Swandor Hotels & Resort Topkapi Palace - All Inclusive

“Safir restaurant Topkapi Palace”

We’ve visited Safir a la carte restaurant twice….and may be back a third time! Food amazing, service fantastic…Zhasmin remember our drinks order and who drank what after our first visit. We can’t recommend highly enough. The steaks were beautiful and the cheese board divine.

“Very good”

The best Swandor topkapi palace hotels blend luxury, exceptional service, and memorable experiences. Located in scenic settings, they feature elegant rooms, gourmet dining, and tailored activities like spa treatments and private excursions. Impeccable service, with attentive staff anticipating gues… more

The best Swandor topkapi palace hotels blend luxury, exceptional service, and memorable experiences. Located in scenic settings, they feature elegant rooms, gourmet dining, and tailored activities like spa treatments and private excursions. Impeccable service, with attentive staff anticipating guests' needs, defines the experience, making every stay uniquely unforgettable.

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“Family stay, half term”

We recently returned from a 10 night stay over half term and here's a summary of our pros and cons... Pros: Beautiful resort, very clean and pretty. Rooms are huge. 4 of us in our standard room and we had plenty of space. Kids club was great, we did not leave our kids but the park/indoor play ar… more

We recently returned from a 10 night stay over half term and here's a summary of our pros and cons... Pros: Beautiful resort, very clean and pretty. Rooms are huge. 4 of us in our standard room and we had plenty of space. Kids club was great, we did not leave our kids but the park/indoor play area was great after tea to burn some energy (depending on time). Lots of bars, we found the best cocktails on the pier. We have a 3 year old who had a nap each afternoon, lots of quiet paths to walk the pram round. Staff were great, really good with our children. Lots of bathrooms everywhere, perfect when you have little kids, very clean even the beach ones which you would expect to be sandy etc are very clean. We hired a cabana for the day which was probably our favourite day. The QR code for ordering food/drink stopped working part way through the day which was annoying. We raised this with guest relations afterwards who were quite rude, suggesting we should have walked to them at that moment to inform them....we paid £165 for the day, no way was I spending part of that time walking to and from reception and complaining. The beach restaurant was buffet service which was great when our kids suddenly turned hangry as they had everything the kids like - pizza, chips, pasta, nuggets etc. Cons: No plastic cups, glasses even given for kids drinks. We sat by the pool twice and by 10am both days kids had smashed glasses near us, I wouldn't like to guess how many get smashed in a day. It left us nervous to have our kids by the pool as it was the guests who cleared this up so possibly not all cleared. Sun loungers round the pools absolutely jam packed in...we watched kids having to climb over people's beds to get access to the pools in places. We preferred the beach, slightly more spread out with the tables inbetween. The restaurant at busy times (sometimes we couldn't avoid this), we would be wondering round for 5 minutes trying to get a table, then a plate at times. A few times we ended up using bowls as no plates. Because of the size of the restaurant it's hit and miss whether you get offered a drink or not. Not like other Turkish hotels where the staff are constantly on this. There is a bar you can get drinks from yourself though. The downside of the kids club, loads of kids left by parents and probably not enough staff to man this at peak times e.g just before kids disco. Bigger kids running round chasing eachother constantly knocking into smaller kids/climbing up the slides/pushing smaller kids out the way. It was chaotic just before the disco. My little boy had breathing difficulties one night and the hotel doctor called him an ambulance and he was rushed to hospital. No follow up from the doctor/hotel just to check if he was OK which I thought was poor. They pushed a note through our door the day before we checked out asking us to settle our bill for hiring a cabana which annoyed me as they could have just done this to see if my son was OK. Poor in my opinion when a 3 year old was rushed to hospital, also when I have seen other reviews saying the doctor checked on other poorly guests every few days. In summary we would return, Beautiful hotel and we felt good value for what we paid, just disappointing that there was no follow up for my little boy.

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“Good October sun but could be amazing with a few tweaks”

The hotel was recommended to us by family and I didn’t have time to look I booked. Arrival- our bags were taken by the bell boys and check-in was swift and easy, but the staff need to smile. I know it was late and they probably had a long shift but each guest should receive and warm welcome. The… more

