TUI BLUE Grand Azur

I recently stayed at the TUI BLUE Grand Azur in Marmaris, and I have to give a special shout-out to Gaukhar from the activities team. She was absolutely fantastic! Gaukhar led our daily Yoga, Pilates, and Aqua Aerobics with so much passion. What really impressed me was her attention to detail; she actively moved around the group to reposition everyone, ensuring our posture was perfect so we got the most out of every exercise. She also ran the water board classes, which were an absolute highlight—so much fun and a brilliant way to challenge our balance! Beyond her skills as an instructor, Gaukhar has such a warm and friendly personality. She was always chatting with us, making everyone feel welcome and motivated even outside of class. I cannot recommend her enough to future guests—if you see her on the schedule, definitely join in! I’m sharing this on TripAdvisor so others know how great she is, and tagging her on Instagram to say a huge thank you for making my holiday in Turkey so memorable. She is a massive asset to the hotel! Bit about the hotel. The hotel was clean and staff friendly and food great what more could you want from a holiday

We have just returned from a 10 night stay at this wonderful hotel. We arrived at the hotel to a warm and friendly reception. We stayed in room 347 and had a central view of the pool, sea and a centre stage view for the shows which were all of a good quality. The room was an excellent size with plenty of storage a super king bed, walk in shower, bath robes/slippers and kettle and fridge. Tea, coffee and large bottles of water daily. It was our anniversary and the hotel had provided a lovely bottle of wine and fresh fruit upon arrival. The food at the hotel was exceptional And the quality of the Al a Carte restaurant was outstanding. The choice options in the main buffet restaurant were excellent and the Green and Grill pool restaurant for lunch and late afternoon was excellent with plenty of choice. I loved that it was waiter service. The All inclusive drinks were of a high quality including the spirits and cocktails. We had no issues getting a sun bed as there was just so much space. We altered between using the sun-beds in the garden area and the beach bar for early afternoon drinks. The main reception has an excellent Grab and Go where you can pick up hot and soft drinks and sandwiches and pastries. In the afternoon there is also a lovely coffee and patisserie where there are some stunning cakes and deserts. The staff were all wonderful and friendly. I was fortunate to have a 2 hour Spa experience and treatments and couldn’t fault it. The inside pool was a nice area to spend an hour as the outside pool although lovely is still cold at this time of the year. The hotel Also has a large gym with good quality equipment. Even the hotel tortoise made an appearance right next to my sun bed in the garden.

Lovely hotel in beautiful grounds next to the beach. Food, afternoon cakes & all staff excellent. Beds huge & v comfy. Room furniture a little tired but perfectly acceptable. Hotel immaculately clean & plenty of space. All the resident cats well cared for & do not pester the guests. We continue to come back to this hotel time & again.

