La Blanche Resort & Spa

We came to the LaBlanch Resort and Spa for a 2 week holiday. This is my first review. I hope it will be seen as fair. I will definitely try praise and critique where due. First think to Remember, it’s Turkey, so very common to see stray cats and dogs in almost every where you go (the dogs aren’t in the hotel grounds but there are cats pottering about the hotel quite the thing) They are friendly with people and looked after by everyone. I had to pet everyone I saw! Bus sometimes you will see the dogs chasing other dogs and barking at them, so, if you don’t like cats or dogs, then maybe avoid Turkey. It’s about an hour in a taxi from the airport. We didn’t realise that the hotel isn’t actually in Bodrum. It’s in Turgutreis which is nice. The hotel is about a 10 minute walk to the main part of town, so pretty close but far enough away. There’s a lovely marina with lots of fish swimming and cafes all around. Lots of clothes shops, bars and restaurants, market on Saturdays and let’s not forget to mention pharmacies. Things that you need a prescription for or pay through the nose for back home are available to buy over the counter and so much cheaper! There’s also a store called U2 where you can book excursions at a much cheaper price than the rep would sell them. There’s also a hut on the beach at the hotel where you can book parasailing (I did. Was great), hire jet ski’s and do other water based activities. They are very nice and friendly. No pushy sales. If you do want to do something water based, don’t wait to the last minute to do it. Especially the parasailing because the wind levels are a factor in deciding if you can go out that day. Top tip! Go at the start of your holiday. Tell him what you want to do and give the guy your number. He will message when the weather is perfect for it. Anyway…the hotel. General overview of the hotel. The hotel not amazing. Definitely not 5/ 4 star plus but not bad. It’s tired and a little dated in parts, particularly in the rooms and shower rooms where a general all over update would be good. Some of the spots around hotel are lovely. The pool at night looks great and you can watch the sunset from the lobby bar. Other than at reception, none of the staff speak much English, which is fine as they all probably speak other languages. Google translate is useful here and you will see the staff and guests using it. It’s actually nice to see people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to communicate (past a drinks order) actually having a conversation. The rooms you see in the hotel’s pictures are exactly what you get but were obviously taken when it was first done. We upgraded to a superior room with pool view. Was a good size but the end panels of the furniture was peeling and splitting, the bathroom door doesn’t properly close and couldn’t lock, there is silicone coming off around the shower and the base panel of the shower kept falling off. The toilet seat was too small for the toilet and our patio door didn’t lock either. We did mention the patio door to the staff for repair but it never got fixed. It wasn’t a huge issue as we were on the 3rd floor anyway. The bed was not very comfortable, pillows are rubbish (They really need to be replaced as they were lumpy and not comfortable at all) and the duvet was too small for the bed. We woke up most mornings not feeling well rested and achey. Another thing is that the staff love to wheel a trolly load of plates up and down the corridor at 1 in the morning. Can’t tell you how loud and annoying that was. Just change your wheels and that would make a huge difference. Another thing worth mentioning is the fridges in the room. WARM. Even on their coldest setting, you would be lucky if they were below 10’c and although it was kept well stocked with water and juices everyday, nothing was cold enough to properly enjoy. Food. The main restaurant for breakfast is ok. I had pancakes most days and the fruit is nice too, although I really wanted a kiwi but they didn’t have them. Lunch and dinner not great at all. The buffet restaurant doesn’t really cater for British guests, so there wasn’t much that I felt was worth eating and the food that brits would know such as spaghetti bolognaise was terrible. They did have lots of tasty pastries and breads, some of the desserts were really nice. There are 4 al a carte restaurants. I went to 3 of them. They were really nice. We had Italian, Asian and Turkish. They are very popular and must be booked between 10 and 12 on the day. So be quick. They are popular. There’s a beach bar. You order food using the QR code. The food there is simple but really nice. Chicken fingers and chips. Pasta, burgers etc. We ate there often. The ice cream! DELICIOUS! No joke. Up there with some of the nicest I’ve had. Especially the chocolate. There were about 5 or 6 flavours. If you get bored of the food, go to Uncles about 10 mins walk along the road. You will sit on the roof, watch the sunset and have the best steak. Little pricey but well worth it! You’ll probably meet Bob the dog who will lay at your feet under the table to keep cool. We actually met someone on a day trip who asked where we were staying. When we mentioned the hotel name, the first thing she said was “the food - no good”. That was coming from someone who lived in Turkey. The hotel staff. Some of them are great. Very friendly, smiling lots and helpful. Others look like they are gonna cry or pass out and the rest look miserable. They are kept very busy and some look exhausted. I commented on one boy who looked like he was exhausted and about to pass out. We didn’t see him the remainder of our stay. We naturally interacted with the happy staff. They definitely deserve mentioning and praised. Dali, who is always walking about interacting with all the guests and making them laugh and getting them to take part in the pool side entertainment. The man must work 20 hours a day and is always smiling and dancing. We saw him everyday. Have a day off! Hakunamatata will always make me think of him and not the lion king. Mehmet, one of the waiters at the lobby bar and the other guy. None of us can remember his name which is a shame because he was also so nice. Both were so friendly and attentive. Always happy to speak with us, shaking our hand everyday greeting us with a good morning/ good evening, getting us our drinks and getting our order correct (which was always changed in some way or made complicated). Ibrahiem (sorry about the spelling) who works by the pool is very friendly and helpful. He was happy to help in any way he could and was very polite. We bumped into him one evening when we’re left the hotel and instantly recognised us from the hotel and spoke to us for a bit. The cleaning lady that we had was very friendly. Greeted us with a big wave every day. Couldn’t speak a word of English and us not being able to speak any Turkish made for some funny interactions but was always smiling and looking happy. The lady who greets you at the restaurant as you go into the buffet. She was just so friendly and had the biggest smile! The hotels evening entertainment. Out of the 2 weeks we were here only one of the nice was worth sitting through. It was a soul band and they were really good. Other nights were terrible. There was also a beach club what was always busy. It wasn’t for us but was always lots of people enjoying it! The pool and grounds are lovely. Palm trees and flowers everywhere. The pool was big and not too cold. We always got “our spot” by the pool. There is also a deck the goes down along the beach where you can lie on loungers by the sea. It’s pretty nice too! The spa. We used the spa on a number of occasions. We had a Turkish bath which was lovely, scrubbing away all your dead skin and giving you a massage. If you haven’t had one before, then you should absolutely try it. Have one at the start of the holiday and it will set you up for getting a great tan. We also booked in for another 3 massages each, not cheap (spending around £400) but very enjoyable! The last day put a downer on our holiday a little. We asked about extending our room midway through our holiday and were told to come to reception between 9 and 10 on the day we were leaving and they would sort out a late check out, at a cost, that we were more than happy to pay, as our flight wasn’t until 21:35, so, as you can imagine, hanging about all day with no room wouldn’t be ideal. We were told on the day that there were no rooms available as they were fully booked and we couldn’t extend our check out time. I don’t believe for one moment that they didn’t already know that. Majority of people book their holidays well in advance. This information could have been passed over when we asked mid way through our holiday when we originally asked and saved us the frustration on our last day. The hotel is ok and but it’s not as nice as the pictures show. The food is ok, you’ll probably find something to eat. As mentioned at the start, it’s not 4 star plus as rated online. I would say 3 start at best. That being said, overall, we enjoyed our stay but La Blanche Resort and Sap wasn’t for us and we won’t be back. That being said, if you can see past some of the issues and aren’t looking for anything too fancy and just want to chill then definitely consider this hotel. Remember, tip your waiters.

