Have stayed at the Sea Garden twice now, May 2010 and July 2011. I have never wanted to be that person who goes back to the same place every year… however, this is the perfect relax and get away from it all place, great childcare and evening babysitting included, lovely location and great weather. If it isn’t broken, don’t try and fix it. Both trips taken with Mark Warner on the all-inclusive basis. So the review will be split between the two: Mark Warner & Sea Garden.

First Mark Warner: flights now British Airways go from Heathrow T5 in 2011 which was a massive improvement on Saga Air in 2010 (Turkish Airline where the planes have to be 60 years old or more). Transfer on arrival is mid-afternoon, so you even get a swim & a drink before dinner, rather than arriving at 11pm. Childcare and water sports are as ever superb. There was no shortage of boats in 2011 & the waterfront crew are superb, winds were variable, insane one day, genteel the next. TIP: if you wait for discounts on the holiday, you could be disappointed by childcare availability. If you want childcare beyond the inclusive hours, book early. TIP: There is a cut-off between infant and toddler groups at 3 years of age, if you have a 2 year old child very close to their 3rd birthday then you may find your child sitting in a room full of screaming babies with no similarly aged children. The 3+ group will be full and for many reasons they can’t move the child up a group. Of course the staff did everything they could to entertain our daughter, but she really did not enjoy the childcare as much in 2011 as she had in 2010 when there were more similarly aged children. TIP: I have attached a map of the resort. If you have young kids it is worth stressing on booking that you want a room on the ground floor (or first floor at worst) close to the childcare, I have highlighted the best blocks on the map in pink. If not you’ll be carrying sleeping children up flights of stairs late at night when you pick them up from the MW babysitting service. TIP: request adjoining / interconnecting rooms on booking, a number of families did not get them as standard.

Next Sea Garden: Rooms are very clean and comfortable, though some are much closer to the beach, restaurant and childcare facilities than others, see earlier comments. Rooms have a safe, a fridge, TV and AC. Food is very good on the whole, with a good selection available throughout service. Though as you might expect, ‘Chinese’ night is not quite the success Turkish trained chefs might hope for… unlike the Turkish night when they show what they can do… I’d be happy with Turkish every night. There was an issue with chicken from the grill being undercooked, I reported this to the Food and Beverage representative who advised that “some guests prefer meat a little pink”… I reported this to the head chef and was able to show him evidence (see photo) and I am pleased to report that there was no re-occurrence for the remainder of the holiday. To be fair, in the 4 weeks we have stayed there, we have not had any food poisoning. The gym is pretty good and there are some nice walks around the resort for the more energetic. The evening entertainment is pretty reasonable, only the most jaded cynic will grumble. TIP: take a backgammon board, or deck of cards and relax before and after dinner in the sunset bar!

Highlight of the holidays: trip to Ephesus (we rented a car for the day - $100), the beach bar watching the sunset, winning the end of week race both weeks in 2011 :-)… we are even thinking of booking again this year… 3 years running… they must be doing something right…

We stayed here all-inclusive / November 2011 / village side. Three bays in resort, crystal water. staff helpful, especially reception staff is helpful (Miss Secil). room was nice and great with 1 bedroom,1 bathroom,1 living room,1 kitchen,1 balcony,1 laundry room. food was average,food bar was poor. recommend: try fresh omelette at breakfast. spa (pool,hamam,sauna) is very good. animation staff is there for entertaining. and I think,your kid will enjoy kids club

we've traveled bodrum at late september. the weather & sea was wonderful. the hotel was a 5 star but my 22 years old daughter poisoned from fish products. although we stayed all inclusive she couldn't eat anything for 4 days and I've to order such as yoghurt and boiled patoteos kind of things. believe or not, they even charged for them! also we paid 200 liras for the doc.& serum! the hotel's doctor told us that she's poisoned but when we attended to talk to the hotel manager he changed his claim! we wanted to talk to the responsible person at least not to charge for the room service but he suprised us so much (name was 'ozgur' as I remember) by even not to shake our hands and telling that this is our daughter's problem, she's allergic to foods! I wanted to tell him that 'hey man, she is 22 and never had such an allergy, why now?' the answer was easy: their foods wasn't hygyenic at all!

We stayed here on an all-inclusive basis with Mark Warner at the start of October 2011. My one big tip would be to explore the whole resort - it's divided into two, with the hotel on one side and a village on the other side of the hill. We didn't get round to the other side till the last day, and it's lovely. There are some good boat tours from there as well.

