Cullinan Belek Resort 

This was our third visit to The Cullinan, albeit our first in November. Previous visits both in late February / early March. Very warm welcome as always, and the terrific rose champagne on arrival and throughout for that matter very nice indeed. It was also probably the latest check in at TC, which did lead to the first ‘hiccup’ I’ll explain later. The minute we entered it was noticeably busier than in previous visits AND there were a lot of children. Don’t get me wrong I’m not averse to children like the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, however I do choose to travel outside of the school holidays, (A) Because I’m fortunate enough to be able to (B) I want a more peaceful holiday away from noisy children. Unbeknownst to us we have arrived amidst some ‘national Turkish’ holiday period, hence all the kids. This meant that we were experiencing TC at a much increased capacity than previous, and whilst not enough to impact upon our enjoyment, it did irk sometimes, particularly in the self service restaurant as lines were substantially longer and IMO it did impact on the service level, especially at breakfast and morning a good way. I took the time to share all of this with the hotel management prior to our departure so they will not be surprised to read my comments. TOP TIP: as well as checking UK school hols check the country you are travelling to as well, lesson learnt. That said the hotel was large enough to ensure the impact was minimal, just not what I would have wanted. This mainly in terms of peaceful swimming lanes in the huge indoor pool being disturbed by noisy kids. Breakfast service was probably the biggest noticeable drop in service. There did appear to be a lot of staff available, they just were not attentive enough, some on their phones! We had been so used to such a high bar being set previously it was noticeable. Food excellent, facilities including golf very good indeed. One issue that you should be aware of is that they room AC (cool) is NOT available in November (winter period apparently) which may be OK for some , however weather was in the mid 20’s and the night we arrived the room was very warm indeed and didn’t help sleep. The hotel did their best to placate us and asked us as their guest in the Italian restaurant the following night, which normally would have cost us around €50 so that was a nice and welcome gesture. The golf course have been switched around so basically if you’ve been before and played the Olympos (our fav) you only play the original front nine before being diverted to 9 holes on what WAS the Aspendos. The other minor gripe is that fact that the club house does not honour the all inclusive when asking for a bottle of Corona, which whilst not a biggie, does feel mealy mouthed considering the cost of the holiday overall. I do understand the golf club is run separately from TC however it’s not a good look. Otherwise I would highly recommend TC and hence no drop in my OA rating