Delphin Be Resort Lara

Early in the holiday so I will update as I go. Right after I checked in, I went to the bar, seen Moscow Mule on the menu (my fav), but to my disappointment they made it with tonic water instead of ginger ale, I tried again today when different staff were on and once again the made it with tonic water……train the staff on your advertised drinks. We got to the room and I will say they are clean and well stocked. Only negative about the room is that they let noise in very easily. We could hear music from our hotel and the hotel adjacent until after midnight. The hotel is so lovely and clean. The Irish bar is not a bar, it’s more just a late night buffet with not the best of food. I couldn’t see any reason why it’s called Irish, but if a joke to be honest. Anyway, as mentioned at the start I will update as I go.

Unbelievable experience. Just got home from the best week at the delphin. I could go on and on about how good it is but be here for along time. Will 100% be back.

We are currently staying at Delphin BE Grand Resort after having our original all-inclusive family holiday to the Belek area cancelled by TUI. We had originally booked a package holiday back in January 2026, but were informed in mid-April that our hotel would not be ready in time for our trip. Unfortunately, the alternative accommodation offered by TUI was nowhere near a like-for-like replacement and fell significantly short in both quality and overall standard compared to what we had originally selected and paid for. As a result, we felt we had no choice but to cancel. However, after already telling our 4-year-old son that we were going to Turkey, we still wanted to make the holiday happen. We ended up booking a Jet2 holiday instead and chose Delphin BE Grand Resort mainly because of its close proximity to Antalya Airport (avoiding the long Belek transfer), the children’s waterpark and splash park, plus the large selection of à la carte restaurants included within the package. This holiday ended up costing us considerably more than our original TUI package, but naturally our expectations for the resort were also much higher. We arrived into Antalya at around 20:30, but after getting through the airport and waiting for other passengers during the coach transfer, we didn’t actually arrive at the hotel until approximately 22:45. By this point we were all exhausted and hungry after travelling through lunch and dinner times with a young child. At reception, we asked if there was anywhere still open to get food and were directed to the Irish Bar. We were verbally told breakfast, lunch and dinner times for the buffet restaurant, but that was essentially the extent of the information provided. I had to specifically ask how we book the à la carte restaurants and was simply told “behind reception.” No further explanation about the resort facilities, booking systems, entertainment or transport options was provided. We were just handed our room and towel cards and sent on our way. I appreciate it was late at night, but this hotel desperately needs to provide guests with an information sheet or welcome guide at check-in. When you’re arriving late with tired young children, trying to remember verbally communicated information is unrealistic and overwhelming. We then went to the Irish Bar expecting typical late-night fast food options such as burgers, chips or snacks. Instead, it was mainly salads, cold meats and desserts. It was adequate enough to fill a hole, but definitely not what we were expecting from an “Irish Bar.” Looking back, we may have actually been able to order complimentary room service on arrival instead of having to take a tired young child down to the Irish Bar at nearly midnight. However, this was never communicated to us at check-in. All we saw in the room was a room service menu, but it clearly had prices listed, so we assumed it was chargeable. I’ve seen comments online suggesting that late-night room service may be included for all-inclusive guests, which makes it even more frustrating that this wasn’t explained anywhere to us. Not sure if this is true? The next morning, we realised we couldn’t even remember what time breakfast finished because everything had only been explained verbally the night before. Again, this could easily be solved with a simple printed information sheet or app introduction at check-in. After breakfast we went “behind reception” to investigate the à la carte restaurant bookings, only to discover it was done via self-service kiosks. To our surprise, absolutely no availability remained — and this was only 9:30am. This was hugely disappointing because one of the MAIN reasons we booked this resort was for the variety of à la carte restaurants. We specifically prefer menu dining in the evenings rather than buffet meals every night, so this was a major selling point for us when choosing this hotel. When I raised this with Guest Relations, I was informed that bookings open at 9am and guests often begin queueing from 8:30am onwards to secure reservations. Honestly, this booking system is ridiculous. It’s not even the queueing itself that annoyed me most — it’s the fact you can stand in line for 30+ minutes and STILL reach the kiosk to find nothing left available. You should not have to set alarms every morning on holiday just to MAYBE secure a restaurant reservation. This is 2026. A resort of this size and standard should have a proper app-based booking system where guests can reserve restaurants conveniently from their phones. To make matters worse, on day two I queued