We travelled to this luxury hotel once children had returned to school. The hotel has rooms for in excess of 1,500 and we were the ONLY people around the pool and the ONLy people in the restaurants.

The taxi ride tot the harbour was 90 euros so eating there every night was not an option as it took an hour to get there

The food was mediocre but incredibly expensive for what was served..

The place was alomsot exclusively Russian and tehre was no information whatesoever about the facilities in the hotel.

The rooms were lovely - luxury.

The hotel has no atmoshere, we were overcharged and the staff were very unhelpful. when they made an error in our transfers we were not given an apoloagy - in fact they told us to sort it out!!

This hotel looks set to be doomed unless it drops its prices and encourages a broader clientele.

By the way... do you want to look at 6 bodyguards every day over breakfast??????????????

Verdict.... if you want a lusury holiday give this hotel a miss.

Having read a review in the Mail the week before, this was a last minute choice when I decided to take a break and spend some time with the family. I needed the Mardan Palace to be exceptional given that we only had 5 days there and we were not disappointed.

Upon arrival you realise that you are somewhere special, in fact, somewhere like no other place. The check-in was conducted in the relaxation of the vast array of grand lounge seating in the lobby whilst enjoying cold face towels along with a welcome cocktail in spectacular glassware, and everything done without the guests moving.

On route to our room accompanied by the lady from check-in, we were shown the pool from the outside deck of the lobby (although you can't miss it from anywhere at Mardan Palace) and given a guided tour of facilities we passed along the way - Kids club, Monkey Club (nightclub), spa, boutiques, restaurants, the Gondola etc...

Once in our Duplex Grand suite everyone was in awe of the facilities. Spacious throughout, the suite is split over 2 floors. Downstairs you have a well equipped kitchenette complete with fully stocked Nespresso coffee machine and a selection of 8 different teas. Back through the hall and you are into the spacious living area with downstairs toilet and one of 3 LCD TVs. Other than the dual stairs to the mezz bedrooms there is the entrance onto your own outside patio that then leads to the Gondola canal and ultimately the pool.

Upstairs in the suite and you have 2 bedrooms complete with well equipped and again spacious bathrooms with separate shower and toilets. Both are complete with Hermes toiletries for the bath shower and sinks. The bedrooms have ample storage space and an LCD TV.

And this high level of detail and luxury is everywhere you go at the Mardan Palace. Every restaurant had a wide selection of dishes and not one dish we had disappointed us. The service was always good as they are all well staffed and for lunch you need not leave the poolside as you can order food from any restaurant and have it brought to you in a reasonable time.

The spa is exceptional and the Thai massage that we both had was second to none.

For the kids I was worried that the Mardan Palace would be too much and poorly catering for them but it was the opposite. The kids club is well staffed and has a huge array of things for the kids including the kids gym equipment (running machine, weights and cycling machines), electric cars on the terrace, air hockey, table football, drawing, painting etc... and always with snacks and drinks in case they get hungry/thirsty. Venture further out and you find an arcade, outdoor play area and a kids pool as well as the snorkling pool to experience the sealife.

There are a huge array of bars and drinking areas even at the private beach area where the water sports are located. We tried the jetskis and had a great time - as you would expect they were the exceptionally fast ones and virtually brand new.

On our last day we sampled the Sunday Brunch and what an experience. Never before have you seen so many dishes from so many countries. Everything you could dream of was there and there was a separate Brunch for the kids!

It truly was an experience and we will be back.

Hi,
We’ve been to Mardan Palace in the Lara-Kundu beach in Antalya in the middle of July 2009.
The vacation deal cost us 1718$ for 3 nights including the flight from Israel. Still – this is considered pretty expensive for a hotel which is not “All inclusive”.
The general feeling was of a wonderful experience, kind of a peek to the life of the rich people, although the rich people which can spend more on all the extras will definitely find the hotel even more enjoyable. Keep on reading if you are still curious. I have a lot to tell.

General Looks
===========
The outside looks of the entrance is nice, but will be impressive only in the future when the fountains will work.
The Lobby is shocking and stunning indeed, very fancy covered with original carpets, comfortable sofas with cushions, flowers, huge chandeliers, antique styled piano , mirrors … The floor is composed out of impressive marble formations.
The main building is composed out of 3 wings. The central overlooks the lobby from above.
The corridors to the rooms are less impressive than the lobby itself, but still have an aristocratic feeling, with a lot of different kind of furniture like sofas with cushions, tables etc.. all has an antique look.
Also – a lot of paintings are hung on the corridor walls, each has its own spotlight directed to it from the ceiling.
The floor is composed out of carpets & marble. I can just tell that the marble floor of the corridors opposing to the lobby is mostly white, which is a shame, because Some light yellow stains can be spotted upon it, and the hotel is only 2 months old. Clearly a practical mistake of the hotel designer.


