Ela Excellence Resort Belek

“Great price-performance”

First of all I would like to say that this review reflects only my personal views and experiences. Secondly, I believe that a holiday is as great as you make it (except if there really are some problems) and wonderful places help to enjoy that beautiful vacation mindset. That being said, I can assu… more

First of all I would like to say that this review reflects only my personal views and experiences. Secondly, I believe that a holiday is as great as you make it (except if there really are some problems) and wonderful places help to enjoy that beautiful vacation mindset. That being said, I can assure you that there is nothing in this hotel that deserves a low rating. Now let’s get to the chase: I came to this hotel with my mom and sister who had a two year old daughter. I will review it more from a person, who came here with no children perpective, BUT keep in mind that this is a family oriented hotel so if you are looking for an adults oriented vacation, maybe think twice (having said that I never felt this as an issue although I am not a fan of crying, screaming etc). 1. The hotel Located only 20min walk from Belek centre (walked myself a few times) it is beautiful, easy to get around and offers everything to have a great vacation. The rest is up to you! 2. The room We booked Ela Family suite (got room 2402) which was 100m2 in the main building. Spacious, beautifully decorated, plenty of space for 3 adults and a child. In my opinion the beds were super comfortable. The room had everything we needed, starting from robes for everyone (also kids robe with slippers), steam iron, nice smelling cosmetics etc. They surprised the little one with a fluffy teddy bear and brought a crib upon request. Housekeeping did their job well. As I used only water from the minibar, I would say that the minibar is stucked up good, although I was a bit sad when saw two beer cans (none of us drinks it) and no wine, but that’s nothing important as I can get whatever I want from the bar. 3. The food The food at the main, Hayat, restaurant was ok, but here I would like to emphasize the a la carte restaurants. We tried dinner at La Perla, Akari Teppanyaki, Galata and La Sofa. They all were very good and worth the extra money. Yes, for a family it can add up and yes, you paid for an All Inclusive, but then again you don’t expect massages to be included in the price, do you? The same is with fine dining. Good things come at an additional price. La Rouge Patisserie offers some great sweet options and for coffe I would recommend The Browns Gourmets Coffe (just skip it at breakfast and go get some coffe straight there). Lunch at Galata was excellent, loved every minute spent there and if you have the possibility, go there and indulge in great atmosphere, music and steak. The only letdown was The Greengrocer (funny, I was looking forward to it the most as I love my daily fruit and veggie dose) – too much plastic used for a few carrot and cucumber straws. Often the sortiment was just apples, melons, carrots and cucumbers. If they ran out of watermelon, bananas or peaches (and they did) they did not bring extra. That’s a minus which is easy to avoid. 4. The entertainment I need to say a special thanks to the entertainmet team. I had the luck to experience two different events – the Oktoberfest and the Bohem party. Both were very well organized, filled with great music, fun and dances. Keep up with similar event planning, you are doing a great job here. 5. The fitness Physical activities is something I always look forward to the most, as I build my daily life while being on holiday at an all inclusive resort, around them. The hotel has professional, passionate and experienced fitness trainers. They are doing a great job and I appreciate their effort to help us stay (or at least try) in shape. I attended mostly crossfit workouts as it is my preferable style of workout (thank you Baris for the fun, challenging and inspiring classes, you were great!). I also tried pilates and enjoyed them very much and 100% would have attended this workout too if only they both were not at the same time. The fitness team is top notch! 6. The staff Not once did I encounter an unfriendly staff member. Moreover, they were always positive, helpful and extremely professional. I truly believe that every staff member deserves a praise. As they are the face of the hotel as much as everything else (actually even more), they did a great job. A few times they ran out of Aperol when I was ordering Aperol spritz but the bartenders never told me that I couldn’t have my cocktail. They apologized, asked me to wait a few minutes and quickly went to get a new bottle. Also everyone who works in the restaurants were always attentive, professional and welcoming. Only the best about them (that includes the reception staff and everybody who works at Ela). 7. Honorable mentions Loved the Whatsapp system, think it’s the best thing invented when talking about customer-staff communication. Our asisstants Onur and Eva were doing a great job, always responding quickly and resolving every issue we had. For example one evening my sisters daughter had really high fever, it was already pretty late, but they helped us to get the medicine needed to the hotel via delivery service. If that’s not resolving a problem then I don’t know what is. 8. Suggestions Again, my personal suggestions (but taking into account my experience from other Turkish All Inclusive resorts). 1. Make an “adults only” spot on the beach. It can be just a few sunbeds but keep in mind that a percentage, a small but still, of the hotels guests are adults with no children and the beach is a place where people go to relax and sleep in the sun. It can be very annoying when trying to relax and someone is screaming next to you (you did it in the restaurant and it works very fine). 2. Don’t schedule 3 different workouts at the same time. Active visitors (like me) most likely would like to visit more than one of them as they are different (pilates, crossfit and yoga, all at 17:00). From my experience, workouts that are held till 12 are the most crowded as people on vacation want to sip their daily cocktail during the day not wait till 18, till the workout is finished. Just an observation. In the end I would like to say that it offers a great price-performane and my review is based on it. I have stayed at very luxurious (and more expensive) hotels too and in that case different rating strategies are applied, but when talking about this hotel, I believe it deserves a good overall rating.

