Rixos Beldibi

Beautiful setting area, stunning sea view, with the mountains watching over. Amazing and attentive staff organizing lots of daily activities and ensuring all guests are comfortable during their stay.

Before departure we read a number of negative reviews, and frankly... we were somewhat worried. For no reason, however. We had a great holiday. Let's break it down in a few topics: 1) We arrived late in the evening. As we checked in, a staff member immediately brought our luggage to the room. We were late for supper, but there were some sandwiches and such at the midnight snackbar. Nothing too fancy, but adequate. 2) The room (1341) was clean and comfy. We had a spectacular frontal mountain view, and a sideview on the sea. No bath in the bathroom, but a spacious shower. 3) The hotel domain (see pictures) is spectacular. The garden is delightful and very well tended, with orangetrees, flowerbeds, palm trees and a variety of swinging chairs and covered and uncovered sunbeds in the swimming pool area, the garden and at the beach. The chirping of the cycads in the garden is quite the experience when you first hear it. The swimming pool is big and 1,40 meters in depth. The largest side-to-side-distance is approximately 45 meters, which is great for swimming lengths. I noticed a special contraption for helping wheelchair-users as well, which is quite thoughtful. IMPORTANT : no towel race at all. There were plenty of sunbeds at all times, and there was never a 'crowded' feeling at all. Delightful ! 4) We read some criticism about the food in earlier reviews : food being cold, lack of variation, cats in the restaurant, etcetera. Be assured : none of that was true. We've visited several 5*-all-in-hotels in Turkey, Dominican Republic, Kenya, etc... and the kitchen team in Magic Life Beldibi definitely stands up to comparison with all of them. - Cold food : never. Not even once. - Lack of variation : nope. Sure, breakfast and lunch had quite the number of dishes that ware provided on a daily basis, but the choice is so abundant... well, you can easily assemble a completely different breakfast every day of the week. Same goes for the lunch in the outdoor "Downtown" restaurant next to the pool : we had ample possibilities to enjoy varied lunches day after day. The supper was on another level though. Plenty of variation. Some evenings there was a especially refined starter dish (example : see picture). There was a huge variety of warm meat/fish/veggie/pizza dishes, cold dishes (see picture), fruit, vegetables and wide scala of desserts. - Cats : yes, there are cats. Beldibi is teeming with stray cats. Cats are free animals, and go where they please, so yes : you'll see some cats in the hotel as well. There was this pair of a ginger and a grey cat that were always present in the lunch restaurant, but they are NOT a nuisance. They are friendly, and yes : they sometimes look at you with those big "Food ?"-eyes, but that's all there is to say about it. - Service : the staff members were extremely helpful, friendly and fast to remove empty plates or refill glasses. We'd like to commend one person in particular, being Ayse in the lunch restaurant. She was outstanding. 5) Beach : the private beach is a combination of rough sand and rocks. There's a lovely pier with sunbeds and parasols. In front of the pier is the towel desk. On the beach itself sea turtles lay eggs. Special contraptions are used to safeguard these eggs till the day they hatch. Nice ! 6) The complete absence of kids (< 16) was a revelation. The difference was even bigger than expected. Serenity all over the place. 7) Animation : although we never take part in animation activities, it was obvious to see that the team did a great job. Most of the time the volume of the music in the vicinity of the pool was very enjoyable. It's there, but not too loud. Quite perfect for our taste, actaually. 8) Drinks : there was a "included" selection of drinks (local stuff, cocktails and mocktails, water, juices and the typical syrup-based soft drinks), next to a non-included selection of branded drinks. Decent enough for the garden, beach and pool areas. There were also a number of strategically placed refrigerators with bottles of mineral water. Handy ! No criticism at all then ? No. There is one minor thing that could have been better. The quality of the dinner in the evening in the Magico-restaurant was - as stated above - excellent, but having the same syrup-based soft drinks to go with that felt somewhat... wrong. The all-inclusive formula would gain an extra notch of 'shinyness' by providing "real" drinks (as in : bottled ones - the taste IS uncomparable after all). And on the same topic : the minibar in the room has some bottles of mineral water, as well as two 20cl bottles each of Fanta, Coca Cola and soda water. Mineral water is freely replenished daily. The other 6 bottles are free, but won't be replenished unless you pay for it. Again, this is a practice I didn't expect from a 5* all-inclusive resort. I don't expect champagne, expensive wines, foreign specialty beers or branded spirits to be free, but simple bottled softdrinks ? Those should be included i.m.h.o. , at least in the supper restaurant and in the minibar. 9) Staff : friendly, helpful, etc... Nothing but praise for the people who do their utmost best to provide us a good time. 10) Sports accomodation (tennis, fitness, ...), spa, hairdresser, etc... : it's all there, but we didn't use any of it because of the high temperatures (first day : 37 °C). Hence I can't really say anything relevant about it. 11) Nighttime noise : people who appreciate silence in the evening/night should definitely avoid the room we stayed in (1341), at the end of the wing close to the pool and animation area. It's on top of the night club and closest to the animation stage. We would have asked for different room if we'd known this up front. If you appreciate silence in the evening hours, ask for a room in one of the other wings of the building or close to the reception area. (Some evenings were okay, but some others - like thursday july, 3 for instance - were terrible till approx. 2 a.m.) I'm probably overlooking some aspects now, but I think I covered the most important things. Bottom line : negative older reviews can be ignored for all I care. Either they were wrong, or they were true but management took care of the issues in the meanwhile. If we return to the Antalya region in the future, it will definitely be in TUI Magic Life Beldibi.