Service
======
Upon arrival, the stuff immediately takes your luggage.
You are invited into the impressive entrance and directed to sit anywhere you want.
“We will come to you for the checkin” they told me to my amazement. After a minute comes a good looking lady, nicely dressed, probably russian , to make the check in. (We noticed that a large part of the hotel staff are Russian and talk the Russian language)
Some bureaucracy is needed here, including 600 Liras deposit upon the account of the room (Cash/Credit) for the all the extras in the hotel and there are a lot of them. All this is happening not before she hands you a cold tasty cocktail and a refreshing frozen hand towel to wipe the sweat. What a charming reception.
After all that, she escorts you all the way to your room. You enter the room, and she gives you all relevant explanation. In the meantime – another bellboy comes with your luggage.
Every time you are not in the room, unless you leave the “do not disturb” on – the room is being cleaned (The default is twice a day, morning & evening), the fruits & water bottles are being refilled, slippers are returned to the sides of the bed, and even the remote control is back to its place – amazing.
During your stay – you can be assisted by the concierge, which is a separate desk from the reception helping with any question you have (opening hours of all the facilities and restaurants, availability of services, ideas about what to do in Antalya – they even gave us a very useful map of city center).
Inside our room we asked the reception to bring us a electric kettle and got it immediately.
When you want to arrive to the car exit of the hotel (to take a dolmus) without sweating, you can ask the staff for a lift with one of the golfcars. The same is when you return back to the hotel.
In the main restaurant when you arrive to your breakfast, although it is a buffet – all the time you get from the staff a personal service. They prepare the chair before you sit, constantly refill your cold/hot drink, and even help you bring your plates to the table in case they see your hands are full.
Both in the pool and in the beach as soon as you take a sit and put your things, comes one of the staff and opens the parasol for you, stretch the towel over your sun bed and in the beach even puts a bottle of water on your bed. From time to time he comes back to refill or to offer something from the bar, and in the pool they even pass near you with those excellent wet fresh hand towels which are a blessing in July’s heat.
While checking out you get marvelous Turkish delight as a goodbye present.

Room
=====
We stayed in the cheapest kind of room (which is the same as most of the room in the hotel).
This was not a big room (stated as 28sqm) but with a very clever design. None of the space is wasted.
The room is divided to the entrance, the “Living room”, the bed, and the bathroom.
The entrance
Outside the door there is a very nice golden sign with the room number and 2 lights: Green (Clean the room), and Red (Do not disturb). The days by which you hang signs on the door are over. Also there is a bell by which the stuff / guests can ring you. From the inside can activate the above 2 lights and also look in the eyepiece to see who’s ringing.
When you enter you see that the room has a parquet floor (excluding the bathroom) and some nice carpets.
Inside the room next to the entrance you have a chest with a phone, and a closet with a safe and a place for your clothes. The special thing about the closet is that the pole on which you hang your clothes has light which can be turned on. The hotel also leaves inside the closet a manual flashlight. The clothes hangers are also very elegant.
There is also a big mirror, but unfortunately not big enough. Actually, you cannot find in the room any full length mirror to see yourself standing, which according to my wife is important. .

Balcony
Apart from this, we had a huge balcony with a nice table & 2 chairs with a stunning view to the giant pool. We’ve also noticed that the balcony was bigger from the adjacent balconies, and it seemed like maybe our room was not so plain.
The privacy in the balcony is pretty disappointing though, with only ~1.5 m wall separating it from the neighbors. There are 2 sets of curtains (dark and light) on the exit to the balcony. They are quiet massive which makes the exit to the balcony not so convenient. Unless the curtains are open you can really get tangled inside them.

Living Room
You have a convenient sofa for 2 with several nice pillows, a nice but not so convenient armchair with a stool. A nice standing lamp.
An LCD 26” (?) TV with a remote control which includes a lot of non-free content. With a little effort you can also find the free channels (Including 2 Israeli channels).
The best thing about the TV is that it can swivel it 180 degrees so you can see it from the bed.
Beneath the TV is the minibar, and some kitchen stuff on both its sides.
You also have convenient table, and a nice little wooden chest with a drawer containing designer cutlery.

