Tui Blue Ephesus — Hotel in Selçuk

Introduction. This review was not meant to be this long but there was (unfortunately) so much to cover - plus it made a dent in the flight home. If you usually go to a 3* hotel or you booked last minute at a bargain price, the chances are you’ll be satisfied by this place, which wasn’t terrible. But if you want a holiday to remember favourably, that meets your expectations based on the TUI website, and last but not least, like good food, SERIOUSLY consider somewhere else. After all, most of us only have one trip abroad a year.. ||Pros: |1. Hotel was no where near full capacity (and would have been an awful if had of been).|2. Lots of pool options to suit|3. Water park (although someone we befriended badly cut their hand on one of the rides and then was heavily charged at the airport having to pay to sign a waver to say they were fit to travel). |4. Jamie and his team re the children’s mini disco and friendliness. |5. Ephesus nearby - but be aware that the famous Amphitheatre is closed to the public for lengthy renovations. There was nothing online about this at the time of planning this holiday. |6. WiFi was good. |7. Big and well cleaned rooms |8. Clean (if ‘tired’) hotel|9. Both themed restaurants better than main restaurant. |10. The hotel provided us a quieter location (away from the evening entertainment) - that said we were woken twice by a resident (but wild) barking dog (of which there were at least 2) that I had to discourage in the middle of the night. He was friendly and got the memo eventually. |11. Beach was shallow (although windy and a little rough most days we were there - possibly due to the relatively close 6.5 earthquake while we were there - which I’m not holding Tui to account for ;) |12. Most of the Staff (except senior management - who I do hold responsible for the Cons below). Nada in the hairdressers was lovely who we chatted to while our daughters had a braid done. ||Cons: (Supported by some photos) |1. Having to complain about most of the below while at the hotel - which for most people makes them feel uncomfortable. Many people I spoke to had similar complaints but probably didn’t complain as it can make you feel awkward - as it did me. This is the first time I’ve felt the need to complain on a Tui holiday. On complaining to them direct I was thanked for helping them highlight these issues, which tbh made me feel like I was doing their job for them (for free!)||2. FOOD! Unfortunately this hotel’s ‘main restaurant’ food was well below what we expected from the hotels rating and the website. First few days it seemed ok but it wears off pretty fast. The quality, flavours and variety were all poor and I quickly didn’t look forward to the food. Wednesday was the exception when there was an Asian night. The second Asian night was much better than the first - but even then when the ‘nicer’ things ran out they were not replaced (at least not when we were there). Lunch was particularly poor imho - unless you like the same choices everyday, like Spag Bol, Mediocre Salad options and chips etc. I won’t name them, but a senior Tui rep agreed.|3. Coffee. Was not the best tasting - when it worked - The first week was blighted by the coffee machine continually breaking down and I was sorry to see a young waiter being given a hard time over it in our second day by a lady saying it happened every single day which she repeated to him about 5 times. She was not alone and many of the guests ended up sharing that woman’s frustration. It became a running joke amongst guests and we agreed that there should have been at least 5 coffee machines available (to prevent large queues as-well as mitigate against the continual breakdowns) - eventually there were 3 machines, but on one morning all 3 were out of action for the whole duration of our breakfast and there was no one around to fix them. There is a coffee shop in the hotel - which cost extra which was a shame when we were ‘all-inclusive’. |4. Gym. This was ok in itself but let down hugely firstly by the air con which was pathetic on full power (and unacceptable). Secondly you could not use it until 8am when the day was already heating up. This meant I went to breakfast at 7am so I could use the gym at 8 before it got even hotter. Consequently I missed breakfast with my family. Most places I’ve been in the past offer 24hr access - and this would also have prevented the (small) gym filling up at 8am meaning that on some days you had to wait for a machine. Gym Mats were old and lethal if you stood on them - even when turned ‘grippy’ side down - get some new (and safer!) ones.|5. Trips. These were overpriced and no one I spoke to thought it worth it. Eg the Ephesus trip was £34 for our child despite the fact that it was free if arranged by yourself, which I did. |6. Mosquitoes in the evening. |7. No water in our room as we arrived after a long day travelling. Nothing at all in the fridge in fact. |8. Being told by reception that breakfast was not available on the day we left before 7am - when phoning at 5:30am - only to discover that it was as we walked past on our way to the transfer pickup - meaning that we wolfed down a quick breakfast when we could have taken our time and eaten more - and prevented having to spend money in the airport.