Washington Resort and Spa

Hotel is very nice, clean, nice personal. the restaurant is a little too noisy and we lacked good coffee. (we dont really like the one from automats). Hotel surroundings is pretty and clean.

14 nights at Washington Resort & Spa: beautiful hotel, but would we return? No.

After spending 14 nights at Washington Resort & Spa, we feel we've had more than enough time to properly experience the hotel and form an honest opinion.

And this is a difficult review to write because Washington is a lovely hotel. It's modern, spacious, exceptionally clean and has some fantastic facilities. The staff work incredibly hard and there are definitely things we will miss.

But is it a 5 star experience?

For us, unfortunately, the answer is no.

🍽️ Food & Drinks: 5/10

Let's start with the biggest issue.

The food.

Now, before anyone thinks we're expecting Michelin star dining at an all inclusive resort, we're really not. The food is tasty. There is plenty of it. There is enough choice to eat something different for a couple of days.

But we stayed for 14 nights.

And after the first few days, the repetition became very obvious.

Adana kebab. Grilled chicken. Pesto pasta. Grilled fish.

And then repeat.

There was enough variety to keep you going for a few days, but over two weeks we were genuinely craving something different. At a 5 star resort, we expected more variety at dinner, particularly when it comes to different meats and main courses.

We aren't expecting a completely different menu every night, but when you've been there for two weeks and can predict what is going to appear at dinner, something has gone slightly wrong.

One absolute exception was Pizza Man at the smaller pool snack bar.

That man is a national treasure.

His fresh, handmade pizzas were LEGENDARY. Genuinely some of the best food we had during the entire holiday. If Washington could bottle whatever Pizza Man is doing and apply it to the main restaurant, we'd have had a very different review.

The advertised patisserie and coffee bar was another disappointment. We expected somewhere to get a proper coffee, perhaps an iced coffee or something a little more special.

Instead, the coffee was the same machine coffee available elsewhere in the hotel.

And you couldn't even get an iced coffee.

For a hotel advertising a dedicated coffee and patisserie area, that was a bit baffling.

The bars themselves were much better. They all had full menus and the cocktails were handmade, which we really appreciated. The lobby bar was particularly good and the cocktails were genuinely excellent.

The bar staff deserve a massive shout out here. They work their socks off. They are constantly running around serving guests, making cocktails and clearing tables, yet were consistently friendly and polite.

The lobby bar is also the only bar serving imported alcohol as part of the all inclusive package. Unfortunately, we found several occasions where they had run out of imported stock and were then serving local alternatives.

We understand that stock can run out, but when imported drinks are advertised as part of the all inclusive package, it was disappointing to repeatedly find that they weren't available.

We didn't use the à la carte restaurant ourselves, but we were told that for a 14 night stay, the first visit would cost €5 per person and subsequent visits would be €30 per person.

If that's correct, we found that quite shocking for a 5 star all inclusive resort.

Overall, the food wasn't bad. It was the repetition that ruined it for us.

🏊 Facilities & Hotel: 8/10

This is where Washington really does well.

The hotel is beautiful. It's modern, bright, spacious and incredibly clean.

Both outdoor pools were spotless and the surrounding areas were kept clean throughout our stay. The main pool is absolutely enormous and there is plenty of space around it.

The children's pool and slides were great, although it could become pretty hectic when the slides were running.

Now, let's talk about the sunbeds.

Despite the hotel's signs asking guests not to reserve sunbeds, the towels were out at 6am or earlier.

People would put towels down, disappear for hours and then stroll back down at 10 or 11am.

I was at the pool at around 7am on some mornings and still struggled to find two beds together.

Personally, I get up early, find a bed, sit in the morning sun and read, and once I've found my bed I'm not moving. 😂 So it wasn't a massive issue for us personally, but if you're the sort of person who likes a leisurely breakfast before heading to the pool at 10am, good luck.

The animation team were brilliant.

Efes deserves a special mention.

His darts games were fantastic and he brought so much energy to the pool. Ciao ciao, bye bye! 😂

The animation team genuinely helped create a great atmosphere and were one of the highlights of the stay.

Our room was cleaned every day and fresh towels and linen were provided regularly. The cleaning staff deserve an enormous amount of credit. The hotel was consistently spotless, and considering how many people are staying there at any given time, that's no small achievement.

We booked a side sea view and got exactly what we paid for, although the balcony was tiny.

Like, two chairs and absolutely no chance of doing anything else tiny.

