We stayed here for 2 weeks in May/June 2008. We have been visiting the resort for around 12 years but decided to give this fairly new hotel a try out. Very good generally, but sometimes they lacked basic food materials, such as yoghurt at breakfast, oranges for juice, lemons for drinks. Very clean round pool area and spacious room and bathroom though.

Our main complaint was that on the last night when we went to settle the bill, we had a few confrontational issues. We had been encouraged all holiday to sign for drinks & food and pay on departure. When I asked for the final bill, he wouldn't give me a printed copy, and wrote it on a scrap of paper instead and told there was a 5% credit card surchage to pay as extra. I objected to this, but he insisted it was management policy. I asked to speak to the manager but was told he could not speak English - not very helpful!

Eventually I got a printed receipt and found an overcharge of about £25, which I pointed out and asked for a refund. The receptionist told me he couldn't give me either cash or a refund on my card and that I would have to have drinks at the bar to cover the amount - no good as we were leaving in an hour! Eventually, after some time arguing, he relented and reached into a drawer and gave me the money back - in Turkish lira - again no good as we were due to leave the country shortly!

On my return I emailed Thomas Cook who we booked through to advise them of this. It unfortunately has taken them over 2 months to reply to me - hence my delay in posting this review - poor customer service there from the 2nd largest UK tour operator. They were unhelpful on the whole and suggested the Mavruka offered good value for money. How can it be good value if they are charging customers a percentage to pay their bill by credit card?

We have stayed at other hotels in the resort - Asena Beach, Karbel and Karbel Sun - and none of those charge you extra.

If you book this hotel, please check your bill carefully and try to pay by cash beacuse of the hidden charges is my warning!

We stayed at the Hotel Mavruka in September 2008 for one week. The Hotel is in a great location near to the restaurants , shops and beach. The hotel its self is clean and the staff are friendly. The facilities are good , air conditioning in the room makes a refreshing difference in the Turkish heat.
We only ate breakfast in the hotel which was fairly basic, the one day we tried lunch was a mistake however. The burger and chips was possibly the worst meal we had all holiday. No word of a lie the chips consisted of 4-5 chips and the burger appeared to have been microwaved.
We tried a number of restaurants in the resort with Bella and Gusto being the best. The worst by far was the Cherry Chow , rubbish pizzas and just poor quality.
A word of advise on trips the boat trips that leave from the beach are good value at about a tenner but be prepared for a full day of beachs that are all the same. Gets a bit boring , butterfly island is a hippy enclave nothing wrong with that but there is very little to see unless you wish to pay for a walk round.
We went on the mud bath trip as our last day which inluded a hotel room. If you are tempted don't do it firstly on your last day you want to enjoy the sunshine well the coach trip takes about 2 hours before you see the light of day then they drag you round a carpet factory. Unless you own country mansion or you have a couple of grand to waste on a rug that took about three years to make then it is a waste of time. Then after what seems like an age you end up at the mud baths. Yes stinks, bit of mud and a wash so what, next is lunch again poor. You then sit for another hour on a boat and go to turtle beach , bit of sand sea and no turtles. They possibley appear once a week per year so don't expect to see any.
Then you end up back at you hotel after about an hours sun. Rubbish hotel with air con costing extra. We ended up eating out as the food looked average.
Great resort , good hotel but the trips all appeared to be poor with many of the excusions ending up in a rug factory.

We have just returned from a week half board in the Mavruka Hotel .The location is perfect near the beach and shops and restaurants though some rooms are noisy choose a pool view this is quieter though balconies are not private at all but you make lots of friends. It is the cleanest hotel we have stayed in spacious room with plenty storage,efficient air conditioning and a modern bathroom with a shower. Plenty loungers around the pool and parasols which are essential it was 35-45C all week. Breakfast was good eggs, fresh bread to toast, jams,meats, yoghurt, cheese and cereal even the tea and coffe was drinkable the only problem were the wasps all over everything the staff just ignored them. Our only complaint was about evening meal they should not be offering this service food was awful. Firstly hot food was cold and cold food was warm we were scared of getting food poisoning. Secondly nothing was labelled and the chef ( I use this term loosely) spoke little English impossible to tell meat from vegetarian dishes and the soup no matter what was vegetable even when it was chicken!! We also felt the amount we ate was being watched by a scary looking man in charge. Lastly Sunday BBQ we were asked if we wanted to pay extra for BBq and 1/2 bottle of wine and belly dancing we refused. On the evening we had the same food but were sat on our own feeling very uncomfortable out of view and the belly dancer was just one woman I am so glad we didn't pay the extra we would have been ripped off.
There are excellent restaurants in resort and Azda is a cheap supermarket, Ali G at the Small house restaurant does a lovely Kebab round the corner this is a much better option.
You have to conceal food and drink bought outside into the hotel but just be discreet it was not a problem.

