TUI BLUE Ephesus

Visited this hotel in September 2024, easy transfers from the airport & arrived at around 11pm, a light dinner was provided. Accommodation spacious & clean. Lovely ground floor apartment as requested. Close to the main restaurant & opted for the all inclusive. Standard breakfast, but really liked the omelette station. Tea & coffee served at your table. Onsite water park is amazing & didn’t see my brother for most of the time. Resort is an easy walk around, not many steps & direct access to the gorgeous beach , where the sand actually sparkles. The spa is definitely worth a visit, had an amazing Turkish bath followed by a full body massage. An enjoyable visit. Would return. Only negatives… the pool bar area has that sickly sweet smell of spilt beer & the bins are overflowing & the mosquitos are out of control of a night. Other resorts spray, maybe this wld help .

We booked this hotel as a large family group to celebrate multiple big birthdays. We booked this hotel specifically, considering there was a wide range of guests- from families, 18 year olds, pensioners and other young adults and it was felt that this met a wide range of requirements. On arrival, there were a large amount of people arriving at the same time. There were a number of extra staff handing out forms to get us processed as quickly as possible. They were keen to help us get our bags to our rooms, and show us the quickest routes. The rooms were beautiful. Spacious for a family of 4 with two young children, clean on arrival and kept immaculate throughout our 10 night stay. There were number of flies in our room on arrival but after a couple of days these were gone. The first morning we went down for breakfast towards the end of the sitting and were struggling to find somewhere to sit. Considering it was towards the end of the season, I would consider what this would be like in high season. There was space outside but first thing in the morning, it wasn’t particularly warm and there were flies everywhere throughout the day which was particularly annoying when eating outdoors. The day time entertainment was fine. There was a fair amount on offer which significantly reduced towards the end of our stay. Again, I am aware that it was the end of the season but expect to get what has been advertised irrespective of the week you stay. My children really enjoyed the evening entertainment. The Halloween night was fabulous and a lot of effort had gone into planning and preparing for this. The restaurant had been themed for this evening and we had gone in as the restaurant opened so accessed a selection of Halloween themed foods and treats. Other family members went later and there was none of this left, unfortunately. The children enjoyed access to the waterpark. Queues were minimal due to the time of year, however, the water was freezing. Day time temperatures averaged around 25 degrees but at nighttime it went down to around 10 degrees so the pools really struggled to warm up to a point where I would get in! On a couple of days, my kids went into the indoor pool to play so that they were warm. The food was good. The first few days I, as a coeliac guest, struggled to find something to eat. I went to guest services and got an allergy card and the staff in the restaurant were happy to cater to my needs. Just be mindful that they cook this fresh so you do not always eat with your family. There is an ice cream station by the main pool during the day, and we were advised that dairy free alternatives were available (both of my children have dairy intolerance) but nothing was available. I spoke to guest services, who added this to our allergy card but was told that due to it being end of season they had ran out of ice lollies so we had to buy them from the ‘costa’ throughout the holiday. We tried to book the a la carte restaurants but they were fully booked. Make sure that you book these on arrival and not a couple of days into your stay to make sure you can access these. The grounds were beautiful and we enjoyed walking out to sea on the board walk for sunset views and family pictures, and stopping off for a drink at the beach bar before dinner. The view was gorgeous. Overall, we had a wonderful time but not sure that we would go again for a couple of reasons. I feel that I would prefer to go in warmer weather, so we could access the water park and pools more, but would be concerned that the flies would be even worse. In addition to this, the main restaurant struggled to seat us at times and I worry that going in peak season it would feel overwhelmingly busy and result in us not having as much of a relaxing holiday.

Please do not be persuaded to book this hotel by reference to the photographs on the TUI website. This hotel is in dire need of an update. It is worn out and in parts very dirty. The wallpaper is ripped and the carpets filthy. There is an old pond with stagnant water and dirty tissues surrounding it right next to the restaurant, which seemed to always be full of flies. If you go in October the out door pools are freezing, too cold for anyone to use. The wifi is poor, there were never enough beach towels and the food gave several of our party awful food poisoning. When we raised this with the TUI rep in resort, he wasn’t surprised and without further question offered us £250. We were aware many other guests had suffered food poisoning that week. We have raised our concerns with TUI’s customer services and they have refused to do anything more. They continue to give this hotel an official 5 star rating this is a misrepresentation and false advertising. It falls way below that standard. Our party of 12 was very disappointed by the standard it no way meets the expectations based on the cost. Very disappointed with TUI.