|9. Water was cold in May (not totally unexpected)|10. Lots of sharp curb edges for children to trip up on or hurt themselves - eg the square weights to hold the sun shades in place. |11. Our friend’s aircon wasn’t working for the duration of their stay which they DID report. |12. Lots of little things that mounted up: Damage to park playground wooden step (and exposed nail) which wasn’t fixed even though it was reported. Staff refusing to close the huge sliding wall in the Italian theme restaurant despite everyone saying there were cold (it was very windy during our stay). The bell boy not turning up (even though we booked him well in advance) meaning we gave up waiting and lugged all our cases from the furthest block. Getting (politely) hassled for business (water sports, photographs, spa treatments). You can’t stay with your child in kids club (3-6yrs). This meant a number of parents had to remove their children who understandably didn’t want to stay alone with ‘strangers’. The pillows were way too thick for us - they did change them for less thick foam pillows. Tv was hit or miss - eg Ch 57 for CBeebies became ‘VRT1’ a German channel the next day. That said, we couldn’t find a single children’s channel that remained in English after the English introduction. Many changing cubicles on poolside wouldn’t lock closed. Paving was in disrepair in places. Seeing a staff member help himself to bits and pieces during breakfast one morning with his fingers, and trying to hide it - which was almost comical. Our room was dim in the evening with the lights on. Being given a broken golf club for the (very badly maintained) crazy golf which was stuck with glue and quickly re-broke. Not being informed , on asking in the hotel, that I’d need to catch an entirely different bus (and bus colour) on my return from Ephesus. Seemed counter intuitive not to catch the same bus back on the return journey. Rooms should have thinner pillows as well as the jumbo ones as standard. Another family we befriended complained that there were no gluten free options for their child in the Italian - and none was brought up from the main restaurant. ||Summary: Overall 4/10 an a disappointment - although we made the best of it. Staff listened to complaints but I saw no sign of any improvement (with the sole exception being an extra coffee machine being found). My impression is that this hotels senior management is resting on its former laurels (and the hotel is no doubt still popular due to its waterpark) and so has become less than conscientious or even apathetic. Everything above could be easily resolved….bar the food perhaps but it’s the food which let it down so badly - I would rate it as 2 or 3* (food wise) and for that reason alone cannot recommend this hotel. Tui asked on our return if we were offered anything in compensation, we weren’t and a gesture along those lines would have been appreciated if not commensurate.||Tips: |Get second floor so you don’t hear people above you. |Go to every meal early to get the best out of pretty mediocre food. |Kusadasi near the cruise ships is worth a couple of hours for a stroll along the boardwalk and a bit of shopping in the old town bazaar. If you take a taxi (15Euros) tell them exactly where you want dropping (ie by old town but at the waters edge is good) - our friends didn’t and were met when the taxi stopped and escorted to a shop. |Only do Ephesus first thing (when quieter and cooler) and if you are steady on your feet as there are a lot of steps and broken paving, as you might expect! |Take Insect repellant after sun lotion and ‘bands’/ patches. And antihistamine. Guests who didn’t had angry bites to deal with. |If you cut your self badly on a slide at the waterpark, as did one man did on our flight, be prepared to pay 150 Euros to get on the plane (for a piece of paper to say he was ok to fly). He felt the Tui rep should have forewarned him of this. |If you don’t like wild roaming dogs and cats then book elsewhere (apparently it is an issue throughout Turkey according to a local guide at Ephesus). |Take a note of the wind direction when choosing your sun-lounger if you are a non smoker (ash trays are provided poolside if needed). Some people are considerate and move away but others don’t. |Remote - ie you couldn’t walk to a ‘strip’ or local supermarket. We knew this beforehand from the reviews but thought that the description of the hotel and the pictures (which paint a much less tired picture - and wouldn’t surprise me if they were airbrushed) would make this less important to us. It didn’t. |Shop over priced and one staff member was rude when I refused to buy an overpriced item - which was later bought much cheaper in Kusadasi. |Catching the bus (Dolmus) to Ephesus is easy (Kusadasi to Seluc white bus at a cheap 60TL) - but returning you need a blue bus caught on the other side of the road to somewhere beginning with ‘P’. They are easily flagged down but the main road isn’t somewhere you want to wait with children so best to taxi it. |A lot of people didn’t discover the upstairs bar in the Italian until they ate there. It’s the only place you can get a Pina colada (which was good) and nuts (for free).|Ask for a thin pillow on checking in - I slept the first night without one. |If you go to the beach party on a Wednesday night be aware it’s dark and noisy - and even if you’ve not had a few drinks you could easily lose sight of young children. |Get a 1 day data package if you leave the hotel for piece of mind /...