We travelled home yesterday after a week at the Grand Azur. I’ve just checked again what we paid for it. Yes, it actually was only £526pp, flying from Bristol with Tui! The price increases considerably as you get towards the summer, and the reason is simple: You get what you pay for! We had stayed here before about 5 years ago so we had a good idea of what to expect, and weren’t in any way disappointed. The setting is stunning, right on the beach front, about a 20 minute walk down to the centre of Marmaris (not that we had any desire to stray too far from the hotel). Hotel was relatively quiet this week so very easy to find a quiet sunbed around the pool of garden, or on the hotel’s private beach. The hotel isn’t strictly Adults-Only, but the Tui Blue does seem to be more focussed on adults, which meant that there were relatively few children there, giving a quieter and more relaxed feel. Rooms are clean and comfortable with a free safe and a fridge, and air conditioning that works very well. Room cleaning and cleaning of public areas around the hotel is to a very high standard. Even the weather co-operated! After a mixed first couple of days, the rest of our week was beautiful. Food is amazing. The choice in the main restaurant is really impressive. Breakfast included (among many other things) fresh strawberries, blackberries, loads of other fruit, smoked salmon, pancakes, waffles, and (just to top it off for me!), peanut butter, which you just never see in AI hotels. That was me sorted! Certainly not hungry by lunchtime but, as well as the main restaurant, there is also the choice of the Green and Grill snack bar (really chilled out alternative for an afternoon snack), the pancake station, the cake station and the grab and go. Anyone who says they didn’t get on with the food must have very odd tastes! Dinner in the main restaurant was also superb with great choice. We weren’t even going to bother with the A La Carte (which you get included in the AI once per week) but decided halfway through the week to give it a go. Quite difficult to get a slot by then – so worth booking as soon as you arrive. Steak was delicious, views were stunning and the service was efficient but low-key with tip boxes left by the door if you want to tip. Really good selection of drinks in the AI package, but don’t go by the drinks menu! It doesn’t show the range of local drinks such as pink gin, Baileys, Amaretto, various liquors and even cider! I think I wrote this in my review from last time as well. Just ask the bar staff what is included in AI and they are very happy to help. Service is prompt and efficient at the bar, with table service if you want. You also have the pool bar, beach bar, and even a bar at the indoor pool which is staffed if the weather outside isn’t so good. Must mention the lady who serves at the beach bar (sorry, didn’t get your name) who is one of the friendliest and most cheerful people we have met in a long time. Now for the real selling point of the Grand Azur for us. We always look for a hotel with a gym and, preferably, some fitness classes or activities. Well we were certainly spoiled here! As well as a really good professional standard gym and indoor pool, we soon got to meet Gaukhar, the fitness instructor who ran all the classes (including Yoga, Pilates, High Intensity Training, Fascia training) and my personal favourite – Aqua Board Yoga in the indoor pool. Anyone who is into this sort of thing really should try it! I think we can honestly say that Gaukhar is the most professional, knowledgeable and enthusiastic instructor we have met anywhere in the world. It is very obvious that she loves what she does and really enjoys involving people and showing them how to improve. A huge asset to the hotel, so thanks very much indeed for all the classes, and lovely to have met you. I’ll finish with a couple of observations that the hotel management might want to note. These are not complaints – I honestly have no complaints about anything. We were in room 217, which overlooks the neighbouring hotel to the left. Whilst the vibe around the Grand Azur during the day is relaxed with low volume background music, the same can’t be said of the hotel next door, which seems to be making a serious attempt on the world record for loudest animation! On our first night (tired and sleep-deprived) we went back to reception and said we wanted to move rooms. They were quite prepared to move us, but the following morning. Obviously after a night’s sleep (to be fair, the entertainment in the other hotel did stop before 11pm every night) we decided it wasn’t such an issue and didn’t pursue it. Obviously, the Grand Azur can’t do anything about its location or what is next door. I only mention it because if someone books here and is planning to have early nights then it would be worth contacting the hotel to request a quiet room not on the left hand side of the building. The only ‘issue’ we had to raise (which turned out to be a misunderstanding, not a problem) was when we went to reception to book tennis. We were told that the court was out of use due to maintenance, and they didn’t know for how long. We always try to choose a hotel with a tennis court as we like to play a few times, so weren’t happy at all that an advertised facility that was part of our reason for choosing this hotel wasn’t available. The Tui rep wasn’t in that day so we approached Muhammet at Guest Relations in order to lodge a complaint. We explained the issue, and that it was probably something that we needed to take up with the Tui rep, but his attitude was – “no, any problem you have is my problem”. A quick investigation by him revealed that it was the Astroturf pitch, not the tennis court, that was undergoing maintenance, and reception hadn’t realised. There we go, problem solved, and what a lovely helpful guy he is. It’s worth going to talk to him just because he is so nice and helpful. Final observation – the Tui Blue app! What is going on with that? It updated to a new version two days into our stay, which wiped the bookings that we had made for activities using the old version. Whenever we then tried to book anything, the message appeared saying that the maximum number of participants had been exceeded. As a result, we didn’t bother trying to book anything and just turned up. There were always the same group of us (between 5-10 people, depending on the activity), nothing was ever full and people we spoke to had exactly the same experience of being unable to book anything. Either someone is sitting there booking up all the places with no intention to attend, or there is a problem with the app. Clearly nothing the hotel can do – the app covers the whole Tui Blue chain. Hopefully this issue can be fed back and looked at. So – absolutely fantastic stay, will definitely be back many more times. Many thanks to all the staff. If Tui decided to keep it open a bit further into November then we’d be back this year! If not, then probably see you all next April.

