I was horrified by the fact that this is five-star hotel. We got a room in a bungalow although we booked in the main building. Room was dirty, old furniture, untidy. Bathroom with no shower, dark. Old bed, uncomfortable. Food modest. Service was half board, breakfast and dinner, but this is nowhere near the standard of 5 stars. By the way, we even had food poisoning,
with diarrhea, fever .. In short, a big disappointment.

On arrival the service wasnt up to scratch, we requested double bed and a sea view room. What we got was a tiny twin room that looked like a nannies flat with too single beds that over looked the forest at the back of the hotel and noisey buliding work.
After telling them they then gave us another twin room after saying they would sort it! We got a partial sea view room where they shoved the beds together. The carpet came away from the floor, there was a rusty ring stain on the carpet where the coffee table had been. The patio was mucky. Frankly me and my boyfriend would dread going back to the place at night because it was so crummy (and thats not how it should be).
The rest of the hotel was better the pool and pool bar's and pool side restaurants were pleasant and the food was nice as far as abroad food goes. The bars at night are homely and spacious and the bar staff were brilliant.
I think with further improvement this hotel could be five star but for now the hotel itself the bar and look throughout is only 3 or 4 if i take just the room in to consideration that was bearly a 2-3 rating. I think this hotel is massively out of date and undermaintained.
If i was asked would i go there again my answer would be: No unless it had been restored.

The hotel was nice the food was nice the weather was... Nice! Not much else to it. The food was a little boring in the main restraunt and didnt change much but you can book into the onsite restraints which have a good variety. It was out of the way from busy nightlife which can be a good or bad thing. Too close to the dolphins which I was very uncomfortable with. The entertainment was poor and not much on but it was comin to the end of the season. On overall nice stay!

Have just returned from Turkey in what was the last week of their holiday season with a week’s stay at the Mares Hotel, or whatever name it goes by, as there are numerous alternatives that are in use; the Mares, the Grand Yazici Mares, the Spa Dolphin Resort, or as many of the punters described it; the Stalag Luftwaffer Resort.
Apparently the Mares Hotel resort is a Russian owned (and designed) 5 star hotel. However, it is quite possible that 5 is actually the lowest grading back in Russia, with a one star being a premium operation. The hotel itself is generally in need of updating and in the main, is in a rather tired state. Tired probably isn’t being fair – perhaps comatose, or in-a-coma would be more apt.
Our trip started courtesy of an Easy-Jet flight from the UK and we paid for the option of “speedy boarding”, which allows you preferential entry onto the plane along with the other punters who have stumped up the cash for this privilege. At check-in you are issued with a boarding card that doesn’t identify a seat number. It is either speedy boarding for 30 or so passengers willing to stump up a bit extra, or what can only be described as a free-for-all.
It therefore allowed us to get the extra-leg room seats over the wing so was a price worth paying for a 4 hour flight. The process at our own airports is quite good with orderly queues at the gate into the two lines created for aircraft access. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for how overseas airports handle the speedy boarding process. They just can’t seem to grasp the concept of not having a seat number on a boarding pass and just seem content with the subsequent free for all. We flew out with Easy-Jet, but came home on Hard-Jet, or was it Difficult-Jet? A great idea, somewhat lost in translation. No signage, no announcement to allow those that have paid for a service to actually get that service. No, all you get is a hardened rabble, all eager to board the plane in what was for us, the early hours of the morning and seemingly not allow the speedy boarding process to rear its ugly head, so that they too could opt for the premium seats, but for no additional cost, just a bit of muscle. You have been warned.
On with the hotel review then. The food is mind-blowingly average. It is edible, occasionally okay, but definitely not 5 star cuisine. Even the cats that plagued the hotel grounds kept a distance at meal times. Screaming kids were available at most sittings and their howls were usually as a result of their mothers finally suggesting that after 2 or 3 days of having everything their own way, that they should now finally partake in something more substantial than just chips, tommy sauce and ice-cream to follow, or just ice-cream followed by ice-cream.
To be fair though the food at least provided some sustenance, the soup was occasionally rather good, a variety of salad options were always available, along with a vast selection of bread, although the cooked dishes were usually indifferent. The veal and chicken dishes were sometimes quite palatable although I may just have been ravenous at the time, and no doubt even one of the cats may have tasted heavenly. Overall the cuisine never reached the dizzy heights of a five star dining experience. You have to experience cruise lines before you start scratching the surface of fine dining, and you can still get self-service fayre on board a ship which at times can be gob-smackingly exceptional. By comparison with the Mares dining experience, anything served up at sea would be 5 star – even a chip-butty on a cross-channel ferry.