Our son had a proper single bed rather than a pull out chair, which was fantastic.

We also had an issue with the shower drain, reported it and it was fixed within around an hour. Excellent response.

We didn't use the hotel spa because we found a much cheaper option a short drive away. We did, however, both get tattoos at the hotel. The tattoo artist was professional and the studio was clean.

The hotel shops were also surprisingly reasonably priced. We didn't find them dramatically more expensive than the local bazaar, which was a nice surprise.

📶 Wi Fi: This deserves its own section

Oh, the Wi Fi.

We've stayed in 3 star, 4 star and 5 star hotels before.

We've always had free Wi Fi throughout the hotel.

At Washington, free Wi Fi is limited to the lobby.

Want internet anywhere else?

€30 per person, per week.

For a 5 star resort in 2026, we honestly found this ridiculous.

And it created the strangest atmosphere in the evenings.

The lobby was absolutely packed with people sitting on their phones, tablets and other devices because it was the only place they could access the internet without paying.

You'd walk into the lobby bar and see hundreds of people with their heads buried in their phones.

And the worst part?

A lot of them weren't even drinking.

So you've got a supposedly premium lobby bar where people can't find a seat because the seating has effectively become the hotel's free Wi Fi zone.

That's not exactly the 5 star atmosphere you expect when you've paid for a 5 star all inclusive holiday.

We genuinely think the hotel needs to reconsider this policy.

Free Wi Fi throughout the resort should be a basic expectation nowadays, particularly at this level of hotel.

This is reason number two why we wouldn't return.

Food is number one.

🏖️ The Beach

We only spent one morning at the beach because our son wasn't keen on it.

The beach is very rocky, so beach shoes are a must, particularly for children.

The hotel does offer watersports at what appeared to be reasonable prices, although we didn't personally try them.

Unfortunately, because of the rocks, the beach just wasn't somewhere we wanted to spend much time.

📍 Location

This was another negative for us.

There isn't a huge amount immediately around the hotel apart from the bazaar.

If you're looking for somewhere to go for a nice evening walk, browse shops, have dinner somewhere different or just get out and about without getting a taxi, there isn't much available.

Side itself is lovely, but a taxi was around €30 each way, so it's not exactly somewhere you can casually nip into every night.

One place that absolutely deserves a mention, though, is Bistro Riviera Cafe at the end of the bazaar.

When we'd reached the point of desperately needing something that wasn't Adana kebab, grilled chicken, pasta or fish, Bistro Riviera came to the rescue.

The food was genuinely delicious and was a very welcome change from the hotel menu.

⭐ The Final Verdict

This is the bit where we have to give credit where credit is due.

Washington is a beautiful hotel.

The facilities are excellent. The pools are fantastic. The hotel is spacious, modern and exceptionally clean.

But what really stood out to us were the staff.

The bar staff, restaurant staff, animation team and cleaning staff work incredibly hard. They are dealing with huge numbers of guests every day and, despite that, we experienced a lot of friendly and helpful service.

The cleaning staff in particular deserve recognition. The hotel was spotless throughout our entire 14 night stay.

The bar staff were also fantastic. They were constantly working, making drinks, serving guests and clearing tables, and still managed to be friendly and welcoming.

We don't blame the staff for the things we didn't like about the hotel. In fact, quite the opposite. The staff are one of the strongest parts of Washington.

Our issue is with the overall offering.

For us, the hotel looks 5 star, but some of the experience doesn't feel 5 star.

The repetitive food, the paid Wi Fi and the relatively isolated location were too significant for us to overlook after spending two weeks there.

And that's why, despite genuinely enjoying parts of our stay, we won't be returning.

That's actually a shame because there is so much potential here.

Improve the variety of the food.

Give guests free Wi Fi throughout the resort.

And perhaps look at what can be done to improve the overall guest experience outside the hotel.

Do those things and Washington could be an absolutely fantastic resort.

As it stands, we'd say it's a beautiful hotel with fantastic facilities and hardworking staff, but not quite the 5 star all inclusive experience we were expecting.

Would we recommend it?

Yes, with reservations. If you're a family who is happy to spend most of your holiday around the pools and within the resort, you may absolutely love it.

Would we return?

No.

And after 14 nights, we don't say that lightly.

The food is reason number one.

The Wi Fi is reason number two.

And the location is reason number three.

For our next Turkish holiday, we'll be looking elsewhere.