. | Patisserie - kudos to the pastry chef! He is excellent and the desserts and ice cream here are wonderful. Something that in the UK you would easily pay North of £15 for per dessert! | Cot upon arrival, bottle warmer, baby bath, kids bathroom bits - very good! | Mini fridge topped up as you wish via the app| Baby highchairs - usually in hotels these are filthy but each time they came out with a fresh one that had been cleaned wrapped in clingfilm, the chairs also had a tray, hurrah!||Niggles/ Tips for The Hotel:||* Only 1 lifeguard to cover the whole Joy beach. It needs 2. If anything happens on the West side the guard cannot rescue as they are over the other side. PLEASE SORT THIS!! It is dangerous! Twice we saw children in trouble and the lifeguard was nowhere to be seen! (Not his fault as he was positioned the other side of the beach , the hotel simply needs to pay a second lifeguard ) Especially as the sea drops quickly from the shore *|| Kids food: I ordered a banana for our baby and a few times it came out with nuts on.. not sensible (but innnocent) Please also look into a low salt menu: don’t add salt! IE: on fries. Perhaps look into a microwave for parents to heat food. | Turn Down Service, this is done twice a day on top of the room clean, which is excellent, however on one occasion the housemaid knocked waited for approximately 5 seconds and then barged into our room ripping off the chain guard off from the wall which we had locked and dented the door from this!| I do agree with other reviews that the music from 11 pm is very loud. You can hear house music in your room. It didn’t bother us, but it may bother some other people.| No baby changing in the Gaia restaurant. This is an easy fix to add something into one of the toilets which I would really recommend. | Entertainment starts at 10pm (quite late if you have children!)| Pina Coladas need to be made with coconut cream and not milk - pleeeaaasseee | The hotel extras are really really expensive - 169 euros for a massage, 8 euros for a bottle of water if you’re not all inclusive, cabanas start at 300 euros, jetski 200 euros for 15 mins| Buggies: putting on a few more would be great as there was often a minimum 10 minute wait||In the grand scheme of things, these are all really really small details (which I guess you pick up only when you spend the price point which this hotel is at ) but with a few small tweaks this hotel would be perfection!||Generally, though, a gorgeous hotel set on a lovely beach, just hope the hotel takes on board a few extra ways they can further improve! Our experience with the Joy Advisors was okay, not blown away by them, I think ours just wasn’t as pro active as others on other reviews. They’re available on Whatsapp which is helpful, but did they make our experience? No. (Around the hotel they did remind me of Harry Potter Beauxbatons 😂 IYKYK) I would recommend and I would return, the best abroad hotel we...

As you enter the reception area you are greeted by your friendly Joy adviser, a glass of champagne and checked in whilst chilling in soft sofas. The first impression of the hotel is therefore quite positive.

You are then given a quick tour of the hotel whilst your luggage is taken straight to your rooms.

The hotel is advertised as a luxury 5* all inclusive and to a degree it is but there are also some negatives.

First the positives:

ROOMS: The rooms were spacious and clean. Likewise the bathroom and shower. A hairdryer, ironing board and iron are provided. You are also offered a choice of pillows and mattress. Two types of electrical plug sockets are fitted, UK and European, together with USB ports. Our room was advertised as limited sea view but the view from the spacious balcony was still great. The fridge was fully stocked and tea/coffee facilities provided. As my wife has a disability the hotel were kind enough to give us a room close to the main facilities.

RESTAURANTS: Four a la cart restaurants are available as part of the all inclusive package, namely Koza (“international”), Gaia (“fish”), Asma (Turkish) and Sorriso (“Italian”). I would strongly recommend Gaia where the service was good and the food excellent. Breakfast and lunch is also available at these restaurants. We had breakfast at all of them and were excellent but for location it would have to be Gaia again.

DAYTIME: For daytime the place to be has to be The Opa Beach Club (over 16s only). The restaurant serves fantastic sushi and sashimi, plus a variety of other dishes. The beach area is good with very comfortable sun beds where the staff are very attentive with drinks flowing all day. Between 3.30 and 5.30pm there is a live DJ.

In addition to the beach club The Sports Bar is also a good place to visit, where children are welcomed. Next to the bar is a great pastry, cake and ice cream parlour.

LANDSCAPE: The landscape is great, green and luscious with escalators to help you move up and down the slopes.