The Bed
The bed is very convenient, with excellent pillows. Each side has a chest with a drawer. On The chest stands a decorative night lamp and a phone extention. In addition you also have adjustable little reading lamp with a focused light. Besides the TV remote control you have another excellent remote which controls the lights and the air conditioning.

The bathroom
When you enter the massive transparent glass door (which can be blocked by another beautiful curtain), you see the shower, big bath and another non-transparent glass door which leads to the toilet (with a phone extension). We even noticed that the toilet paper is 3 layers. The floor is marble, again a white one which is not so practical. In addition to the pretty standard bath you have a huge shower which can occupy at least 3 people with a very advanced control which navigates the water either to the huge head hung from the ceiling, or to the manual head which was also big. Almost everything is prefect except the drainage which was not. You can enter in the morning to the shower and meet some of yesterday shower’s water on the floor (assuming no one cleaned the room in the meantime) which is a shame.
They also leave you an excellent pair of bath robes and a pair of sleepers for “after-bath” experiences. We also saw a digital weigh-scale which can be useful but quite awkward. BTW: you don’t have to take the sleepers to the spa, because the spa also has the same personal equipment.

The ceiling of the bathroom even include speakers by which you hear the TV, so you will not miss a second of your favorite soap opera.

In general there are few paintings on the room’s walls which also contribute to the atmosphere.
Tips:
1. Since most of the rooms are in the same building, you might get a room like ours which is far from the entrance & the main restaurant.
Walking this way several times a day, can be exhausting especially if you are tired.

2. The prices of the minibar are really expensive (Orange juice 4$ Coca Cola 5$ Pringles 6.5$ …), so we brought mineral water (and also some food) from home and asked to empty the minibar. The hotel had no problem with the request, thus we could use the minibar as a refrigerator (~100 liter) which was very convenient.

3. Try to insist on a balcony viewing to the pool (half of the rooms has such balconies). The other rooms of the hotel have very unpleasant views.
4. With the room card you get a very good map of the hotel. We got a german map, asked for an English map from the concierge and got it with no problems.

Food
====
The hotel policy is that only breakfast is included
I will not elaborate about the breakfast, but I can just say it was a shockingly huge buffet which looks like heaven on earth. You even get a very good variety of cooked food you generally find in lunch. You simply cannot taste it all in 1 meal.
Still, if someone (like us) doesn’t eat in the extra restaurants he might feel in the 3rd breakfast that the food repeats itself. Despite this, the breakfast is an amazing experience.
You have ~10 different restaurants (Turkish, Russian, French, etc…) & ~10 bars, which are not cheap at all. I saw that an average dish in a restaurant only starts from 20$ and the sky is the limit, so do your math. Unfortunately – I really cannot recommend anything because we skipped all the restaurants. I must say though that the prices are not as high as I thought.
We preferred to spent 2$ per person on a dolmus (bus - No. 103/105 – In 7/8 rides we’ve waited not more than 10 minutes) and eat outside.
Although the shopping centers of the hotels area are only 10 minutes away, they are simply pathetic. I would recommend the shemall. This is a very nice, air conditioned mall 30 min from the hotel with the 105 dolmus. You can find there both fast food and some restaurants. Next to shemall you can find another mall which is called Laura. Smaller – but also pleasant.
I would not recommend to go to Migros shopping center which is the biggest mall in Antalya. It will take you at least 1 hour per direction with 2 buses, and the mall is in general very crowded.
If you only need a supermarket, you have a nice little Migros supermarket in the center of the hotel area which is 5-10 min ride by bus.


The pool
======
The pool is the largest in Europe (16 Dunam). There are some bridges and tracks which cross the pool, what makes it a nice place to hang around in the evenings to enjoy the magnificent romantic looks of the hotel at night. The pool is actually active only until 20:00. You have a lot of sun beds. There are also canopy-like roofed seating corners with beds & pillows which look very convenient, but not a lot of them. So you’ve got to get up really early to find one available.
The only real interesting part of the pool is swimming above the underwater aquarium which surrounds the underwater seafood restaurant. Already now they have there few sharks and in the future the hotel promises a lot of other interesting fish.
No slides for kids, and the little kids pool looks quite small & ordinary.
Also – no animation team is active inside the pool as in most of the all-inclusive hotels, no water games of any kind so if you come with children – bring the games with you.
There are seats inside the water around the 2 pool bars inside the pool. For my opinion they are too high, when you sit, most of your upper body is outside the water which is a shame.
BTW: Absurdly there are rooms on the ground level of the pool in the hotel but they don’t really have direct exit to the pool simply because the gondola track surrounds it, and the swimming in this track is prohibited.