There was always a vast range of Turkish desserts on offer to finish off your meal. Unfortunately the consistency of these little treats was such that they always managed to look far better than they actually tasted – if taste isn’t too strong a word.
There are three alleged al-a-carte restaurants on site; The Meyhane, The Camlic, and some Italian venue. The Meyhane was closed at the time of our visit – but it did have a nice sea-front location – although it was too cold at the end of October for an evening meal on some terrace overlooking the sea, so understandably it wasn’t an option. We didn’t try the Italian outlet, but we did make a booking for the Camlic restaurant which boasts an offering of authentic Turkish fayre. The starters were rather nice – a sort of Tapas done Turkish style with the obligatory bread thrown in. Well, put in a small basket on the table rather than lobbed at us from the kitchen. On reflection though, we were again quite hungry by the time we were served so I would have probably raved on about any nibbles that were on offer. You never know, I might have been dunking bread in a full ashtray or even a bacteria-laden petri dish. But as I said, rather nice all the same.
The a-la-carte option was limited to the main course in that you had a choice of one of three Turkish kebab dishes; chicken, spicy or non-spicy, which might just as well of being lobbed from the kitchen.
We both decided on the spicy one and even the cats sampled some, courtesy of my wife.
Not being a cat lover myself, I did though spare a thought for them the following morning, as my churning insides were being rapidly discharged. As I sat there going through the motions so to speak, I concluded that not even 8 out of ten cats would have preferred it. As regards the sweet course, we declined for the reasons mentioned previously.
So where does this holiday haven actually get its 5 stars from? The entertainment is poor even if you find some, and you hear murmurings from disgruntled guests who were not happy with their rooms either.
The hotel is split into three zones of accommodation. So if your room number starts with a number one – you should be okay as you will be housed in the main hotel building. A two is less appealing, being located adjacent to the main entry road. The second number of your room code stipulates which floor level you are on. We were in 2-4-something or other. Which is Block two, fourth floor, which offered a delightful view of sunrise every morning, although it was somewhat spoiled by a flat roof to some unutilized part of the hotel. It also had and an alarming view of the Dolphin Encounter Arena in the bay next to the hotel. But I’ll come back to that later.
Back to the accommodation zones then – a three is for the one-bed apartments beyond the swimming pool, and in this case the higher the second number, the further from the hotel you will be based, and the higher the likelihood of dissatisfaction. Ants, bacteria, cockroaches, mozzies… There were endless queues of them all complaining as well…
I am at a complete loss as to how this establishment merits 5 stars. Perhaps the owner has links to some ne’er-do-wells back home in the darker districts of the Moscow suburbs. This might possibly allow him to intimidate the local tourist board in Turkey in order to give him the desired number of stars.
There are frequent water taxis linking Icmeler and Marmaris, with hastily arranged stops at the numerous hotel jetties. The cost is about £4 regardless of the length of your journey. These trips are an enjoyable distraction to the confines of the hotel and allow you to discover what is on offer in the two adjacent resorts. Having taken such a ride out into the bay, you get a visual of the Mares Hotel from the sea, and I was somewhat reminded of the opening credits to the 1970’s BBC Colditz series and I spent an eternity trying to remember the theme tune – but I got there in the end. It really does look like some imposing Russian holding unit set amongst the pine-clad hillside.
Back at the hotel though, I didn’t manage to establish any escape tunnels or some cunningly built glider in the loft space.
Let’s face facts, this is not a five star hotel. Even in Egypt it would be lucky to get a three. Very lucky. And you get a three in Egypt just for having four walls and a ceiling, surrounding a heavily soiled mattress, along with some hastily erected flag somewhere in the grounds. Let’s just say that if this hotel were in the USA, it wouldn’t be for long.
Having savoured the delights of a mere 4 star all-inclusive hotel in Mexico last year, it is evidently clear that it is always the market that dictates what is actually included. In Mexico, American tourists are high on the agenda, so all the spirits are therefore branded with a vast range of draught, bottled and canned beers available. So if you behave like Americans, kicking up a fuss with excessive demands and never settling for second best, then you tend to get your way. If the hotel doesn’t comply with such demands, then it ceases to be a hotel – or perhaps decide to move its operation to Turkey.
Mind you in most Mexican hotel restaurants you only get one fork for your entire dining experience, along with mandatory hearing protection. They do certainly cater very well for the American market.
