Palmwings Ephesus

Good family holiday, but room for improvement We recently stayed at Palm Wings Ephesus in İzmir, Turkey, as a family of eight. Overall, we had a good holiday, although it wasn’t one of our favourite stays in Turkey. The hotel is lovely and clean, and the managers and senior staff were excellent whenever we had an issue. Problems were dealt with quickly and without question. Most staff worked extremely hard, although some were friendlier than others and the language barrier could occasionally make communication difficult. One of the best things about the hotel is the sunbed system. The rules about not reserving beds before 8am and the pools opening at 9am work really well. There is no need to get up at 5am to secure a sunbed, and even later in the day we could usually find some available. This was a huge positive for us. The entertainment team were good, and do try hard to interact during the day, we felt that visitors could be encouraged to get more involved particularly during the evening entertainment. We had children with us who would have joined in more if interacted with during holiday dances etc. More interaction with international guests would make the atmosphere much better. The food was disappointing compared with other Turkish hotels we’ve stayed at. There was plenty of choice, but it was very repetitive daily, with lunch being identical each day and dinner having little variation. We also found much of it lacked flavour. The restaurant staff especially those preparing food worked very hard, but staff rarely came to the tables to offer drinks, which we’ve experienced at other hotels in Turkey. The bar staff were mostly very friendly and tried to interact with guests. However, the drinks were some of the weakest we’ve experienced. Even in the evening, they seemed to contain very little alcohol and were mainly syrup. We don’t drink a lot, but when we do have a drink, we’d like it to actually taste like one! Photography shop – disappointing experience Unfortunately, our experience with the hotel photography shop was the biggest disappointment. The photographer, Nemo, was initially very friendly and encouraged us to have a family photoshoot. We are a family of eight and agreed. However, far more photographs were taken than we wanted, despite explaining that we were one family and didn’t really want lots of separate shots. When we went to view the photographs, we were unable to simply select the photographs we liked as one family. We were shown packages as seperate computers and initially told we couldn’t combine the photographs we wanted as the one family we had the shoot as. Eventually, we were offered the entire USB of hundreds of photographs we didn’t want and no prints for £230, after many discussions despite only liking around 60 of them. We asked if we could simply purchase the photographs we actually wanted, rather than paying for hundreds we would never use. On our final day, we offered £150 for the photographs we liked on a USB, no prints but were told that Nemo was off and had left strict instructions that they could not be sold for less than £230. We found the whole experience very disappointing, particularly as we had spent over an hour of our evening getting dressed up and taking part in the photoshoot. We felt we had made it clear what we wanted, but ended up feeling pressured into having far more photographs taken than necessary and then into purchasing far more than we wanted. My advice would be to agree exactly what you want and the price BEFORE having the photoshoot. Otherwise, you may find yourself with hundreds of photographs you don’t want and a very expensive bill for the few you actually like. Overall, we had a good family holiday and there are definitely some great things about Palm Wings Ephesus, especially the cleanliness, hardworking staff, management and excellent sunbed system. However, the repetitive food, weak drinks, limited engagement with non-Turkish guests during entertainment and our experience with the photography shop mean that, for us, it wasn’t one of our favourite Turkish holidays.