Just book it! You won’t regret it! We arrived shortly before 10pm, so we had missed the dinner service but they have 24/7 sandwiches, fruit, cake and drinks available in the lounge in the lobby. The staff were helpful right from the start to make us feel at home, offering to carry our luggage to our room and just so smiley and welcoming. The next morning (and every morning) we were spoilt for choice for breakfast, massive selection of breads including gluten free options, even 5 different flavours of butter! Fresh fruit galore, different flavour yoghurts, hot waffles, toasties, sausages, beans, mushrooms, eggs any way you want them - fried, scrambled, scrambled with cheese, scrambled with sausages, poached, soft boiled, hard boiled… however you like your eggs in the morning, you’ll get them here. Crepes, American style pancakes, hot and cold pastries, danishes, a fresh omelette station where one of the chefs will cook you a fresh to order omelette with whatever you want in it. All the toppings for the pancakes and waffles etc too - milk chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter - spoilt for choice doesn’t even come close to explaining the options. Then there’s the grounds, impeccable, well presented, massive outdoor pool, trees, flowers, all kept well on top of. Then there’s the pets! Wild turtles a family with a baby, if you watch over the garden at night you’ll also see hedgehogs, bats and the resident cats who are all adorable and are fuss oriented rather than food oriented, they’ll leave you alone but if you call them they’ll happily run over for a fuss and cuddle, they’re all really clean and well groomed to, they’re literally like the hotel pets rather than strays. We did the aqua fit most days, the instructor is great, same instructor also does the yoga and Pilates sessions, she’s always so helpful, friendly, always smiling, and she helps you achieve your best regardless of your ability, I didn’t know keeping fit could be such fun. There’s also games each day like darts, table tennis, boccia, shuffleboard etc The spa has a steam room which was great! Very intense, it’s a proper steam room. Sauna is amazing, there’s a salt room… I don’t really understand them myself but it’s very tranquil in there, there’s icy showers, the changing rooms have lockers which work on a combination you set, there’s showers and toilets in there too, The indoor pool is 25 metres and has a cordoned off area for people to do lengths, and also a separate shallow children’s pool. The indoor pool was heated to between 29 and 32 degrees. There’s also a bar in there serving soft drinks, beer etc The snack bar had a great varied menu and all food was cooked fresh to order. They have a pancake station from 11am to 4pm with a lovely lady constantly cooking small fresh batches of pancakes, mixture of sweet and savoury options. Lunch and dinner - again, spoilt for choice! Fussy eaters who just want chicken and chips? Catered for. People who want to to eat healthily? Catered for. People who want to try authentic local cuisine? Catered for. Now, Turkey cuisine naturally uses a lot of nuts, you’ll find a lot of dishes will have nuts in. But, if you have any allergy, tell them and the chef will cook you pretty much whatever you want and will make sure those ingredients aren’t used. The only thing personally I wasn’t overly a fan of, is the only self service drinks are water and cherry juice, everything else has to come from the waiters who are all lovely, but sometimes when it’s busy, they’re run ragged and I feel bad asking for another drink when they are literally running around and doing their absolute best! A self service soft drinks machine would be ace, still not enough to knock it off from 5 stars, just my personal feeling on it. Want to explore but unsure where to go? Or which company to book with? Well, go to the lobby and see the lovely Maxine who is there most days from 9am to 7pm. Maxine has lived in Marmaris for 6 years, knows all the best places, even which shop will sell the best cosmetics/toiletries etc, when it comes to the local area, Maxine knows more than google will ever tell you, she’s a real jewel in the TUI crown. Maxine organised a trip down the Dalyan river on a cruise, which included a lovely lunch and a trip to a gorgeous beach - something we would never have done had it not been for Maxine, so thank you! We had a great time The entertainment is fantastic, something different on each night, whether it’s a live band, quiz night, acrobat performance, it’s top tier entertainment and we enjoyed it every night. The hotel is right on the beach, walk out the back gate and you’re on it, they have a beach bar and the ladies that serve there are all so friendly too, it’s a great atmosphere, stunning views of the bay and the mountains, you can see the marina to your left and Icelmer to your right, it’s breathtaking at times. The rooms are cleaned daily with fresh towels daily and fresh bedding every few days. The rooms have air con and a safe, robes and slippers, basic toiletries, a tv, a fridge, tea and coffee facilities, a hair dryer, spacious wardrobe, powerful shower which always had hot water, and a nice balcony with furniture. I’m already looking to rebook, if you’re searching for a great holiday, in a great place, with great food, with plenty to do, you’ve found it.