The beach
========
The beach is nice. It is full of wooden decks – you almost don’t have to step on the sand if you don’t want to (Still those decks are really hot in the summer so beware when you’re barefoot). There are a lot of convenient sitting places (unfortunately – none of them is really roofed like in the pool), each has its own parasol. The sand is very clean and seems different from the nearby beaches (I read – they brought tons of sand from Egypt). The water is clean, very calm with no waves, and turn deep after only few meters. There are no big rocks inside, only a very pleasant soil with a lot of beautiful little stones, we actually collected some into a bottle and brought home. The real attraction in the beach is the pier, which has a scorpion shape and full with activities. Bar, sun beds, a treatment area, several cool jumping spots (You can jump – the sea is very deep) which also have ladders by which you can climb back to the pier, and even 2 very cool Jacuzzi baths on the edge of the pier (When sitting inside you can simply watch the sea 5-6 meters underneath you), which unfortunately were out of order during our stay.

The Spa
======
Firstly you have the indoor pool. The pool is surrounded by a “wall” of towels. In general – the pool is not so special, although for some of you it might be a savior against the burning sun of July. The only special thing about the pool are several personal Jacuzzis which are actually inside it. No need to get out. The idea is really special and initially seems genius. However – the temperature of the pool water really doesn’t fit a Jacuzzi.
Above the pool you have the gym, quite disappointing for its size but with the hotel only in 20% capacity, as it was in our stay, it really doesn’t matter. The devices however seem new & advanced - you even have 1 Pilates device. As in every other place in the spa, the gym also has its own towels – so you don’t have to bring them from your room.
The rest of the spa is more interesting. Upon arrival you are being lead by one of the hosts to a changing room which includes a locker with a bath robe, pair of sleepers and a towel. You also have there excellent showers and private changing room.
The spa includes a huge range of different treatments most are pretty expensive (we were actually shocked to see some of the prices there). As the non-typical guests we headed to the free stuff. We were pretty disappointed to discover that the Thalasso (sea water) pool was not free of charge – since it is considered as a treatment. The free hamam was pretty good but not so special, we actually felt weird to be there alone. The sauna area was more fun. You have there ~8 types of different saunas, when you get out from each sauna you can go straight to the adjacent area which includes different kind of showers (We liked the tropical & icy showers try to switch between them every minute – a real fun) or you can drink some excellent cold (free) lemonade which awaits outside.
In addition you have 3 cool relaxation areas, in one of them you can tune the music station you want to listen, in another one the temperature is the body temperature and you smell great mint odor in the air.
There are also some other few corners with comfortable sofas in which you can simply rest while thinking about nothing.
There is also a VIP spa but it should be reserved in advance and probably not for free.
Overall the spa is a real attraction for anyone who wants to relax, even without paying extras.

Transportation
============
We did not use Taxis.
The only available public transportation is dolmus, which is slower than taxi but probably much cheaper.
If you want to reach to the center of Antalya (For example – the old city) it may take up to 1 hour. 105 is better than 103. It costs 3.7 Turkish Liras for 2 persons.
All dolmus buses are air conditioned, but are smaller than regular buses which are not in public use in Antalya. They have about ~20 seating places.
Since the hotel is 1 of the first stations, you will have a seating place for sure. However, this cannot be said about the way back. In 1 occasion we even had to stand for more than 40 minutes which was a nightmare.
Conclusion – if you are just looking for non fancy food outside the hotel go to the shemall (explanation – in the food section)


Entertainment
============
For adults there are a lot of sports activity, mostly not for free. (Tennis, basketball, squash, bowling)
The fish reef was really a disappointment. It costs 25 Euro just for swimming, and 70 Euro for feeding, although real special fish/sharks will arrive only in the future.
Free attractions:
- Walking track which surrounds the hotel.
- The daily magnificent fountain night show which is really stunning and has excellent background music.
- The VIP cinema is excellent, (With adjustable armchairs – 1 daily movie in the evening).
- The gondola ride is really enjoyable, especially when you’re alone with your wife. You can get explanations and mingle with the gondola man.
- The monkey club which is a very fancy and big night club looks impressive. You can enter & dance/sit for free, but that is the only thing which is free there. There is even a modest dress code there. (Casual/smart). BTW – we actually were intimidated by the muscular goons which served as security inside the club. Why such a massive security is needed inside this club is unclear to me.
Unfortunately, no other real entertainment for adults, no parties, no theme evenings, no Karaoke – nothing. And even if there was – the hotel was according to one of the employees only 20 percent full, in high season!! (Maybe because it is still new).
The hotel has some entertainment for kids including arcade games, bowling (10 Euro a game!!), very nice kids club but that’s about it. All in all, I wouldn’t really recommend this hotel for kids, too fancy and almost no kids attraction in the near surroundings.

