White Gold Hotel & Spa

I found our stay at the White Gold and Spa lovely. The staff were accommodating, kind and welcoming. My friend and I booked an all-inclusive package and found it surprising. I found the hotel food choice limiting due to my nut and peanut allergy as I did not know what ingredients they contained. The kitchen and hospitality team were kind to point out what I could and could not eat. However, I found the desserts very restricting as they contained pistachio, almonds and other nuts. I did ask for the name of the dessert and pictures due to the language barrier. I often ate peaches, watermelon and nectarines. I spoke to the guest relations manager and they listened and let us know that they would action this for other guests. The hotel also has a good entertainment team who do exceptionally well to provide disco, dance and water activities to guests and families. I would like to give special thanks to the staff for making our stay wonderful.

We just returned from a holiday at this hotel. There were three of us in our group. Right upon arrival in the early morning hours, we noticed that the advertised “five stars” — both by the travel agency and the hotel itself — were not accurate. The overall appearance was relatively clean and okay, but for example, our hotel room was definitely no more than two-star quality. Beds were fine. Air-condition, well, it worked but superdirty and did not work correctly. Showercomplex was out of wall etc small issues. Already during the arrival, we were told: “Would you like to upgrade your room category for an extra fee? You can do that in the morning when my friend comes” I asked, “What the hell?” but didn’t receive a response. Also, upon arrival at night, no food or drinks were offered — no water, no sandwich. We were simply handed the hotel’s “instructions” as a printout, which was so poorly printed that there wasn’t enough ink to finish the job. At breakfast, we initially admired the presentation — it looked really beautiful to us. However, the absolute worst part was that nothing meant to be hot was actually hot, and nothing meant to be cold was cold. We tried to eat only things that we knew wouldn’t spoil quickly. This was quite disturbing. There’s only one coffee machine, and it's filthy — we never dared to use it. One juice machine. For the entire restaurant. The “all-inclusive bar” was on the level of a basic 1–2 star setup. One bottle each of the cheapest vodka, gin, whisky, white wine, red wine, and rosé. Plus a soda dispenser. Thankfully, the beer was cold! At the beach, there’s no hotel bar — only a paid one. It was pretty annoying having to run back and forth between the beach and the bar. Also, you can’t get water anywhere in this five-star hotel, except by begging at the reception — and even then, it’s warm. So, buy your own water! Just don’t drink the tap water or use ice! The hotel spa was nice, and the hammam treatment is recommended. The gym is so miserable that it should just be demolished. There’s nothing you can do in there. Everything is old, broken, rusty — practically unusable. So forget about the gym. There were a few “salesmen” wandering around the hotel offering services. Nice guys, but the moment the money stops flowing, so does the charm. We were aware of this dynamic, but it was still amusing to observe the sudden shift. It's business, after all. The all-inclusive offering for children is awful. Basically, it’s just Coca-Cola and Sprite. Nothing extra. There was one ice cream freezer, but when I inquired, the ice creams were only available for purchase at an overpriced rate. I can’t say anything about the evening entertainment, as we didn’t attend any. The disco seemed to be thumping nicely though. The lira-to-euro exchange situation is interesting. The rates varied wildly from vendor to vendor each day. Be very careful how much you’re paying. The nearby streets are full of massively overpriced junk — something priced at 100 euros might eventually be sold to you for 10. So pay attention. Traffic is extremely dangerous. Cars don’t yield to pedestrians. If you don’t move, you’ll die. Be prepared for this. The end of our holiday was horrible. We enjoyed ourselves for three days until the youngest in our group fell ill. Through a “nurse” at the hotel — who spoke very poor English — we were able to get a doctor, who prescribed some kind of drugs to be picked up at a pharmacy. It was a stomach bug and diarrhea, with one of us running a high fever, while the rest had a mild temperature. I got hit worse the next day and had to return to the same nurse — ended up vomiting while waiting for the doctor. The doctor called an ambulance that took me to the hospital for a day. Let’s just say, thankfully they gave me something intravenously — no one told me what. I saw the doctor once, for about a minute, as I was discharged. I sincerely hope you never have to go to a hospital in Turkey :) That one day could fill a book, but let me summarize: have maximum travel insurance and don’t get sick in Turkey. After that, I gave my meds to the third member of our group, who started showing symptoms too. On the last evening before departure, there was diarrhea, fever, and vomiting again. We somehow made it back home — I don’t even know how — but this was by far the worst experience of my life. I will never, ever return to a country with this level of hygiene. It was a shock, and the whole chain of events left us traumatized. We were lucky to survive. I was expecting a five-star hotel. Clearly, hotel star ratings mean absolutely nothing. That said — we did enjoy ourselves for those first three days before the nightmare began. I can't say for sure what caused the illness, and I’m not blaming anything specifically, but absolutely: the cold chain must be properly maintained in an all-inclusive setup. Of the hot foods, we only dared to eat grilled items or those we saw being freshly cooked in front of us.