Visit date – August 2026 First of all thank you palm wings for a great holiday, we had a fantastic time! Most everything about the hotel was fantastic, so let me share a little information from our trip! Guests – If you are like myself coming from the UK note this is not one of those UK only hotels. There are brits there but I would guess more than 50% of people are Turkish with the rest being a mixture across the rest of europe. It’s a great mix and a lovely atmosphere. It does mean that some of the staffs English isn’t quite as good as you might get at a typical Tui hotel but we didn’t ever have a problem, and their English was consistently better than our Turkish! Location – The hotel is kinda in the middle of nowhere. There is another hotel with a water park about 20 mins walk away (which has cash machines outside that are very expensive to use) and I believe the local town of Kusadasi is not very far away in a taxi (and there is a taxi rank right outside the hotel) but we didn’t venture there. We did take a day trip to see the ruins at Ephesus which was only about 20 minutes away and is amazing if you like history. Food and drink – the buffet is huge, so many options and really very nice. There is a BBQ doing various grilled options outside as well as tonnes of other dishes for both adults and children. Always some sort of chicken nuggets, pasta, pizza too to keep the less adventurous kids happy. Huge array of fruit and puddings. Menu changes every night although it is variations on a theme so we might have got a bit bored if we were staying more than a week. Snack bar for lunch had lots of options (although it didn’t change much from day to day). Pizza, burger, hot dogs, shawarma, salads, waffles and ice cream amongst a few other bits. Always plenty to go round and always nice. Drinks were readily available, Efes beer on tap, cocktails from every bar with staff happy to make something different for you. Drinks in the buffet were table service and the staff were very attentive. My only criticism was the wine of which the only option was the colour was pretty awful and the white was rarely cold. Would have been nice to be able to buy the occasional bottle of something nicer but it wasn’t an available. There is also a coffee shop in the main reception, I didn’t try it but it seemed popular (included in all inclusive). There is an al a carte restraint option which you get one visit per 7 days stay, they say its 6 different restaurants but certainly when we were there they were more or less different zones in the same area. We tried the Turkish. It was nice but not very exciting, maybe the others menus were better. Facilities – Amazing, loads of pools. The water park was very impressive, the big splash park had loads of slides and wasn’t too busy, then there were 2 more sets of slides medium sized and bigger sized! Again never much queuing and the staff were helpful and friendly (although they could do with using their whistles a bit less!). Note the 2 big slides had an age limit on them. It wasn’t clear what the rule was but young kids (under 10 maybe) had different colour wristbands and weren’t allowed to ride the 2 biggest slides. My kids 10 and 12 were both fine hence I’m not entirely sure. Could have done with some more space to sit around the splash park, as it was hard to get a sunbed but that seems to be the norm in these hotels. (Wish people wouldn’t put all their stuff out then disappear for hours!) Beach was incredible, soft glittery sand and lovely warm clean shallow water. Not much to see snorkeling but also not weeds or rocks. Beach seems to get cleaned every night. There are water sports on the beach but I didn’t use them so can’t comment on how good they are. We were lucky enough to get a family room with swim up pool which was incredible (and sperate to main hotel building). You got a table and chairs and some sun loungers and then a 30m pool which you shared with another 4 or 5 apartments. Ours was always lovely and quiet and got the sun most of the day. Its not a full swim up room as I have had elsewhere but it was probably all the better for it. More room to relax out or in the pool There is a small shop on site that sells snacks and gifts, a shop selling clothes of various designer brands (at not designer prices), a hair dressers, a spa, an amusement arcade and a leather shop (handbags and suchlike). NOTE everybody wants Euros and much, much, much prefer cash, they will take Lira if you ask but all the prices are in Euros so it might be easier to take some. We didn’t and ended up walking to the cash machine at the next hotel along the beach. The exchange rate and the fees at the machine were OUTRAGEOUS so if you are planning any day trips and don’t want to haggle over the cost of using a card take some cash with you. Rooms – our family room was brilliant a double room and a twin room with a large bathroom, unlike some other hotels we’ve stayed in all the rooms and the bathroom came off a corridor so know need to go through a different sleeping area to go to the loo. Beds were firm but comfy, good aircon, a mini fridge with soft drinks included. Garden areas were really well kept and they were spraying nightly to kill most of the bitey bugs. I only got bitten one night when I ventured on to the grass and got a couple of bites, I forgot to put any bug repellant on so my own fault really. Stunning sunsets every night! Entertainment – Kids mini disco every night at 9pm aimed at under 10s, kids there looked like they were having fun dancing along with the animation team so some Turkish songs. Bigger entertainment at 9:45 - 10 ish. This is mostly in a big open air amphitheater, with some amazing shows. Acrobatics, Turkish dancers, street dance, etc. A step above anything else we have ever had on holiday before, one of the acts was a semi finalist on Americas got talent! They also had a party night in the garden with bouncy castles, a disco etc. Only 1 bad night which was the “king of palm wings” night which was basically getting a handful of guests to do embarrassing things on the stage. It was really, really bad, felt like something from the 80s. If you are reading this palm wings please stop that show its awful. There are a few different companies in the foyer everyday that do day trips, we took a day trip to Ephesus which is amazing. Again they wanted paying cash euros which was a faff and because the exchange rate/fees at the cash machine were so terrible it ended up costing me a fair amount more to pay cash ☹ Worth noting we got a private transfer from Izmir airport and the transfer was just under an hour. Would have been nice to get a bit more information on arrival, the lady is reception was very nice, checked us in very quickly but told us nothing about the hotel, food or facilities. It wasn’t too hard to work out but a little more would have been nice. Summary – a great hotel, fantastic facilities, good food, nice staff, fantastic entertainment (mostly). A little out of the way (you choose if that’s good or bad) and drinks could have been better but its a pretty small niggle. If I could give 4.5 stars I would, some better wine, less insistency for paying everything in euros and 1 night of questionable entertainment just enough to bring the score down. We would happily visit again all the same.

We've just returned from a week at the Palm Wings Ephesus resort. This was our first all-inclusive holiday so we didn't really know what to expect. The hotel seemed fairly modern with a very open and spacious feeling. We had booked a family room with swim up pool, which was well worth the small additional cost we paid. The rooms were a good size, although would have benefited from additional indoor seating. The bathroom had a huge walk-in shower which was great. The hotel faces onto the beach and it was only a few minutes walk from our room. The biggest issue at the beach was the amount of cigarette butts left everywhere. Smoking in Turkey is really common and it felt like every guest, bar us, was constantly smoking. The pools and waterpark were well maintained and the site was really well kept. Immaculate grass areas and plants. The hotel was loud though. During the day there was constant bassy music from the activities pool, and most of the evening entertainment ran from 9:30pm to midnight. If you were tired you just had to wait until it stopped. Unfortunately some of the guests would come home late and make a lot of noise. The restaurant was good, a wide range of choices, but a lot of them were quite watery. My kids are a bit fussy and lived off the chicken goujons and fries (they were amazing). The restaurant did get busy and not all guests are accustomed to queuing, be ready to get your elbows out and protect your personal space. Having only ever been self-catering before this was a bit of a shock. Unfortunately I contracted a stomach bug whilst at the resort. The resort was very popular with Turkish, German and Russian guests, there weren't many other British guests. The staff were amazing, really attentive and helpful, remembering our names and genuinely seeming to care. Tipping was almost expected though so bear that in mind. Finally on the subject of service, Kelly, the in-house guest relations lady was brilliant. Answered any questions we had, sorted out minor problems, and helped get me some over the counter type meds when I became ill. She really helped make the holiday great.

Review july2026 4for11july and travel

It was so good definitely come again the animators were the best