However the visitors to Turkey don’t seem to include any Americans (which is actually a blessing in disguise). Instead, the tourists keep a stiff upper lip, see things as quaint and generally accept the quirky local ways. Either that or they are too drunk to care, or are genuinely quite blown away by the standards in comparison to their homeland.
At the Mares hotel, the spirits are described as local – which means Turkish, and being local, possibly means that they are related to each other in some way. Meths plus some additives perhaps?
Whisky? brandy? I think not. I’m terribly sorry, but in order to replicate a product you should at least taste the original, just to see if you are on the right tracks. Even the fake goods in the local shops are of higher quality than the fake spirits available at the hotel bars. At least they’ve made an effort in some way to copy the original. Perhaps the alleged spirits are also used to provide fuel for the numerous forms of transport in the area. If not, then why not?
The beer is branded as Efes, which is pronounced F.S. This allows you to while away the time conjuring up suitable descriptors for this little libation using the F.S. acronym. However, the laws of decency prohibit publication of one punter’s suggestion, but it shouldn’t be beyond anyone’s mental agility to deduce what his view on the beer was in that he described it as “F’ing S.”
It is available in draught at the hotel bars, but also comes in bottles when you venture out to the local resorts. It is wet, seemingly alcoholic, sometimes chilled and to me, generally quite palatable, despite the suggestion above.
So having not established what the mechanism is for obtaining the star rating, I am now puzzled as to what the “All” implies in All Inclusive. Essentially when it comes down to it, the AI concept is all about not having to worry about your wallet in and around the hotel area. A good concept you might think – but not without its flaws.
Unfortunately we are all guilty of neglecting standards and allowing things to fall dramatically, with just a few cynical comments being restricted to each table as everyone seems to suffer in silence – and not just at this hotel. Shame on us all.
Most seasoned tourists who visit Turkey still promote the self-catering option as the cheapest and most satisfying way of visiting the country. However, there will always be the champions of the AI experience. These individuals rarely venture off the hotel site and always over-indulge at meal times, so long as they can be extracted from the bar for long enough in order to take on some solids. It is perhaps they who are responsible for letting the hotel owners get away with it. Their attitude seems to be, “I’ve already paid for it, so I’m going to have my money’s worth irrespective of whether it’s any good or not.”
You never know, you might even get lucky and get to sit next to one of these bastions of our society on your flight home. They can tell you all about their AI experiences right across the globe. Their trip advisor style briefing relates solely to the bar, the pool, the beach and the room, but mainly the bar, with little knowledge of the local area or even the country it is in.
The only thing that is really in the Hotel Mares’ favour is its location. However, as the days get shorter with the changing seasons, the resort finds itself in complete shadow by 4pm, with the sea front becoming shaded by the hillside from about 2pm onwards. There are better locations in the area, but you do get some splendid views in and around the hotel grounds.
So, if the only thing in its favour is its location, and you can still complain about that, then it suggests that you’d be better looking elsewhere. If the views are good – perhaps finding an alternative venue within the view would be the most sensible option – but then again you might just then get a view of the Mares Hotel which would no doubt sour things considerably.
With our visit coinciding with the end of their summer season, the locals were seemingly equipped with thermos flasks, hats and coats from the Russian front, and all eager to extract the last of the tourist cash from the latest throng of visitors keen to snap up a bit of late October sunshine. It was mid 70’s by day, quickly plummeting to mid 50’s to low 60’s by night.
The end of the season sees prices plummet too. We got the full Dalyan trip from Icmeler for £12.50 each. In the Thomas Cook guide the trip is on offer for £42 each.
So what do you get for your £12.50; A two hour boat trip, irritating staff, other cheapskate tourists pleased with the discounted price, a trip to the Dalyan river delta, a visit to Turtle Beach (without the turtles), some burial temples carved into a rock face, a mud bath, a hot spa, a swim in the cold sea, lunch and reasonably priced drinks from the bar, followed by a two hour return trip in fading light, a spectacular sunset, and a windchill factor that would make most hardened Geordies run for cover.
But, still not bad for £12.50 – and it wouldn’t be that bad for £42.
The connection with Russia does attract many of their cultural representatives from back home, keen to imbibe in a bit of holiday-making at the resort. Since the days of Mikael Gorbachev and his interfering perestroika, our new found friends from the Eastern-Bloc are now free to explore the World, and keen to make up for 100 years of lost evolution. You could even feel sorry for them as they have spent much of their lives no doubt ploughing fields, queuing for bread or clearing snow. You might just feel that they are now entitled to a bit of fun in their lives, with the ability to queue being completely confined to history.