We stayed here for two weeks with young children, teens and an elderly person. There is a kids "camp" with staff and their own activity area. There are planned activities available for different age groups. Our kids especially enjoyed going to the "zoo". There are other rec staff wandering around trying to garner interest in activities for the guests (water polo, scuba demo, badminton, football etc). Evening activities include a laser show and the amphi-theater programs (shao lin monks, Russian modern dance, Chinese circus...). Buffet brunch was fantastic as was breakfast buffet. No complaints about any of the other restaurants on site; they would do well to utilize Chef Kumar from the beach restaurant and give him an Indian Menu to develop - he's good! Advertised Russian restaurant not yet open, big buffet lunch will happen daily when occupancy picks up, in the upper floors of the Maiden Tower there will be a champagne bar, American bar and the French restaurant which is currently in a corner of the hotel. Wandered into the Monkey Bar which is open to the paying public on the weekends. There wasn't anybody there when I went for a look. Swim reef was fun for the kids (but cold).It's my understanding that smoking is banned in all of Turkey effective mid July - and we were told by a senior staff member that the rule would be enforced at the hotel.
There is a learning curve that needs to happen, among the things to fix: how to clean that massive pool, in the time we were there I stopped going in due to the dirt accumulating on the floor and walls, be prepared for giant roaches flying around in the evening (and they like water), it didn't bother the kids tho and they loved swimming around the aquarium at the base of the Maiden Tower in the middle of the pool. Lovely beach is detracted by the shanty town to the left of the property - why didn't they extend that wall? Plenty of water sports available through a contracted company. The room service ticket for breakfast is only printed in Turkish so it required me to compare recognizable words from the menu to the 3 language in-room dining menu from the suite.
All the staff we encountered were very helpful, friendly and professional at all times. We had a dead spot of wi-fi in the office area of our suite and I believe they called out the entire tech team to resolve it. At the pool and beach they seemed to be always offering an iced towel or cut fruit.
On-site shopping: La Perla is slated to open soon, there is a designer clothing shop, a
fur shop, rug shop, plenty of bling, an artisan souvenier shop, a toy/collectible shop and a drugstore which carries pool/beach toys, sunscreen, over the counter medicines etc. If you can afford to stay here price is not something to complain about however to pay 50 euro for a pair of regular swim goggles is stupid.
Gym is very nice and all the services utilized at the spa were quite nice.
We stayed in a suite on the 3rd floor of the European wing. The heaviest doors I've ever encountered anywhere in the world. I believe they ran out of ways to utilize the color gold.....be warned, our one-way view exterior doors in the bathroom were installed backwards so in the evening they are useful as full length mirrors (which were nowhere to be found in the suite) but allow full view in from the outside (parking lot and neighboring resort). There is a large deck off the suite but because of the humidity the cushions of the furnishings (bed, couch, table/chairs) were always wet. Then there's the jacuzzi on the deck....it's cold water and can't be heated ("due to the heat of the outside temperature"), it was also never cleaned in the time we were there and grew a nice layer of ick on the top of the water. We had a daily change of snacks made available in the room (small sandwiches, lots and lots of chocolate, fruit, etc). Hermes toiletries are very nice. We had a nespresso machine as well as a turkish coffee maker and electric kettle with a tea selection in the suite. Laundry service was prompt.
Back elevators occasionally had a nasty fish odor in it and we were told that due to everything being new and "things burning off" there wasn't much they could do about the smell other than mask it with deo spray. Be prepared for a walk if you are in the suite end of the hotel and want to get to the lobby - we had an elderly person with us as well and considered asking for a wheelchair some days to get thru the looooong halls. Heat/humidity in the hotel isn't helped by some residents keeping their windows/doors open. According to staff member I spoke with the AC system is designed to shut down upon opening of exterior window.
Antalya itself is busy and a bit of a drive, the old souk area is worth a trip if you are looking for "real life", however unless you desire to there is no need to leave the resort.
Occupancy was at 30% with the vast majority being Eastern European. The architecture and glitz of the lobby are something to behold.