early again and STILL couldn’t get availability at the restaurants we wanted. At this point I was extremely frustrated, and Guest Relations could clearly see this. To be fair, one of the Guest Relations staff members did take the time to sit down with me, note down our concerns from the first 24–48 hours and said the feedback would be passed to management. It’s worth saying that the Guest Services team genuinely did seem like they wanted to help and improve the situation wherever possible. You could tell their hands were often tied by the systems in place, and I didn’t want to come across as a “problem guest” or be rude to them, as they were clearly trying their best within the limits of what they could actually control. Ironically, during this conversation we had with guest services, we then discovered there actually was an app that could apparently be used to book restaurants. — although whether it worked properly is another story entirely. The obvious question is: why were we never told about this app at check-in? Why did it take a complaint for this information to be shared? Another disappointing aspect of the à la carte restaurants was the food temperature once you actually managed to secure a reservation. The food was rarely served piping hot. It became obvious that the restaurants themselves do not have direct kitchens inside them and that the meals are being brought over from elsewhere in the resort. Unfortunately, by the time the food reached our table it was often only lukewarm, and on a few occasions actually cold. For a resort promoting these restaurants as a premium dining experience, this was extremely underwhelming. That said, the overall food choice across the resort was fantastic and there was always plenty of variety in the main buffet restaurants. You would never go hungry and there was a huge range of options available throughout the day. However, I do think the overall food quality could be improved slightly, particularly in the à la carte restaurants, where the experience should feel more premium and elevated compared to the buffet offerings. At lunchtime, we also regularly headed down towards the pathway leading to the beach where there were different kiosks offering food and drinks. This was a nice change of scenery and made lunchtime feel more relaxed compared to the main restaurant areas. One small piece of feedback from our 4-year-old is that although there are fruit carts coming around the waterpark and kids’ areas, they never seemed to have strawberries on them. For him, strawberries were something he really looked forward to, and he actually had to go down at lunchtime to the fresh fruit stand by the toastie kiosk just to get them. It’s a small thing, but for young children it does make a difference when their favourite fruits aren’t readily available around the pool areas. Another great aspect was the drinks service across the resort. If you weren’t using the self-service drink fridges located around the hotel, there was still constant table and poolside service. Staff regularly came around on roller skates and electric bikes taking drink orders, which was both efficient and quite fun to watch. There were also ice carts and fresh fruit carts circulating the pool areas, which was a really nice touch and meant you were never far from something refreshing without having to queue at a bar. Another point worth mentioning is that today three days prior to departure we also used the hotel WhatsApp chat group to ask how much a late check-out would cost. Our coach transfer from the hotel is not until 6pm, and with a young child we wanted to see if it would be possible for him to have a proper shower before leaving. However, we were simply told to enquire at reception on the day of check-out.This wasn’t particularly helpful, as we were trying to plan in advance and understand whether it was even financially realistic. Being told only to ask on the day doesn’t help with planning at all, especially as by that point you’re already preparing to vacate the room at midday and store luggage for several hours. That being said, I do like to give credit where it’s due, and one area this hotel absolutely excelled in was cleanliness — particularly the poolside toilet facilities. Normally when I’m on holiday, if I need to use the restroom while around the pool, I’ll usually walk all the way back to my room because public pool toilets are often dirty, with wet floors and toilet seats from people constantly walking in with wet swimwear. However, this genuinely was not the case here. The toilets around the pools were immaculate at all times of the day, and there always seemed to be an attendant cleaning and maintaining them constantly. It was honestly one of the cleanest poolside restroom facilities I’ve experienced at an all-inclusive resort, and the housekeeping staff responsible deserve recognition for that. However, what made this even more surprising was the complete contrast with the toilets near the funfair area. Whilst the pool toilets were spotless, the funfair toilets were consistently filthy. The funfair only opens in the evenings, yet there never appeared to be an attendant cleaning these toilets, nor did it look like they had even been properly cleaned prior to opening each night or maintained throughout the evening sessions. Because of this, we actively avoided using them whenever possible and would instead wait until we got back to the main lobby or our room to use the restroom. It’s strange to see such a huge difference in cleanliness standards within the same