For me, Mr Gorbachev clearly got it wrong. I for one would actually welcome back the cold-war once again. Bring back the days when nuclear warheads were targeted on every western city, whilst the Soviet population were generally kept in order and given firm instruction on obedience, snow-clearing and queuing, all thanks to the controlling influence of communism.
So bring back the Yanks to the Greenham-Common Airbase – if only to make our holidays seem somewhat jollier once again. In the good old days, we all knew where we stood with their nuclear arsenal aimed directly at us, as we had our own similar capability acting as a suitable deterrent.
Unfortunately in the current climate of World affairs, we have nothing to combat what Russia has now unleashed on civilized society; their people. We’re all doomed…
Just outside the hotel resort is the Dolphin Encounter Park. I said I would get back to it, so here goes: This is not some sea-world type centre with performing creatures on hand to entertain large audiences. No, this is an encounter operation, entirely for those who are willing to stump up the cash for a personal audience, or alternatively provide some alleged charitable operation in which some poor unfortunate kid gets up close and personal with a dolphin. This is promoted as some high-value therapeutic engagement with some nautical miracles thrown in for some poor youngster.
I’m sure some sandal-wearing bearded social worker, or a male one for that matter, could no-doubt be wheeled out and ramble on about the psychological benefits of engaging with such magnificent and intelligent creatures. I myself have doubts in that this kind of therapy outweighs the rights of a dolphin to live in the open seas, catch its own food, and be able to travel up to 40 miles in a day and dive to depths of over 300 metres. No, instead lets keep four of these superb specimens in a tank of no more than 30 metres across and about 50 metres long, and probably not more than 5 metres deep – all so that some under-privileged kid can chuck herring morsels at it as it performed nautical acrobatics.
Surely feeding a little lamb or some cute bunny would provide similar therapy in allowing the poor kid to engage and interact with wildlife.
It is patently obvious to me that some social worker wants the benefit of providing access to this kind of therapy in some idyllic Mediterranean resort, rather than at some petting farm in the somewhat harsher climates of The Lake District or Snowdonia. Hope you get my point.
Furthermore, if some spoilt brat wants the opportunity of some private viewing session of dolphins performing solely for their own entertainment, all paid for by Mummy and Daddy, then nail these misguided little darlings on to the bow of a Bay of Biscay ferry, where the kids can get real up close and personal with these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat.
I had the misfortune of watching these captive dolphins day after day and night after night, when there were none of the punters, or any of the so-called trainers around.
The four dolphins clicked a great deal and sometimes made squeaky noises. They didn’t jump out of the water, nor did they flap their fins whilst swimming on their backs, or even for that matter do some reverse moon-walk whilst up on their tailfin. Instead, for the majority of the time they either lay still at the surface, or made aimless circuits around their pool with seemingly disapproving venting being spouted out via their blow-holes – or then again it may have been venting at the other end, who knows?
Well, if I had the money I would pay for some covert black-ops mission just to free these delightful creatures and return them to their rightful home. These are clever critters indeed, who deserve so much better. For me it’s like keeping a tiger in your garage, or a golden eagle in your back-bedroom. Some things are just not meant to be, and anyone who thinks otherwise should really be kept in some disused out-house with a couple of ravenous wolves for company.
For these captive dolphins, no matter how well the current operation is marketed, their whole existence is all in the name of entertainment and profit, and unfortunately for me the hotel is therefore somewhat tarnished with its close proximity to such an attraction. The inmates don’t deserve to be cooped up in cramped surroundings being dangled their daily rations, and then again neither really do the dolphins…
So spare a thought for the good people enduring their stay at the Mares Hotel. If there’s any time and money left during the dolphin breakout mission, we just may be able to salvage the lives of some of the hotel punters too. I only hope it’s not too late.
When your holiday is over, it’s once again time to do the return leg back to the airport, a journey that has completely slipped out of your mind as you venture back towards civilization. The main road between the Marmaris region and Dalaman is now nearing the final stages of completion, in that it finally links the two areas with, in the most part, a dual carriageway. It passes numerous mosques and petrol stations along the way, and I think that there were probably more petrol stations – I got to 30 before I looked for something else to while away the journey.
I must revisit the statement that the road is a dual carriageway, and possibly shatter this illusion. It is, to all intents and purposes, a four-laned highway with an occasional central reservation, but that it is where the similarity with a dual carriageway ends. If the road existed on our shores it would be referenced as “unadopted” along many of its sections. In order to clarify – let’s just say that it has got more potholes than Derbyshire.
Anyway – Enjoy…