My 4th time at the Hanedan. An idyllic spot, rich gardens, the place is almost hidden by the trees. It is peaceful, even when busy. Everything is clean, no unwelcome loud music, excellent beach, clean sea. the hotel food is terrific. The place redefines a leisurely breakfast. Not exciting, certainly not a Bodrum tourist type hotel, it can be quiet, but what a place to enjoy tranquility. Eski Foca is a great little place, very Turkish, fish restaurants and kebab places along with cafes and bars all centred around 2 harbours. An hour away by boat is Karaburun. The place is fresh fish paradise. Nothing is expensive and local transport is excellent.

When we first arrived we were positively surprised of the room's appearance, it was nicer and had a higher standard than many of the pictures we had seen of the rooms.

Poor aircondition
But the first night we learned that the airconditioning did not work properly. Although Foca is not as hot as southern Turkey, it doesn't get much colder than 27-30 Celsius in the night time which means too hot too sleep for us norwegians.. We set the aircondition on everything from 15 to 5 degrees, but the temperature did not drop much until three or four hours later, and then only to about 25 degrees. We of course told the reception and they sent a service man, but nothing happened. They sent the service man to fix it 3 or 4 times, but there was little or no improvement. When we complained after the third or fourth service, they told us there was nothing they could do. We decided to try to live with it, when we after a couple of days our tour guide told us to ask for a fan, which we finally got after asking the manager. (First time we asked one of the girls in the reception she just said 'no, sorry'. Which we had learned was a pretty common response from her. After asking the manager though, we got a fan sent to our room in a maximum of 5 minutes.)

Stealing(!)
Secondly, the cleaners (or maybe the service man) stole from our room. This is something which we never have experienced traveling before even though we have been to lots of hotels. I had bought a cartoon of sigarettes from the taxfree, and had taken one package out. The third day I noticed not one package missing, but four. On three days someone had actually been stealing three packages from my carton. I was very surprised and pissed, as it seemed as the person who had stolen it either was too stupid to understand that I would notice that four out of ten packages was missing instead of just one, or that they just didn't care because they knew no action would be taken anyway.
We told the manager as soon as i found out, and he seemed to take it seriously and promised to take action, but we didn't receive any feedback, and when we asked, they told us that they hadn't found anything yet. Later we found out that they had also helped themselves to a box of chocolate confections we had in our room.
It was not that they had stolen anything of much value, it was just pure rudeness as we saw it, with no respect for the guests belongings.

No real market
Another negative side is that Hanedan did not have a proper market. They had one market, but it didn't have much other than snacks, sodas and water. We had breakfast included, but we're not early risers, so we often didn't get up for the breakfast buffet. The market should have sold fruit and some cheese or sandwich fillings, but no such thing excisted. The cafeteria which was the only place to buy food in the day time, sold not much healty alternatives, mostly chips, pizzas and burgers (and really boring salads) as lighter meals.

Turkish Bath
We had to try the spa/turkish bath they had in the hotel, so we decided on a couples-massage with sea clay (Hammam). This was a bit different than what you would expect in Norway. First we were told to undress and wrap some kind of towel around us and go into the turkisk bath. As we walked in, we found out that the guy who would give us the sea clay massage was not finished with the customer before us, so a naked girl was laying on the bench. He covered her 'private parts' when we were shoved in the door, but as she where having an 'all body foam and scrub' session, she had to be sort to speak naked most of the time. It probably was as embarrassing for her as for us, to just sit there right beside them, turned to them (the turkisk baht is arranged as a kind of a circle, where 'the action' takes place on a stone table in the middle) (also almost naked, told to sit and pour water over our bodies. My boyfriend and I sat there joking about maybe we actually had booked a threesome, or this was something out of 'Eyes wide shut'. When the girl was finished and it came to our turn, we were laying on the table in just our panties, covered by nothing but sea clay, when another woman were told to go into where we were laying and wait for her session. So not good to be too shy in this place. But the sea clay did good!

On the positive side, we must mention the breakfast which was really good, with pancakes and omelettes and a lot of variety. And the staff, except for (most of) the girls in the reception, was very helpful and service minded, although their english was often poor. The Hanedan beach was also very nice, with great snorkling opportunities when the weather/water visibility is good (my boyfriend saw two octopuses one day!). It was not too crowded either, only on weekends the beach was close to full, and that's a rarity in July.
Foca town -which is a short bus or a taxi ride away, is a great place with very helpful and relaxed people (not like most other turks further south -and Izmir). The town has a lot of cozy restaurants and narrow streets with many adorable stray cats and dogs (which I had to give half my dinner to more than once). A town which I would be happy to see again. The hotel -not too sure, even though we maybe would have been happy with it if it wasn't for some unfortunate events with the bad airconditioning followed with bad service and the stealing.

We wanted to find a beach resort in Turkey close to an airport but away from the blight of mass tourism. We found what we were looking for at the Hanedan, and in fact were the only foreigners there all week! The property has a choice of hotel rooms or garden villas, so something for every party size. The beach was wondeful, with coarse sand, and five minutes walk in either direction there are other coves. There are two swimming pools on site, so there are plenty of water options. The food was excellent - an extensive buffet both at breakfast and dinner, and half board is superb value. There is a also a beach restaurant. Foca is nearby with some excellent fish restaurants and a dolmus stops on site and costs 1 lira into town. There is free wifi throughout the hotel, bar, Hammam and an exercise room, which actually could do with a bit of an upgrade. The staff are friendly, helpful, and English is widely spoken.

We stayed at Hanedan with extended family. Staff was very accomodating. Rooms are spacious but a bit dated. Beach is clean and big but is not sandy. Take your swim shoes. Also not great for kids. There is a grass area right by the beach which was very useful. Kid could run around safely. Breakfast and dinner had a lot of variety but the fruits were not the best. Swimming pools were small and far away from the beach. Restaurant by the beach was very nice. Good value for the price.