As I write this I am currently sat by the pool of the hotel on our last day. This hotel is not bad. It’s not great either though and although we have had a negative experience here on a few occasions I will be fair in my review. Rooms. We had upgraded to a superior room and whilst they are of a decent size with a shower room and a pool view they are tired. I had expected from the pictures on the Jet2 website that the rooms be of a decent standard. The balcony door did not lock at all. I didn’t feel unsafe in this though as you’d need to be Spider-Man to climb the balcony to get into the room. The shower room door also didn’t lock or latch closed in our room either 5304. The silicone around the shower was peeling away. Toilet seat didn’t fit properly and the panel at the bottom of the shower tray kept coming loose. The rooms don’t need much but with these things I don’t see it being a 4 star plus hotel. Food. This hotel is in no way catered to British tastes. The buffet does themed nights most nights so when the theme of one of the a la carte restaurants is on, that restaurant is closed. I have to say that the a la carte restaurants are decent so get there on the day at 10am and book if you want a decent meal. There is a big selection of breakfast items and lunch too but we preferred to not eat from the buffet as it was honestly quite tasteless and just bland. Even on themed nights it was more miss than hit. The snack bar down by the beach does a QR code table service and the food there is actually quite nice. The a la carte restaurants they have are a fish restaurant, Chinese, Italian and Turkish. If you want a decent meal though I’d recommend walking 15 minutes into Turgutreis town and visiting a place called Uncles which is right on the beachfront. They do a mean steak. Cleanliness. I have to say that whilst we did get fresh towels each day, the time that the cleaners came differed each day. In 2 weeks I think that our bedding was changed once? Our cleaner was absolutely lovely and really happy which was nice to see as most of the other staff do seem a bit downtrodden. The hotel itself is quite clean and spills and such do get picked up quickly. You will get the odd kid spilling food on the floor which in inevitable. Staff. The staff at the hotel do not speak a great deal of English. The wait staff in the lobby bar will bring you drinks to your table. A special thank you to Mehmet. He was always lovely and remembered our drink orders. There was another waiter but his name escapes me who was also excellent. Shook your hand every night and asked how you were. Ibriham at the pool was also lovely and the girl who greets you as you enter the buffet are among the good members of staff. The rest however do not seem to enjoy their jobs and have as little to do with you as possible. Service. The service at the hotel. Isn’t the best I’ve ever had. I think it’s just the beginning of the season here as we arrived on 10th June. One waiter honestly looked like he was going to faint one night and I’ve not seen him since. They are obviously ran ragged. On our second last day we asked reception if we could have a late check out. We were told to come back the next day between 9am and 10am to do this. So we did. We got told the hotel was fully booked and no rooms were available. We have a late flight tonight and our check out time is 12pm. Almost and entire day without a room here. We have been told that we can put our belongings in the luggage room and use the spa to shower and change. I checked booking.com and there is a room available to the reception staff lied to us. To be honest it’s left a bad impression as the last day of our holiday. Spa. We booked ourself for a Turkish bath and massage. Something you should absolutely do when coming to turkey. My skin after it was soft and smoothe and it prepped me for getting a decent tan. After my massage a guy come into the room to explain what the massage therapist had found. Normally they tell me I have lower back pain which I do get from time to time. What this guy explained to me though was that I had scoliosis which I found hilarious. He was trying to upsell more treatments which I wanted anyway but I definitely do not have scoliosis. 3 massages later he must think I’m cured. We should have got 4 face masks with our treatments which we never got. In conclusion though it’s not a great hotel. It’s not bad though either. Middle of the road and to be honest, I wouldn’t see myself coming back