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“Perfect choice for families”

I visited Ela the first 2 weeks of October with 3 adults, and 2 kids, aged 2 and 7. If you go to a luxury resort east of Antalya; you are going for relaxation with the family (or friends); you generally are not really going for day trips or sightseeing. For that the Ela Excellence resort is perfec… more

I visited Ela the first 2 weeks of October with 3 adults, and 2 kids, aged 2 and 7. If you go to a luxury resort east of Antalya; you are going for relaxation with the family (or friends); you generally are not really going for day trips or sightseeing. For that the Ela Excellence resort is perfect: a big family resort with plenty to do where you don’t have to leave. When we were there, the majority of the guest were from Russia. My family isn’t. Next nationalities in line, I would say: English and Swiss. In general I found that the guests were very well behaved in the resort and that, I think, has to do with the design of the resort. Ela is a luxury resort without looking like an ‘over the top’ luxury resort. If you want that, sort for the highest prices in Belek and you see them on top. In Ela, apart from the main restaurant; there is just a lot of places with a normal size, instead of a few places with a big size; all nicely spread out over the beautiful mature and maintained gardens. The resort is so clean that you can walk everywhere bare-feet without having to worry. All the places are designed to look nice, cute, relaxed; but without being themed; it is like they are themselves, they don’t try to be like something else. I loved it. Good, some details: The food is very good for an all-in resort. Of course they have to cater to their clients; but there is always something of quality on offer and always something different; including good meat and fish. After being there for 10 days, I was still trying different things which I enjoyed and that is a compliment. Wine: they have included wine per glass, all coming from Turkey. For the first time in a resort I found all wine drinkable. That is also a big compliment. You can also buy foreign wines per bottle, in case you’d like that; and they also have the branded champagnes for your party needs. Drinks: they have the real brands and the use the real brands for the cocktails as well. The cocktails are nice and made with attention. Many different beers per bottle on offer and included as well. Shows / entertainment: Every evening there is something, but it is not every evening that they have a big show as well as a live band. If there is a show, it is a good show with plenty of professional performers. These off course travel between the hotels in the area. Afterwards there is always music and on the days there is no show, in general they spend more on the music. Ela is not a party hotel; after 2300 it gets quiet rather quickly (at least in October / compared to some other hotels where you can’t sleep until 1 or 2 if you have a room facing the party area). Kids: the kids club is massive, fresh and open long. The baby-pool is nicely designed to be a safe area where the little ones can play. For the up to, say, 12 year olds, there is sufficient things to do as well; even with playstations which can play online. The staff. I have been raised to be polite to everybody; bit of patience, a nice well-meant word here and there and sometimes a small chat. That is not the standard for the average guest in an all-in resort. The result; you see that some of the staff really open up because of that. Really people, do it; do it always. Ela has trained the staff very well and they keep on training them; which is a problem with some other resorts; where they can’t find or keep good staff. So a big compliment to Ela on this department; the smiles, the small chit chats and to see that they want to help you; probably because you are kind and treat them as people, well, that makes the difference. So often on a resort, as a reviewer, I have to write that I can see that management has made some decisions (often on savings) which you just can feel. Well, not here. It was done perfectly. Even on the parts which were less used; the program continued and the staff was there. I don’t often return to the same hotel for holiday (only done it twice in my life), but if the destination is Antalya again and the competitive price of Ela compared to their competitors is the same, I would be very happy to return to Ela.

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“Very nice holiday, overall 8.5/10”

The assistant service was honestly the biggest highlight. Nasrin and Merve were super helpful and went above and beyond to help us with any query and wish we had. Other then that - food great, hotel really pretty, pool and outdoor amenities great - the only down side for us was lack of energy and … more

The assistant service was honestly the biggest highlight. Nasrin and Merve were super helpful and went above and beyond to help us with any query and wish we had. Other then that - food great, hotel really pretty, pool and outdoor amenities great - the only down side for us was lack of energy and willingness in the staff responsible for the activities - they should be a little bit more encouraging and motivated.

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“Very Good”

Very good hotel with excellent assistant service. Really good food, great choice of alcohol. The only con is the fact that all evening activities are closing at midnight and then the hotel is dead. You have 24/7 bar and restaurant but it’s generally empty. The best part of the hotel is pier with th… more

Very good hotel with excellent assistant service. Really good food, great choice of alcohol. The only con is the fact that all evening activities are closing at midnight and then the hotel is dead. You have 24/7 bar and restaurant but it’s generally empty. The best part of the hotel is pier with the frottee sunbeds. I recommend for nice vacation

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