We spent a week at the Tui Blue Ephesus in early August 2025. We are a family of 5 and we had two rooms - my booking was for two family rooms, but having looked at the hotel website I think we were allocated standard double rooms. I was too lazy to question this, and the rooms were of adequate size for us with our youngest child in with us on a (very hard) sofa bed, and the two older girls next door. The girls had a double bed to share which I thought was a bit odd - I had expected it to be set up as a twin, as the room description on the hotel website says that a family room has two beds, but as we arrived at around 2am we didn't ask any questions.||The rooms were clean and relatively spacious. Bottled water is provided each day (2 bottles per room). The bed wasn't very comfortable, and the duvet was synthetic which I am not used to - it was fine, just not as nice as we have at home! I like a nice crisp cotton sheet rather than a thin cheap duvet.||One of the key things for us in choosing this hotel was the promise of not needing to get up at 5am to reserve sun loungers. We found this to be true - you can pretty much always find somewhere to sit, even if you arrive late in the day. If you want particular loungers in a certain spot, you may have to reserve at around 8-9am. There was always plenty of choice when we arrived after breakfast at 9.30/10am. The Flamingo pool is busier than the Activity pool, and it is quieter and nicer BUT it has the disadvantage that a lot of guests from the adjacent hotel come over to use this pool, and for some reason when we were there many of them were smokers. If you don't enjoy breathing in second-hand fag smoke, you may prefer the Activity pool (I don't think I saw anyone smoking around there at all). The pools could do with some more attentive cleaning, as there are some tiles around the waterline that look quite grubby - you can rub/scratch off the slime, so it isn't staining, it just wants a good scrub.||The beach is very accessible, a short hop from the Activity pool. There are tons of sun loungers available all day on the beach. I didn't personally find the beach particularly attractive as it is a dark gold sand and the water is not very clear. It is incredibly warm though, so we did enjoy swimming in the sea. The beach is much less crowded than the pools. ||The water park is also surprisingly easy to access - before we arrived, I had pictured a hot, lengthy walk to reach the water park, and knowing that food and drinks inside are not included I had imagined it might be quite inconvenient and potentially expensive to visit. However, the entrance is literally next to the Flamingo pool, and you could easily pop back and forth if you wanted to get lunch/snacks/drinks. We took the bottles of water from our room over to the water park when we visited, and this was fine for us - the kids were busy on the slides so didn't bother with any snacks or ice creams. There is some queuing for some rides, but it wasn't excessive. There are tons of sun loungers in the shade if you take a right when you go through the entrance, next to the lazy river. ||The food in the main restaurant was... OK. It is a big hotel, it is mass catering and so not equivalent to a nice restaurant. We have only been to Turkey once before, and that time we stayed at Club Marvy (review on my profile). That was our first family all inclusive holiday, and I think the food there has spoiled us a bit - the food at Tui Blue Ephesus is perfectly fine for an all inclusive, nothing wrong with it at all - just not at the level of Club Marvy. To be fair, Club Marvy is a much more expensive hotel, so you would expect there to be a difference in quality. I did find that a lot of the main course options in the restaurant were beef based. I like beef well enough, but I would have liked more chicken options or vegetarian options. There were a lot of beef stews - up to three variations of beef stew each night - which I personally would not want to eat in 45 degree heat! There is a grill section outside that has grilled meats and fish.||The lunch time offer was very focused on deep fried items and chips. These were pretty nice, to be honest - the deep fried fish was really lovely (and I am not generally a fish fan, but it was fresh and crispy and delicious). The kids enjoyed the chicken nuggets and hot dogs, and the deep fried crispy chicken was also very nice. They had different options each day, but always lots of chips (which were fresh and hot and tasty). I ate way more beige fried foods this week than I have ever eaten in my life! The salad options at lunch were a bit disappointing - I had hoped for some nice olives, feta, nice flat breads etc - but the choices on the salad bar were a bit underwhelming. There was a big fruit display each lunch time, but again the choices were limited and always the same - I ate a lot of melon and pineapple. No doubt the choices reflect what is available in season locally.||We visited two of the a la carte restaurants - although you are only supposed to get one free visit per week included, the reception staff very kindly offered us an extra slot as it was my birthday while we were there. We visited the Turkish restaurant and the Italian. ||The Turkish restaurant was lovely, the nicest food and service we had all week. Shout out to Ali who hosted us, with friendly and attentive service and constant offers of additional portions of the food we had enjoyed.