The hotel was recommended to us by family and I didn’t have time to look I booked. Arrival- our bags were taken by the bell boys and check-in was swift and easy, but the staff need to smile. I know it was late and they probably had a long shift but each guest should receive and warm welcome. The check in clerk provided us with some information regarding breakfast/lunch/dinner and mini fridge but just said map of hotel is QR code. The bellboy (Muhareem) provided us with more information when he showed us to our room ie location of gym/spa, restaurants. There is also a lady at the front serving drinks/Turkish delight but she was busy having a conversation with someone else in Turkish to even acknowledge us. Room - as we are two adults and 16 and 11 year old girls we opted for the duplex (2 singles and 1 double - there is also a single sofa bed). This is great as there is lots of storage space, a balcony but most importantly for my husband two bathrooms. The rooms were clean but the only negative was the double bed seemed liked something they could lift and close, the mattress was too soft so maybe needs changing. Toiletries such as shampoo, conditioner and shower gel are provided alongside disposable toothbrushes and toothpaste, disposable razor (although not all the good according to my husband), a loofer, sewing kit, hair cap and earbuds. The drinks in the mini- fridge are free. Housekeeping staff are great and really polite (we were in room 5530). Lifts are absolutely rubbish take stairs where possible, we had to carry our luggage down from the 5th floor as the lifts didn’t work. Luckily my husband is strong enough to do this. Food - the family who recommended the hotel are fussy vegetarians but as they raved about the food I quite excited especially since my husband is vegetarian. While there is plenty of good quality options for food, after a few days it got a bit boring with lunch and dinner being the same with minor subtle differences (ie maybe one or two items that were different). Maybe have themed evening such as Mexican, Indian, Russian, English, Italian etc. there are so many different types of cultures would be great. You can also visit Derya restaurant by the beach which serves food from 11-6pm and again some subtle differences between this and the main restaurant. Our main negative is the lack of vegetarian options, most days it was pizza, pasta or vegetarian noodles and on the odd day there was chickpea or Lima bean curry. The best part was the salads breakfast/lunch/dinner salads were plenty. Desserts were great but there are no labels which means picking something that looks good but possibly not liking is so wasteful. If you are arrive late or leaving early there is also a smaller buffet open from between 9pm and 7am. Food is taken from the main room into a smaller area. The main resultant can get busy at breakfast and dinner due to the short hours but we never struggled for a table but sometimes while getting food you had to navigate yourself not to bump into anyone. Again this could be an October thing. The Derya bar is the only place you can get ice cream (only Mr Whippy - those from uk will understand) except between 3-6pm when the patisserie is open - this has different flavoured sorbets and coffee/tea and cakes. Overall you can get food all day except 6-7pm. Drinks - not sure but never really felt like we were getting a buzz from the drinks, all were branded alcohols but who knows. They have a limited number of cocktails on their menu but if you ask they can make others (eg. Pornstar and espresso martinis). Thank you to Eylul in the upstairs lobby bar she was great made the kids feel special. Pools - there is one large pool broken up by a bridge (so hotel side and accommodation side), a relaxation pool, two kids pools with slides, waterslides and indoor pool. All pools (except indoor and relaxations pools) were absolutely freezing - no heating here I’m afraid but didn’t stop kids getting in. There are so many deck chairs, that you don’t need to wake early to save them, but in October the sun goes down early so many people were saving seats that had sun all day. There are also toilets and bars at easy access. There is no pool bar and drinks are served in glassware so need to be careful. Poolside entertainment was minimal and a number of things were cancelled (ie pool party). The entertainment team only went around the main pool area rather than going to the other side of bridge. However the ‘flyingman’ was great. If you like it lively then stay to the hotel side and not accommodation side. Beach - The area is really clean with plenty of deckchairs both off the beach and on the pier. They have ladders to enable you to get into the sea and you can hire cabanas for the day (we did not to this so no idea of cost). The derya restaurant is there and serves drinks/ice cream all day. Surprisingly the toilets were really clean considering it’s by the beach. Evening entertainment- they have everything on a two week rotation. Most shows are musical or slapstick comedy due to the vast number of nationalities staying at any time. They do have party nights in the Xone although not really geared towards kids so families miss out. My kids got bored and left me and my husband to it on that night. The Thursday ‘guest show’ is also boring and only interest to family members of those participating. We loved the popcorn circus, opus/pashsa dance group and the magicians. There is a kids disco every night from what I could tell but my kids are teens so don’t know for definite. Spa - amazing we had a family session. We all had foam massage, alongside a body scrub and deep tissue massage for my husband and I and simple massage for the girls. Both Aisha and Zulkuf were great, took out all our knots. Cracked my back a few times. Kids really enjoyed the foam massage as it was something different. Excursions - we went to land of legends, book your ticket online as you get 20% discount, taxi cost €45 there and back but haggle as you can get them cheaper. We also used the local bus to go to the shopping centres to buy souvenirs. All buses from outside the hotel go and is 25TL per person - just tap your card. Overall for the price we payed for 10 days I would say it’s a great winter- sun /October half-term getaway. It was immaculately clean and accessible (never seen so many push chairs) and most of the staff were friendly . I think potentially making it into a al la carte plus (ie include all al la carte restaurant) would be an advantage to make it a more 5 star hotel.

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