Duja Didim

stayed at Duja Didim as a party of seven, including children. Overall, we had an okay holiday, but unfortunately it didn't live up to what we expect from a 5-star hotel. There were definitely some positives. The hotel grounds are beautiful, with lots of swimming pools spread around the resort. We loved staying in the Village rooms – they were lovely, clean and well looked after. The housekeeping staff were wonderful, and our children were always excited to see the towel art left on the beds. The sea was beautiful too, although the beach itself is quite small and rocky. The water park was fantastic and was one of the highlights of the holiday for my husband and children. The hotel surroundings were also clean and well maintained. Also wanted to mention that we got a cake in our room not sure why but a nice touch thank you for that ! Unfortunately, the food was the biggest disappointment for all seven of us. It was very repetitive, basic and lacked flavour. The grilled chicken, in particular, was tasteless and seemed to have no seasoning. Lunch was especially disappointing with very little variety. There was only one evening where we genuinely enjoyed the food, with dishes including lamb, beef and rice cooked in bread, which was absolutely delicious. Sadly, when we went back for more it had already run out. The desserts were also disappointing. A couple were nice, but most tasted exactly the same and had a gelatin-like texture. Even our children, who usually love desserts, refused them most days. Another let down with the restaurant was the flies around the food , big let down for us . Disgusting 🤢 The drinks were inconsistent. A few bartenders made lovely drinks exactly as requested, but others seemed to serve whatever they wanted. Soft drinks often came with so much ice that the cup was only half full. On our last day I ordered a cappuccino and received a drink made with overheated milk that barely tasted of coffee, along with a different drink than the one I had ordered. The Starbucks area was another disappointment. The girls serving there were quite rude and made us feel as though we were inconveniencing them by ordering. The waffle station was also underwhelming. There was only chocolate sauce available as a topping, which isn't what I'd expect from a 5-star resort. The waffles were stacked into a large pile, making them flat and unappealing, and the whole area looked greasy and untidy. The entertainment was another let-down. I can see why many people praise the entertainment team, but we hardly saw them during our stay. Because the main pool was too deep for our children (150 cm), we spent most of our time at the smaller 120 cm pool near our room. The entertainment team never came to that area, despite many families staying there. The photographers were the same – they only came to our pool on our final day. It would be much nicer if these activities were spread across all pool areas instead of just the main one. There were also a couple of maintenance issues that should have been dealt with more quickly. One of the plastic drainage grates around our pool was broken for at least three days and nobody repaired it. We also saw a sun umbrella fall over twice onto guests because it wasn't properly secured, yet it still hadn't been fixed by the time we left. The beach bar toilets deserve a special mention because they were spotless. The lady looking after them was constantly cleaning with a smile on her face and did a fantastic job. We managed to book the Asian à la carte restaurant as it was the only complimentary option available before we left. We had hoped to try the Italian restaurant, but it wasn't open. The Asian restaurant was enjoyable, especially the dessert, although we were disappointed that no rice was served with the main course and the staff refused our request to bring the hot starters we had asked for. Overall, we had a pleasant enough holiday, but this is not a hotel I would rate as 5-star. You do get what you pay for, but for a similar price I believe there are much better hotels available. Sadly, we wouldn't return.

Recently returned after a week’s stay, 2 adults and 2 children. Went with an open mind after reading the reviews, sadly a lot of them were right.

Definitely not a 5* hotel so don’t go with that expectation. The grounds are absolutely beautiful and everywhere is clean and tidy. 98% of the staff were very pleasant and Charlie the rep was fab!

The family room was a lot smaller than it seemed. As a family of 4 it was very tight and claustrophobic with nowhere to store luggage. The small pools outside the rooms are warm and pleasant we spent a lot of time there.

It is i’m afraid a place for sun-bed wars. If you don’t get up at 6:30/7am to put your towels out you’ve got no chance of getting a bed around the main pools. It’s the sort of place where people leave their towels out all day but don’t actually come to them until 5pm (witnessed this every day). The pools are really really cold so we couldn’t spend much time in there as the kids turned blue. The music is also unbearable how loud it is and really ruined the experience. I can’t begin to put into words how loud it is and ironically nobody sat near to the speakers. Water park is great! Again you need to get there early to get a bed.

The beach isn’t a beach and is just like gravel with a bit of dirt/sand mixed in. It is also rocks into the sea so we only went in once as you just cut your feet to shreds. Definitely need swim shoes. They also lock access for this really early. The beach was very disappointing.

Typical all inclusive food, nothing special. It is every man for himself in there, so much pushing and shoving, people cutting in the queue etc. Hard to find a table at peak times so I would recommend going as soon as it opens or before it shuts. Lots of flies but the staff do clean tables quickly. The queues are so long to get the food which was off-putting. Drinks were hit and miss, depended what bar you went to. Starbucks was ok, staff quite rude down there and they always seemed to be ‘out’ of drinks apart from standard black coffee so you spend 20 minutes queuing for nothing. They could do with putting signs up to save waiting.

The resort is SO windy. Every day we were there the main slides were shut because of it. Boiling hot weather but the wind is insane. Appreciate this isn’t the hotels fault, but if you don’t like wind then this is not the right place to come. It’s also really slippy, please be careful when walking around on the paths. Terrible design and the amount of people that fell over (us included).

Entertainment was not that great either. Nothing really for the kids apart from a disco which was on quite late. There is a kids club which we didn’t use as a lot of the activities in there you had to pay for. For adults it was just generic singers. Been to other places in Turkey where it was much better. We weren’t that fussed about this anyway so didn’t really impact the holiday.

Overall it was nice to get away but we wouldn’t come here again. I think if you were just adults coming it wouldn’t be so bad, but with kids I just don’t think it’s the right place, they were bored and facilities are very limited sadly.