We stayed in block 3 - depending on your taste, block 1 & 2 are nearest the beach, (but also overlook the kids club which can get noisy) block 4 is close to reception and the main hotel. Block 3 was right in the middle, and suited us perfectly. It was quiet, and only a few minutes walk either to the restaurants or down to the pool/beach. Because the resort is built on a steep hill - you'd better like steps. Lots and lots of steps! But the pathways through the wooded gardens are very pretty and you soon learn where the shortcuts are.

Our room was really nice - a generous size with a huge bed, flat screen TV, and a small, sheltered balcony. ALL the rooms seem to face towards the beach, although the property is heavily wooded so you may not get an actual sea view. The bathroom was fine with a bath and shower over, and kept spotless. My only critcism is of the giant bed - it was too soft and a little saggy - and I am not keen on superkings, although I'm sure some other people love them! Lovely selection of cushions and pillows.

You are issued with a towel card which you can exchange at the pool hut for 3 beach towels, and you can swap dirty or damp towels at the hut anytime you like.

Mark Warner also issued us with vouchers for 2 a-la-carte meals - there are several of the all-inclusive restaurants, and also 3 restricted restaurants which you need the vouchers for (or you can pay), and which you need to book ahead. Even though we were staying at the very end of the season, we still couldn't get bookings the same day, so it really is best to get them booked soon after you arrive.

The food in general was very good. Breakfast in particular was stunning, with a vast range of breads, yoghurts, fruit salad, and hot food like eggs, bacon etc. My favourite thing was the omelette bar - each day there is a chef who will cook a fresh omelette with your chosen filling right in front of you, and these were awesome. Highly recommended!

Other meals - the Amphora's evening buffet was where we ended up most nights, and they do make a sort of effort to vary the food, it was certainly good, with a choice of soups, hot mains and salads, as well as usually several desserts. Lunch at the poolside Laguna restaurant was generally excellent - again buffet style but delicious. We did try the cheeseburgers at the Walk of Fame bar - also very good. There are free icecreams between 2pm and 4pm each day at the Laguna - and they don't seem to mind if you come back more than once!! The icecream is lovely, too, with a range of flavours to choose from.

Apparently the Sea Garden is Mark Warner's only all-inclusive resort - normally they just do full board with wine at mealtimes. At the Sea Garden you are given a wristband to entitle you to all-inclusive service - not all guests are on this basis so you do need your wristband. Although a good range of spirits was available, the all-inclusive is only local brands, but to be honest they were fine. The G&Ts were grand, which is what I mostly stuck to. Efes lager is on draft, also very nice. They make simply excellent coffee, and tea comes Turkish style in a little glass which is great. If you want English style tea, though, bring your own! I did find an Earl Grey teabag at lunchtime in the Laguna restaurant and almost wept with joy - but that was the only time. The Sunset Bar is simply gorgeous - built on the beach out over the sea with a little walkway to it. I plucked up the courage to ask for a cocktail, hoping that they'd tell me what they offered, but instead the barman leapt into action and made something completely random!! Hilarious - it was like a blue pina colada, but he did give me the chance to have a taste before he poured it out. Very nice though. The next day my husband asked if they could do a Sex on the Beach - they laughed and asked him what was in it. They then produced something 'very like' - sort of similar, but very yummy anyway. If you're not too fussy, trust me the drinks are great!

The weather was pretty bad for the first three days of our trip - but the Rugby World Cup was on in the sports bar (Walk of Fame), and the staff certainly made an effort to make sure we still had fun. The hotel has a cinema/theatre, so films were shown each day it was wet. We hung out at the health spa - the pool area has stunning Arabic-style architecture, and tea and coffee are available poolside, with comfy loungers. There are two sauna rooms, and for an extra charge, a good range of beauty treatments. All indoors so the rain didn't matter at all.

Once the sun came out, though, we staked out our favourite spot on the beach deck which is built out over the water. You can snooze in the sun, listening to the waves whooshing in and out - simply gorgeous. The deck can be reached straight from the pool area, and also has steps straight into the water which is fab if you don't want to get sandy or have to wear beach shoes (the beach is very pebbly!) There were plenty of sunloungers although I suspect in high season this might be an issue. The pool water was very cold (seems unheated) whereas the sea was lovely and warm. There are two floating platforms you can swim out to and lounge about on. Plenty of people were snorkelling - the water is crystal clear, and you can see straight to the bottom, with lots of beautiful fish. Actually, we found out that these fish are VERY friendly - take a bread roll from the buffet and drop little morsels - there was soon a busy crowd of fish who will jump to catch bread and even take it from your hand! Hours of fun!

