Bella Garden

“Relaxing”

When we first arrived the hotel was in darkness with only a stray dog in sight however after 2 hours of waiting the manager came to us and said that they hadn't been informed of our arrival and that there was only one other person in the hotel. This hotel has 36 rooms all of which are of adequate s… more

When we first arrived the hotel was in darkness with only a stray dog in sight however after 2 hours of waiting the manager came to us and said that they hadn't been informed of our arrival and that there was only one other person in the hotel. This hotel has 36 rooms all of which are of adequate size and are cleaned daily, the all inclusive drinks are from 10am-10pm and the food if not a vegetarian was outstanding (there is no buffet when not in peak season) however I'm a vegetarian and with only 3 English speaking staff it was very hard to explain and I received chips with either onion rings or broccoli most nights but when I ventured out for a meal most places will only cater for vegetarians in this way. The setting is lovely however it states it is in Bodrum but I think Bodrum is just the district this is in Turkbuku which is very quiet and relaxing do not go if you expect to party until 2am as everything shuts down at 10. Although there are some lovely walks and the sea is the cleanest in turkey that I've seen. The staff are lovely although do not speak English so can be hard to communicate with them. The beach is a 30 second walk from the hotel and has it's own pier the drinks here are extra though, the seafood restaraunt that is advertised is in the neighbouring hotel and is an additional extra. The bottled water is extra behind the bar but a glass of water isn't, no snacks are included in all inclusive either. I would recommend this place for a relaxing couples holiday, not families as there is so little to do in turkbuku although Bodrum and gumbet are only a half hour bus journey away and buses are every half hour costing 5tl each (around £1.25). Very relaxed and calm within a beautiful hotel this holiday was great with all the staff coming out to wave us off as we left we really didn't want to go!

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“Make sure you have a sense of humour”

If you are expecting what you saw on the web page, you'll be seriously disappointed. It hasn't been noticeably upgraded since it was the Alabanda, and some rooms don't seem to have been cleaned since then either. The concept of replacing soiled towels with clean ones is something the management are… more

If you are expecting what you saw on the web page, you'll be seriously disappointed. It hasn't been noticeably upgraded since it was the Alabanda, and some rooms don't seem to have been cleaned since then either. The concept of replacing soiled towels with clean ones is something the management are still coming to terms with! If you have a sense of humour, if you go simply expecting a cheap, sunshine holiday, if you aren't a fussy eater and you love loud "hip hop" music all day, then you'll be fine. If you're hoping for that little boutique hotel and a lovely "couples" holiday...good luck! We made the best of it, thanks to two other couples in the "enclave" at the sunny side of the pool, we had a laugh and enjoyed most of it. The others who were staying were mainly Russian, Ukrainian or Turkish and were all practising for the Olympic version of "glowering" or staring at everyone else, but we worked on the basis that if they stared at us then we must have been interesting! We certainly decided that there was a distinct lack of smiling on the other side of the pool! Our holiday wasn't spoiled as we had expected most of this. Thanks to those of you who were there at the same time for making it a laugh and to the young Polish couple, "cheers!". Tolga, if you're reading this, and you should be, 65%. But you could be so much more, it's a shame it isn't the bijoux hotel it could be.

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