||Our visit to the Italian restaurant was a couple of nights later, and we had high hopes as we had enjoyed the Turkish restaurant so much and the Italian reservation was on my birthday. It could not have been more different! The service was so appalling that we were almost crying with laughter - I've never experienced anything like it. There was a younger lady serving water, who was attentive and smiling and kept topping us up - credit to her - but the main waiter could not have been less friendly or less interested. I didn't get his name - possibly begins with an F? He was an older guy, and he treated us as if we were the biggest inconvenience of his day. We had to ask for a wine list, which he was visibly irritated at having to provide. He insisted we had to order our main course and dessert at the outset (utterly bizarre), then was surprised and confused when he returned to take our dessert order later to be told that we had already given it. The attitude may have been more understandable if the restaurant had been busy, but it was barely one third full. He couldn't wait for us to leave - zero smiles, zero friendly interactions, literally just threw the food at us and was annoyed if we asked for anything. At least it gave us a good laugh - if it hadn't been so funny, we would have complained.||The drinks here are branded, so they actually taste as you would expect them to. The cocktails in the main bar are very good. The bars are well staffed and there are plenty of them around, so despite how busy the hotel was we never waited long to be served. This contrasts with the above-mentioned Club Marvy, where they serve fabulous drinks but you'll wait 30 minutes for it! I didn't like the 'house' wine that was included, but you can buy nicer ones by the bottle and they aren't outrageously expensive - we did this when we visited the a la carte restaurants. The bars have water dispensers that you can help yourself to, and there are self-service machines for fizzy drinks in the main restaurant too.||The waffles and ice creams are good at lunch time, as are the pizzas. Overall you shouldn't go hungry unless you are exceptionally fussy.||The journey time to the hotel depends on which airport you arrive at - we flew into Bodrum, which is about 2 hours' drive away. I believe Izmir is much closer. The coach both ways was direct, no stop offs, so it was fine overall - nice to be closer, but on the whole it wasn't as bad as I had feared.||We all got bitten on this holiday. Usually I do suffer with bites, so I was expecting to have to use repellent, but nothing stopped them here! Even my husband, who is never ever bitten or bothered, was bitten all over his body. If this happens to you, the shop in the little mall by the main restaurant sells a product called 'After bite', which is about 5 euro for a little bottle. If you spray the bite, it will kill it dead and it will stop itching and heal up really fast. We bought multiple bottles! I had brought Jungle Formula and Avon Skin So Soft, but they didn't prevent me getting bitten - although to be fair, I probably would have had way more bites if I hadn't used them. ||Overall, if you are looking for a family all inclusive holiday, this hotel is fine. It has lots of advantages - plenty of sun loungers, decent staff, clean, great water park, right on the beach - I do think though that it was quite expensive for what it was. I wouldn't come here again purely because we have had enough of all inclusive for now - but if this is what you're looking for, I would...

We has 10 nights here and, whilst we had a great holiday, I cannot say that it was the best and, when comparing to our other Tui Blue trips, there was little where this hotel wins!||Flights - we flew with Easyjet, which was surprising, but went smoothly enough going out but a 90 min delay coming back...not ideal for a 2330 flight! Transfer to the hotel was a break-neck speed with liberal application of the horn. A more sedate return in a rattling jalopy of a coach which suffered for every bump...not ideal for the meandering coastal route that e took as we had a pickup at another hotel. Took quite a while for the subsequent travel sickness to pass||Hotel room -- ideal for a family of 4 and our cleaning staff were amazing (thank you to the team that looked after 1155). Air con not working, which we initially thought was just a not very effective system, but did finally report, and it was repaired next morning. Only #thirldworldproblem was that we were essentially at the far end of the corridor, and no short cuts to get to the room; had to go past the hotel to essentially go back on ourselves inside! Plenty of clean towels, shower temp sometimes a bit temperamental but generally good showers. 2 large bottles of water replaced everyday, and more available on request, so we were never short of chilled water; just kept those in the fridge and topped up insulated bottles when we headed outside.