Aqua Fantasy Aquapark Hotel & Spa

We have just returned from a 10 night stay and we had a wonderful, relaxing holiday just what we needed 2A 2C age 14 and 12, but we have given 4/5 because in some areas of service it just needs improvement. Food is varied and there is something to eat for every palette, the restaurant experience in the bookable restaurants was disappointing when staying in past hotels booking these restaurants meant you would get an experience but we just didn’t get this from The steakhouse or The Chinese, it was basically sit down and there’s your food it was all just a bit flat. The snack area is good serving pizza, burgers etc the only downside is the service can be slow, food on some sections takes ages to be ready for example the waffle station never had waffles just ready to pick and go and the guy on the kebab spit thing just had one speed (snails pace) The lobby bar was our favourite place for drinks, the cocktails were lovely and the staff are all friendly and nothing is too much trouble. We used the main pool everyday and never struggled to get a bed, the bar here is good and again nothing is too much trouble drinks wise . The staff at The Beech Bar were a bit off so we only went once, they just seemed reluctant to actually serve you. The coffee shop serves the best coffee and the cakes are gorgeous, we went everyday. The ice cream is very good and to solve the lack of ice cream in the buffet in the evening we just took a bowl over and brought it back in to have with a cake. Apart from these little niggles we had a great time, my boys were happy with the waterpark, just a shame you can’t get included drinks in there so constantly back and forth but we all got our steps in 😆 Our hotel room was modern and clean, our cleaner was a lovely lady and if the mini bar wasn’t filled I would just message using the app and it would be filled within an hour. The hotel and grounds are immaculate the staff work really hard to keep it looking nice also I was worried about the wasp and hornet situation but it wasn’t that bad, every now and again I would have to bat one away 😆

We’ve had a really good family holiday at Aqua Fantasy and there is plenty to like. However, having stayed at several other all-inclusive family resorts, our overall feeling is that while many of the individual elements here are very good, they don’t quite come together to create the seamless resort experience we expected. One of the real highlights is the accommodation. The family rooms have a great and fairly unique design, giving parents and children their own spaces while keeping everyone together. They can also be paired with a standard room for larger families – something we haven’t seen elsewhere. Our rooms were modern, clean and very well maintained, with excellent housekeeping and room service. The staff also deserve particular mention. The service we’ve received across all areas of the hotel has been exceptional – friendly, helpful and consistently excellent throughout our stay. The aquapark is fantastic and our children absolutely loved it, but it feels surprisingly separate from the hotel. You leave the hotel area and cross a car park to reach it and, importantly, the hotel’s all-inclusive food and drinks aren’t available once inside (although this is made clear in the holiday information). This meant we tended to limit how long we stayed – having already paid for all-inclusive, we were reluctant to spend significantly more on food and drinks for a family of six, particularly on hot days. Rather than moving seamlessly between the hotel and aquapark, we generally found ourselves choosing one or the other. There are plenty of sunbeds around the hotel pools, so thankfully no 8am scramble. The downside is that many seem to be reserved by guests who then disappear to the aquapark for hours, making it difficult later in the day to know which are genuinely being used and which have simply been abandoned with hotel towels left behind. The beach is good, but surprisingly for an all-inclusive resort there is no Aqua Fantasy beach bar. The nearby bar that appears to be part of the complex actually belongs to the neighbouring TUI hotel and isn’t available to Aqua Fantasy guests. To get a drink, you need to leave the beach, pass back through the hotel gates to the nearest bar and then return. Again, it makes the beach feel slightly detached from the all-inclusive experience and meant we tended not to spend as long there as we otherwise might. The food is good, but we found the overall choice and variety more limited than at other all-inclusive resorts. We did have a lovely meal at the Italian restaurant, which was a real highlight. Our children were also amazed by the lack of readily available ice cream! There is essentially one ice-cream outlet for the whole hotel, it isn’t open all day, and there isn’t ice cream with desserts in the main restaurant – a strange omission for a large family all-inclusive resort. For us, though, the biggest thing missing is the evening experience. The entertainment itself can be excellent – the fire show was outstanding – but the entertainment area feels detached from the rest of the hotel. There isn’t that central, well-lit outdoor space where families naturally gather after dinner for a drink, conversation or a game of cards. We’ve experienced that evening holiday vibe at many other all-inclusive resorts and really missed it here. The hotel appears to have the space to create it, and we think it would transform the feel of the resort. We were also surprised that, for an “All Inclusive Plus” hotel (as marketed by Jet2holidays), activities such as bingo, bowling and billiards cost extra. We don’t mind paying a small amount for additional activities, but bowling was around £6 per person – £36 for our family of six – which feels expensive and not far off UK prices. Even the games and video tables in the bowling area carry additional charges. Lower, more nominal pricing would feel much more in keeping with an “All Inclusive Plus” family resort. The location is also worth considering. There isn’t a town or much else within walking distance, so this is very much a resort-based holiday – making the on-site facilities and evening atmosphere even more important. That leads to our overriding impression. There isn’t one particular thing we could point to as being fundamentally wrong with Aqua Fantasy. In fact, many parts are excellent. It just feels like a hotel that has evolved into what it is today rather than somewhere designed from the outset as one seamless all-inclusive aquapark resort. Somehow, the individual parts haven’t quite been stitched together. We have experienced other Turkish all-inclusive resorts, at a comparable price at the time, where for our family the whole concept simply felt more seamless. Two years ago we enjoyed one so much that, almost as soon as we returned home, we booked it again for the following year. We chose Aqua Fantasy this year because we wanted to try somewhere different rather than return to the same place for a third year. We’ve had a really good holiday here, and some members of our family would happily return. But we’re not leaving with quite that same feeling of “we have to come back next year.” For us, that probably says more about our overall experience than any individual criticism could. Aqua Fantasy has lots going for it and could easily be someone else’s perfect family holiday. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time here – it just hasn’t quite won us over in the same way as some of the other resorts we’ve experienced. (If the hotel team reads this review, we would genuinely welcome a response to some of the specific points we’ve raised. We’ve taken the time to share them constructively because we’ve enjoyed our stay and believe Aqua Fantasy has the potential to be even better, so a meaningful response would be much more appreciated than a standard “thank you for your feedback and we hope to welcome you back” reply.)