From Suzie & Lynz (Linda) 08.06.5 to 18.06.25. Arriving at 2.00a,m. to find our request for a Twin Room had been ignored and we were allocated a room with a large bed with a view of a few shrubs. On returning to Reception, and after a lot of discussion we were then given room 4112 with a view to looking at a Twin Room later that same morning. Again after some discussion and having viewed the Twin Room we decided we would prefer to stay where we were in 4112. Hotel was very good the dining room was huge with a very large range of different foods. The only downside was the fact that the food was not very hot. We did mention this to the Guest Reception. We dined in the Asian/Chinese twice and thoroughly enjoyed the food in there. Housekeeping in our room was ok. Sometime we were left without towels and needed to ring the Housekeeping Team to arrange delivery. The Bars in and around the hotel were amazing and the staff very welcoming. The Pool area was very large but I would say that they did not have enough parasols for the guests. This caused one or two disagreements around the pool when people were just taking them from different areas or just sitting in someones area. Regarding the Animation/Entertainment/Technical Team - what a great bunch of people they ere. They put so much effort into everything they did and got everyone involved with what was happening both during the day and in the evening. Our special thanks go to Dali, Didi, Tito, Eddie, Jacub, Ahu (Technial Team) who made our holiday such fun. Thank you also to Aybars Inceoren who every day made us feel so welcome and helped us with any queries we had. We are hoping to come back soon but in the meantime our best wishes to all of you.

Great holiday , hotel is excellent in lots of ways , food very good lots of choice and drinks good as well , some lovely little extra touches such as free ice cream etc, main restaurant can be very busy and hectic the Al la carte restaurants are very good , pool is lovely and lots to do for kids and adults during the day and the evening entainment is very good ., all the staff can't do enough for you .The town is only a 10 minute walk away and certainly worth a visit for shopping etc. I would give this resort 9 / 10 . Only small problems rooms need some updating and the house keeping could be better.

Great Hotel with all inclusive everything available, very good staff and reception, special thanks to the Animation team, Tito and Dali has made our days very nice and entertaining, never felt bored because of these guys, very professional, kind and social, helping with all of them, also thanks to the rest of the animation team, great stay.