||Aquapark good, but does get busy in the afternoon. we found we would do a couple of rides first things then our 13 year old just wanted to push us for several circuits around the lazy river! Would highly recommend beach shoes for walking between the rides as the concrete does get hot, and no jewellery allowed so leave that in your room before heading out!||Food - The food was great, with loads of choice. Don't forget to explore outside where the live cooking is ongoing. Plenty of salad and dips, and loads of fruit. Dietary needs catered for; I was poorly whilst out there and on a limited diet on my return; chefs made me lovely plain omelettes. Also loads of snacks available through the day, such as late breakfast and afternoon snacks, ice cream and waffles. You will not go hungry!||Bars - bars were of varying quality! Each had a different menu (for which you have to scan a QR code), which was not ideal as not consistency as to what you could have. Also made in different ways, so Tom Collins in Atrium Car made with 7Up (ugh!), Tom Collins in Activity Pool Bar delicious, and Tom Collins in Beach Bar has a coconut flavour! We gradually worked out what drink we drank and where! Kids cocktails not a winner with our son; too many syrups used and basically he was not impressed with the taste. ||Pools - lovely. And I only realised how huge the Flamingo Pool was when we had a meal in the Taverna overlooking it! Pools never felt full! Shame they do not open til 10, but nice to have a quick dip before dinner, so glad they stay open til 7.||Beach - Loads of sunloungers; if you want something a little quieter, head left rather than right when you get to the beach! Water warm, but very very murky. Turned up with our snorkels to realise that we could not see beyond our hands. I suspect that a lot of the beach is imported sand (has a volcanic, shiny aspect to it), and this simply gets churned into the water with every wave. Having said that, the waves were great fund for a spot of wave jumping (despite the lifeguards sat chatting with their back to the sea!!!!)!||Entertainment - we saw little of this. We saw 2 external acts that were very good but, as a previous posted has mentioned, the Tui backdrop in no way helps the visibility of these Acts. We heard the multiple rehearsals, and therefore usually gave the in-house entertainment a miss!!! Amphitheatre a great set-up though!||Teen stuff - it seems that Tui have stopped doing Teen Hangout, and instead arrange a number of Teen events. On our first day, these were all cancelled, with no explanation on the app. Other events had minimal turn-out, eg just my son for a movie night. Unlike the Tui Blue places we have stayed before, where youngsters hung out together and we saw little of our son, this place seemed to have families who stuck together more, and therefore little engagement with other kids. Having said that, our son did enjoy the water polo and lots of volleyball.||The Tui team seemed much more absent on this trip, and substantially less engaged. We were surprised to pass team members glued to mobile phones or in deep conversation with each other, and seemingly no acknowledgement of guests as they wandered around. However, the hotel staff were fabulous, and I have to make special mention of Semih, Resul, Victor, Burco, Berk, Dogucan, Seval, Cenk, Belkiz and the lovely young chap serving at lunchtime who got me pots of cold sealed water. And PLEASE stop the sales...the spa chap accosted us every day; we even had a spa trip and he still pestered every day.||Health - I was unfortunately hospitalised as part of the trip. Be warned that, if this does happen, nothing will be done until your insurance has been checked, with details of that, the holiday booking and passports handed over. Equally, be warned that standards are not as they are in the UK, eg no swabbing clean before canula inserted, needle just reinserted despite no knowledge of where it has been, etc. 2 weeks on and I still have significant problems at the canula site.||We took one taxi trip into Selcuk; market was great fun with some fabulous bargains to be had. We did not go to Ephesus as I know that I would not be able to cope with the heat there. However, I have been there before and, if you can cope with the heat, I would highly, highly recommend it as it is an amazing place.||Wi-fi present throughout the hotel, which was far more than we had expected! Plenty of beach towels; the huts shut at 4, not at 6 as suggested in the app. Grounds at the hotel are immaculate, with an array of plants and flowers.||Insects - there are an abundance of wee bitey things!!! And some during the day, eg in the grass. We took a mix of deet, skin-so-soft and some other ones, and would thoroughly spray each evening after our shower. Son got massacred playing football in the evening ( he had not lingered to be sprayed!!!), and we were all bitten when we sat at the beach bar on the seats adjacent to the shrubbery. On the whole, we got away with it quite lightly, but we did take precautions. The hotel does spray regularly. However, this is from the back of a vehicle, and am not convinced that it gets far enough into the shrubbery! Take plenty of spray, and don't sit next to plants in the evening! Sit somewhere more open!|There are flies and wasps, as would be expected in this sort of climate; the beach bar seems to be particularly bothered by wasps! As much as would be possible done to keep flies...