TUI MAGIC LIFE Belek

FOOD AND DRINK The main dining venue is the Magnifico – a buffet restaurant. This is huge, and busy, but we never had any problems getting a table even at peak times. The highlight for me was the flame grill serving up chicken thighs, kebabs and steak every night, but the choice of food is incredible, with a huge selection of meat, fish, vegetables and salads. There are also plenty of themed evenings, such as Turkish, Sushi and Italian with the restaurant appropriately themed inside and out. One particular highlight is white night. Although it’s obviously not obligatory, guests are encouraged to wear white or silver, and the restaurant is decorated to match. It’s a lot of fun thing so I’d strongly recommend packing appropriate clothes. The restaurant staff work incredibly hard serving drinks and taking used plates and cutlery away. Whether you favour carrying as many plates as you can and creating a mezze, overloading your plate with food cantilevered over the side to create more surface area, or just making frequent visits, you will be well looked after. In addition to the main restaurant, there is a snack area open in the afternoon serving pizza, burgers, salads, crepes, fries, fruit and delicious wraps. There are also speciality restaurants with table service. I can’t comment on those, we were very happy using the Magnifico, but the menus are available in the Magiclife app. Drinks operate on a two-tier system. Basic spirits, house wine and beer (Efes) are included. Although the pours are generous, none of the spirits are particularly strong, which in my view is a good thing – it would be too easy to get wasted in the heat otherwise. Premium brands and better wines can be purchased, but there’s really no need. Another option is the coffee house. This serves tea and coffee all day and has a patisserie serving cakes and macarons in the afternoon. We found it to be generally quiet and a pleasant shady spot to spend some time with a book and cup of Turkish coffee.

FACILITIES The busiest part of the hotel is the main entertainment pool. You’ll find the usual entertainments here, such as aqua fitness, water polo etc. There’s another pool with slides in, and next to it a beachside smaller pool. Our favourite though was the relax pool. This is a quiet 16+ pool for people who want to escape the noise and crowds of the other pools. There’s a bar by this pool and the fabulous Ömer who patrols the sunbeds all day serving beers and soft drinks. I want to particular give a shout out to the lifeguards, especially the ones on duty on 16th July. Two visually impaired guests came to the pool and the lifeguards were fantastic. They helped them with their shoes and bits and pieces, then helped them into the water and got in with them and walked around in the pool with them until they got comfortable. There’s plenty of loungers around the pools and on the beach and we never had a problem finding one. There are also cabanas by the beach that can be hired for 50 euros a day including a fridge full of beer and soft drinks. The hotel is beautifully landscaped with lots of well-tended greenery.

ROOMS I think all of the rooms in the hotel are more or less the same as each other. You can choose a location, but that is relatively expensive. We did this to guarantee two rooms next to each other. The rooms are large and have a minibar that is stocked with 4x2l bottles of soft drinks and plenty of water. Shower gel and hand soap are provided.

ACTIVITIES As well as the poolside entertainment, there are plenty of other things to do. There’s an archery range and football and tennis courts. Windsurfing and catamarans are available, although you either need to be suitably qualified or pay to take a course while at the hotel. If that’s too much like hard work there are plenty of canoes available.

SUMMARY The hotel is fairly family oriented (there’s the usual kids clubs etc.) but there’s still plenty of quieter places, such as the relax pool and the coffee house so you could enjoy a holiday here without children. The food is great and varied, but there are plenty of more basic options for less adventurous eaters.

We had an amazing stay at TUI Magic Life Belek! The hotel exceeded our expectations in every way. The facilities were excellent, the food was delicious with plenty of variety, the rooms were clean and comfortable, and the entertainment and activities made every day enjoyable.

A special thank you to the reception team—Oğuzhan, Emel, and Maricar. They were incredibly friendly, professional, and always happy to help with any questions or requests we had.

We truly enjoyed our vacation and would highly recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a relaxing and fun all-inclusive holiday.

Everything was great but… something was off. The vibe. The people. I found it to be very heavily German / Austrian and you can’t relax. So please bear in mind, it’s not very multicultural and you feel like you’re in Germany not Turkey.