resort. Another example of the poor communication at this hotel was that we didn’t discover until midway through the week that the hotel actually provides a complimentary shuttle service into Antalya, which simply needs booking at reception the day before. Again, this was never communicated to us at check-in or during our stay. We only found out completely by chance after overhearing another guest talking about it. Had we known earlier, we absolutely would have made use of this earlier in the week when the weather wasn’t so great. One thing I absolutely cannot fault is the facilities for children. For families with young kids, this place genuinely is like a mini Disneyland. My son had an amazing time from start to finish and there was constantly something for him to do. The children’s waterpark was fantastic and it was great that this area was heated, especially for younger children. However, it was a shame that the splash park/fountain area directly next to it was not heated. You could visibly see that most children weren’t using the splash pad or fountains because the water was simply too cold. It honestly seems strange to have one section heated and the adjacent splash area left freezing cold when they are side by side. Heating both areas would make so much more sense and would massively improve that section for families. Whilst our son was enjoying the kids club one afternoon, both myself and our partner decided to try out the adult waterpark. Again though, the water temperature was absolutely freezing. I appreciate we visited in April at the very start of the season, so perhaps this is less of an issue during peak summer months, but it was simply too cold to comfortably enjoy. We only managed two slides before giving up and leaving. It was such a shame because the adult waterpark actually looked brilliant and really good fun, but the freezing water completely put us off using it. I can imagine it’s probably amazing during the height of summer in July and August when temperatures are much hotter. Going forward, I really think the hotel should consider heating more of the pools and the adult waterpark during the start and end of the season, rather than only relying on peak summer temperatures. Even if it was just partially heated during April, May, October etc., it would make a huge difference to the overall guest experience and would allow families and adults to properly enjoy the fantastic facilities that the resort clearly invested so much money into creating. Another thing worth mentioning for families with young children is that the rooms can be noisy at night due to the evening entertainment and nightclub. We stayed in D Block (Block 4), which is actually one of the furthest blocks away from the central entertainment area, yet we could still clearly hear the music from our room at night. On top of that, the flashing lights from the nightclub would shine through the blinds and curtains, which are not fully blackout. Under normal circumstances this probably wouldn’t bother us too much, but because we were usually back in the room by around 9pm with our young son trying to get him settled to sleep, it definitely became noticeable. It’s just something families with younger children may want to consider when booking this hotel. We also have a lot of experience travelling as a family on cruise holidays, and one small suggestion based on that is around kids club safety procedures. On cruise ships, when you drop a child off at the kids club, you scan the room card in and out, and the system links the child to the parent or guardian profile, often including a photo of the authorised adult collecting them. It adds an extra layer of security and reassurance that the correct parent or guardian is collecting the child. Something similar here could be a useful enhancement, especially in a large resort environment. Another feature we genuinely loved was the drink fridges located around the resort stocked with soft drinks, water and beer for guests to help themselves. This was honestly a brilliant idea. It massively reduced queues at the bars and made grabbing a drink really convenient, especially around the pools and entertainment areas. I also think this is a fantastic touch for guests who may feel anxious or uncomfortable ordering at busy bars, as they can simply help themselves without needing to interact or queue. It’s a small detail, but one of the best convenience features we experienced during our stay. Throughout our stay, it genuinely felt like guests were left to figure things out for themselves. For example, it wasn’t until day 3 that we even discovered there was a children’s funfair included as part of the all-inclusive package. We had suspected it existed, but assumed it was chargeable because nobody had explained otherwise. Overall, while there are clear operational and communication issues that need addressing, particularly around guest information and the restaurant booking system, we would genuinely consider returning in the future if these areas were improved. The foundations of the resort are excellent — it just needs refinement in the guest experience to match the physical quality of the hotel.

We just returned from a 1 week visit to Antalya. We were a group of 18 friends. We celebrated 50th birthday for one of our friends. We informed Guest relations and the took care of a breakfast setting and a dinner at the Greek restaurant. An amazing experience. It’s a beautiful place with excellent staff. Numerous bars and clean environment. We are definitely coming back again.