The first thing that strikes you is that 4* in Turkey doesn't equate to 4* in England. This really was a good/average 3* hotel.

The rooms were clean and spacious with a fridge, hairdryer, safe (15 lira for the week) and completely essential air conditioning. Which thankfully was free! The bathrooms were large and the shower was powerful, however bathrooms could have done with an extractor.
The room was cleaned everyday and kept to a good standard.

The main issue really was the lack of peace and quiet. There was a terrace bar at the front of the hotel and a pool bar at the rear. We were placed in a room next to the noisy terrace bar which started playing obnoxiously loud music at about 6pm and continued till the last person left, or 3am which every came first. Had to complain about the noise on a daily basis. The staff were very quick to act and turn down the noise, but then the same problem occurred each day. With the rooms by the terrace bar it is like staying next to a nightclub. Definitely bring your ear plugs!

The pool area was lovely with very helpful staff. However music is played all day long. We found Olu Deniz to be a very loud resort. Mainly hotels and nightclubs blaring out the worst 'brits abroad' crowd pleasers at high volumes. If you're looking for a 'party' holiday with lots of nightlife than this may not be a problem but the resort is advertised as a place for couples and families looking for a peaceful holiday and therefore the constant noise can start to grate.

The food at the hotel was basic at breakfast but of a good standard. It was a basic turkish breakfast. The lack of variety became quickly apparent. It consisted of toast, boiled and scrambled eggs, salad, olives and cereals. We found the food in the evening to be much more varied and there was a wide variety of different turkish fare. The food was good. However arrive early to breakfast to avoid sharing it with wasps and flies.

The bar and restauarant staff make every effort to make you feel comfortable and welcome. Expect them to be especially attentive if you're a single female under 30.

The pool is large with plenty of sunloungers and beds (expect to mark your territory with your beach towel by 7am though). We didn't spend a great deal of time there as the beach is just a 5 minute walk away. It has beautiful clear waters and seems a shame to waste time lounging by the pool when there is such a beautiful natural resource nearby. However, the facilities by the pool are good. There is table tennis and pool and food available throughout the day. The lunch time snacks are generally english.... everything comes with chips, but they are very tasty.

The hotel is near the main drag of shops and restaurants but is set far enough back for the noise not to be an issue. The peddlers constant nagging is a nuisance. But they can be quickly silenced with a no thank you. Olu Deniz seems to be soley designed for British holiday makers so don't expect it to be cheap! The restaurants have very similar prices to the UK. About 10-12 GBP for a main course. There is a lot of english food on offer and little traditional turkish food which i found a bit of a shame. One place with good turkish food and lots of variety is Sultan Ahmets. It is quite pricey but there are large portions of very good food and the staff are pleasant. We didn't find Azda until the last day.. .but this is defeitely the better of the supermarkets with the cheaper prices.

The blue lagoon is advertised as being 80m away but it is more like a 25min walk. This can be very taxing in the scorching heat. You pay a small amount to get in to the National park for entry into the Blue lagoon. I don't know if our expectations were too high or if it was due to the time of year .... but the Blue lagoon was a bit dissappointing really. The place was rammed with people, the water was more grey than blue and the pebbly beach was fair inferior to the free one up the road. I think to get the best view of it paragliding is the way to go.

The best thing about Olu Deniz defintely has to be the beach. There are bars on the beach at night which offer lovely cocktails on bean bags by candlelight. Definitely worth a look.

If you're looking for a traditional piece of turkey, this probably isn't for you. The resort is pretty soul-less and is centred around package holidays for Brits. Before the hoilday we spent time researching and reading reviews. On arrival we didn't feel that this research prepared us for the type of resort. So although it is just our personal opinion hopefully this will give you a better idea of what to expect.