Of the 'included' water sports, there were dinghies and funboats and a catamaran available for sailing, plus windsurfers and kayaks. As always with Mark Warner, the beach staff were very efficient and the kit was in good condition. Again though, in high season I can imagine you might be limited in how long you can take equipment out if it's very busy. Safety boat on hand at all times. The tennis was a real disappointment - the tennis pro was clearly uninterested unless he could sell you some private lessons, and didn't explain whether we could book the court, or what - however there are also two very modern squash courts if that's your thing. There was a kids club in the main hotel area which looked very good with lots of activites even when wet.

If you don't mind paying a little extra, there's a diving school which offers PADI courses and even night diving. There is also waterskiing available. Both seemed good value for the price.

Don't miss out on the evening entertainment - strangely the Walk of Fame bar is mostly deserted at night, you have to walk up to Mini Bodrum and there is a beautiful open plaza with various entertainment on each night. We saw a Chinese circus show which was excellent, some dancing another night, and there is live music afterwards where you can dance and have a giggle. There is even a nightclub, the Buddha, but the one night we looked in it was utterly deserted - I suspect this is mainly where the Mark Warner staff hang out, those guys like to party hard!

Mini Bodrum is actually very nice - a couple of good gift shops, a minimarket, a sports shop with swimming costumes, snorkels etc., and even a hairdressers! I bought a great selection of gifts from the main gift shop and the owners couldn't have been more helpful - they giftwrapped everything for no charge, and they were happy to give prices in euros, sterling, dollars or Turkish lira. They spoke great English and weren't pushy at all.

Trips out - we decided we didn't want to miss Ephesus, and this was a fantastic day out for 45 euros each, including all transport, entry tickets, breakfast and lunch. Early start - 7am - for a 2.5 hour drive, but a stop for breakfast on the way, at a little cafe on the shores of a beautiful lake. The minibus was very luxurious, with comfy leather seats and a drinks cooler, and good aircon. The tour guide was smashing, too, a very funny, knowledgeable guy. He spent about 2 hours hiking round Ephesus with us, with loads of information about the various artefacts there. Be warned, though - it's heaving with people almost throughout the year. I shudder to think what it's like there in August! I would guess that May or September are probably the best times. There are simply incredible things to see, including ancient amphitheatres, shops, engravings and statues. I took over 200 photos! Afterwards we were taken to the Ephesus museum which is small but nice, and well worth a look round.

The only downer on the day was the 'shopping' bit. I suppose the tour company gets a kickback (or the guide does) by taking you shopping, but it was kind of stressful - we had a delicious lunch and then we were taken to see 'jewellery'. We were led into a vast network of jewellery showrooms with salespeople hovering everywhere. Every time you stopped to look at something they would swoop in and try and make you try it on. No prices, of course. I asked after a fairly modest looking necklace with two small diamonds and was told it was £4000. Really. And then it took a lot of work to get away from the salesman, he was determined I should have it. Some of the pieces were gorgeous, but obviously very expensive indeed. The most annoying bit was that there was actually a reasonably priced silver and gold semiprecious showroom right at the back (you have to walk through it to get out) but by then I was tired and stressed so we swept straight though it, straight through the tatty souvenir shop on the back, and sat in the car park waiting for everyone else. Still, it was only an hour or less, so not a major thing.
We were then taken to the House of the Virgin Mary - they believe she lived here for the last years of her life. The 'house' is really a two-room shrine, but it's lovely, and there is a blessed spring where people attach their wishes and prayers to long ropes. Again we stopped for a break on the drive back at the lakeside cafe where you could buy snacks and refreshments. I began to like drinking tea Turkish style!

My overall impression of Turkey was beautiful scenery but mostly the fantastic people - so friendly, even if they don't speak your language (and most do speak some English) they are incredibly helpful and nice, and want to share their beautiful country with you, unlike many touristy areas where it's obvious the locals really wish you weren't there! In the resort, one of the waiters asked if we were having fun and I said "yes, but I hope it stops raining". He looked at me blankly, clearly he wasn't quite sure what I'd said so I waved out of the window and he smiled and nodded. But ten minutes later when we got up to leave, the same guy came bounding over and said carefully "I hope the weather is nicer today for you and the rain stops soon" - he had literally grabbed a colleague and learnt the English for a proper reply. All the staff were smashing but this really stood out for me - after all, he really didn't need to go learn some extra English, he's got a job to do and it's his country!!

We would definitely go back here, although not in high season. I reckon May, June or September are probably best as it was pretty hot even in October (never less than 18 degrees, but on sunny days up to 27 degrees), and during school holidays it is very busy. While we were there the temperature really dropped at night, and I wished I'd brought a warm jumper or two! The stars in the night sky were amazing though.