We’re currently staying at the Delphin Be Grand Hotel (rooms 4335 and 4334) and I wanted to share an honest review while we’re still here. Before arriving, we were a bit apprehensive after reading some of the reviews especially as this is our first time in Turkey. We’ve holidayed in Australia, Thailand, Spain, Majorca and the Canary Islands and for the past 10 years we’ve mainly stuck to five-star hotels. We regularly do 5-star hotels at home in the UK, Our parents also cruise every year, so expectations were high and we are pretty fussy. Honestly the hotel has exceeded our expectations. ⸻ 🏨 Rooms & Location We have large, spacious hotel rooms with a beautiful sea view. The location is ideal for the kids pools down the lift and you’re close to the pools and slides, which is very handy. ⸻ ✨ Cleanliness The hotel is spotless. There are cleaners constantly working, even attendants outside the toilets keeping everything immaculate. Lots of staff on and always available. There is no ants or bugs that I've seen in the whole complex, they are out carrying out pest control every morning. I hate bugs so im always looking. ⸻ 🍽️ Food & Variety The food is on another level. The variety is unbelievableeven our parents said cruise lines like Royal Caribbean International don’t match the choice here. ⸻ 👏 Staff & Service The staff are fantastic,attentive, friendly and always helpful. Guest relations come around every morning checking in with you, asking if everything is okay and if you need anything. They genuinely care about your stay. ⸻ 🏖️ Sunbeds & Pool Area There’s been a lot said about sunbeds, but in our experience it hasn’t been an issue at all. • If you want a lounger right at the pool, go down around 8:00am, sit with your towels and by 8:30 you can leave them and you’ll have a prime spot for the day • If you go for breakfast and come down around 10:00am when the slides open, you’ll still get a sun lounger just maybe not right at the pool edge • You might be a row back from pool edge but there are always options At the moment, the hotel doesn’t feel overcrowded very little queuing and a really relaxed atmosphere. ⸻ 🍝 À La Carte Restaurants The à la carte restaurants are beautiful and definitely worth doing for a change from the buffet (which is phenomenal in the evenings anyway). The only slight downside is the booking process: • but If you join the queue around 9:00am, it moves quickly • If you really want a specific restaurant (like the Italian), I’d recommend going down around 8:30am • Our parents even pulled up a chair and waited comfortably and always got the restaurant they wanted It’s probably the only small area for improvement but in reality, it’s a minor inconvenience. ⸻ 💸 Money & Tips • Bring cash (even sterling) you can't exchange cash directly from card at the exchange offices we tried (only convert cash but brilliant rates) • Euros are widely accepted, though Antalya town prefers lira • ATMs can charge fees—free ones we found were HSBC and Halkbank, but a bit of a walk • Definitely haggle—we got a gold ring from €650 down to €350 • We’ve been tipping 200–400 lira, which is well appreciated, but you dont have to tip - is suggest if you tip early you get an extra attentive service. ⸻ 💆‍♀️ Extras We negotiated a 75-minute massage down to €100 at the spa—well worth it. The Spa is beautiful and you are paying for the surroundings but also much cheaper at the shops outside (and dinjy)🫣 ⸻ ⭐ Final Thoughts Some of the negative reviews really don’t reflect our experience. It feels like some people just want to complain. For us, this hotel has been fantastic, clean, high-quality, amazing food and outstanding service. It's definitely the one of best hotel (if not the best) I've stayed in. The few minor things (like à la carte booking) don’t take away from what has been a brilliant stay. We are absolutely coming backnext year and i rarely book the same hotel twice. 🎢 Extra Tip (Save Yourself Money!) If you’re planning a trip to The Land of Legends Theme Park, bring your own toys especially bubble machines. Honestly, prices there are very high: • We ended up paying £75 for a toy that was only £30 in Argos • Bubble machines were around £37 If you can, order bits from somewhere like Temu before you travel and bring them with you. Even bringing toys from home will save you a lot. Also worth noting shops aren’t really cheaper for things like floats and toys. In many cases, they’re about the same price as the UK. Bring cash & Bring your own floats from home/temu. Also don't use hotel taxi slightly more expensive and not great vehicles - we also used FourSpring Travelıng and more comfortable transport and prices. Galip guest relations very helpful ☺️