SPA: The spa is very clean and the staff are very friendly and helpful. Whilst the massages and beauty treatments have a charge the salt cave, sauna, steam room, gym are free to use. After we used the sauna and steam room we were given jasmine tea. Very good experience.

The negatives:

RESTAURANTS:

Koza- the food was tasty but while we were still eating our starters our main courses arrived. The staff stood around waiting for us to finish and we felt rushed. After finishing our main course we requested a break of 15 minutes before the desserts were served but this was ignored and they were brought straight away. We had all three courses in 45 minutes. Not a good experience.

Asma- The hotel was trying to provide Turkish cuisine with a modern twist but unfortunately it just didn’t work. The imam bayaldi was bland, the lahmacun had no spice, the melon and white cheese moose just didn’t work. We yearned for some traditional Turkish food.

Sorriso- The pasta was bland and lacking flavour. The pizzas looked great but needed 2 more minutes in the oven as the dough was underbaked. The restaurant has potential and it’s a shame it’s not better. We tried to give it a second chance on our penultimate night but despite our booking we were told that no tables were available. After complaining to the manager we were offered a table at El Gaucho (steak & grill). Ordinarily there would be an additional charge to eat here but we weren’t charged. I don’t eat red meat but my wife and friends assure me that the steaks were tender and among the best they’ve had in a restaurant.

TOILETS: Although the beach area was great there was a total lack of toilet facilities. There was only one male cubicle and one female cubicle for guests and staff. There were often long queues. Totally unacceptable.

ROOMS: No dressing table.

BUGGIES: Despite the escalators it’s still a long walk between levels, difficult for those with walking difficulties. We therefore often needed the buggies but these were far too infrequent.

But for the negatives this would be a...

My family and I had a brilliant stay at the Lujo. My wife was on a gastro tour of all the restaurants - there was so much choice, the food was beautifully presented and the taste was just as good. There was enough variety for any pallet or dietary requirement. Restaurant service was on par with any 5* establishment. Make sure you have breakfast at Gaia; morning sunshine with a fresh breeze overlooking the beach with a mimosa and a breakfast spread fit for a king. It’s a shame that 2 restaurants (Quinoa and Shibori) were closed during our visit. Although the menu from Shibori was being served in the Koza Restaurant

My kids absolutely adored the staff at Kijo the kids club, the entertainment was fantastic! From pottery & robotics classes to fully furnished arcade rooms - there were about 10 PlayStation 5 consoles that even I would have loved to sit and play all day. The whole facility is well staffed and the baby room is immaculately maintained.

Kijo is scheduled to be open until 2am however generally most people took their kids by 12am - a little hack we figured out was in the evening get the kids ready for bed and drop them off at kijo who have beds and cots for children to sleep so you can go for a late dinner. It might be due to the season we arrived - mid May, but once again we were disappointed there were no live kids entertainment shows and the kids canteen wasn’t functioning which meant my wife and I couldn’t enjoy a solo meal together or leave them for extended periods to relax in Opa (the 16+ area). Those additional facilities would have been the cherry on the top to great facility.

There were 3 shows in the puppet arena during our 6 day stay all starting at 10pm. You can tell Lujo really invests in good entertainment, full stage lighting and props, live bands, brilliant singers, dancers and even circus acts - non of which was cheesy as the Brits would say.

The resort is pretty big but not overwhelming. My wife and I like walking so for us it was an enjoyable walk around. I’d say you can get from one end to another in 10 minutes. The resort is built into the side of a cliff so going from the beach back to the main buildings is uphill. However there are outdoor escalators conveniently dotted around to take you from each level to the next. If you don’t like walking or have young children like us, there’s a free buggy service you can call on 24/7 to take you anywhere on the resort. Worth noting is that if you’re coming with a buggy, I’d advise a small folding buggy (like a Babyzen YoYo) as you’ll need to fold it to use the buggy.

A few days before you arrive you’ll be contacted on WhatsApp by a “Joy Advisor”… one of two dedicated assistants who will be on call pretty much all day until 10pm each day. They’ll book your dinner reservations, buggies to get around, provide you with a daily schedule of all the resort activities and handle any issues you have with your room. They were so efficient that I only went to reception twice, check in and check out. I’d say the vast majority of guests at Lujo are Russian so the joy advisors Hayes lot speak English, Russian and of course Turkish. Its such a great concept and special recognition goes out to our Joy Advisors Fatima & Elmira. They were warming, efficient and made our stay really pleasant.

This is a fantastic resort, it caters well to foodies and families, and anyone looking for high end luxury...