Swandor Topkapi Palace Hotel

The hotel is excellent, the room in particular is great, we have a duplex and there is plenty of space for our family of four. There is also a lot of space around the pool and no need to rush to get up too early to secure a sunbed. The pier is also brilliant both on the day and at night time. Our children loved the aqua park too! We only have a couple of negatives, the lifts in the building are very slow and only have two working during the height of the summer. The other negative is getting a table at the buffet is a nightmare. However there is plenty of food on option during breakfast, lunch and dinner! The ala cart restaurants are great and the staff in all areas are incredibly friendly and helpful! All in all we would recommend this hotel to our friends. Thank you for a wonderful stay!

Great experience altogether, beautiful surroundings, amazing service, hard working staff, the food was amazing, we loved trying different traditional Turkish dishes all to the sound of traditional Turkish live music. Five stars!

We stayed at Swandor Topkapi Palace expecting a 5-star all-inclusive experience, but unfortunately it fell well short of our expectations.

There are positives. The resort is very family-focused, with plenty of pools, activities and things for children to do, and there is certainly no shortage of food and drink. Our children had a good time, which was important to us.

However, the biggest disappointment was the overall quality. The resort was extremely crowded during our stay, and at times it felt as though the facilities simply weren’t sufficient for the number of guests. Rather than feeling relaxing, many areas felt busy and hectic.

The food is plentiful and there is a huge amount of choice, but we found the quality fairly average and the buffet repetitive. We expected considerably better from a hotel marketed as 5-star.

The evening entertainment was also surprisingly lacklustre. For such a large resort with so many guests, we expected the shows and entertainment programme to be one of its strengths, but we generally found it underwhelming.

Service was inconsistent. We understand the hotel operates seasonally rather than throughout the year, which perhaps contributes to the lack of consistency between staff. Some were very good and clearly worked extremely hard, while the overall service experience varied considerably.

One thing that genuinely concerned us was the use of glass around the pool. During our stay we saw drinking glasses being broken in the pool area, and with so many children walking around barefoot, we couldn’t understand why glass was being used there at all.

The rooms were adequate, but again didn’t feel particularly luxurious, and we found the beds uncomfortable. More generally, parts of the resort feel dated and the overall experience lacks the polish and attention to detail we would expect from a 5-star property.

It’s not a terrible hotel, and families primarily looking for lots of activities, unlimited food and drink and a lively atmosphere may really enjoy it. However, if you’re choosing Swandor Topkapi Palace because you’re expecting a premium 5-star experience, we would suggest managing your expectations.

Ultimately, there is plenty of quantity, but for us there wasn’t enough quality. At this price point and star rating, we expected significantly better.