- Turkey Holidays
- Didim
- Duja Didim
Located in a lush complex on the Aegean Sea coast, this stylish resort is 8 km from the ancient Greek ruins at the Temple of Apollo and 69 km from Milas-Bodrum Airport.
Facilities include a private beach area, a children's pool and outdoor pools, two with water slides, as well as many bars, snack bars and a buffet restaurant with a terrace. It also offers spa, disco, gym and entertainment activities.
Relax at the full-service spa, where you can enjoy massages and body treatments. You can soak up the sun at the private beach or enjoy other recreational amenities including a water slide and a sauna. Additional amenities at this hotel include complimentary wireless Internet access, a television in a common area and a banquet hall.
Due to the surrounding area and the number of steps around the hotel, it may not be suitable for those with mobility difficulties.
We just came back during our family holiday stay at the Duja Didim - Izmir.
We were told by our rep that Duja Didim is under new management. This is definitely not a 4-star hotel—it is a very good 3-star plus at an absolute push, and we will not be returning.
Here is my honest breakdown of our stay:
The Rooms & Amenities
Family Village Room: The room was far too cramped. There was nowhere to put our luggage and the cupboard space was tiny. Our bed was broken, they tried to fix it, but to no avail, or our A/C hardly worked, but the maintenance guy did try.
Mini Bar: You are only allowed to use/fill it once during your entire stay, which is unacceptable for a resort of this supposed rating. However, they refilled the bar with bottled water, which there are loads of around the entire resort to help yourself.
Pools: On a positive note, each block has its own quiet pool if you want to avoid the crowds. However, the main pool was freezing, and the sunbeds were crammed way too close together. The DJ is on the main pool starting at 10.00am and finishes at 5.00pm
Food & Drink
The Buffet: Highly repetitive and boring, sometimes cold or certain food run out, however, the cakes were amazing. The juices (Orange, Apple, Pineapple, Sour Cherry) were watered down, machined coffee (different varieties) hot/cold milk, Turkish Tea. You had to get your own drinks from the bar if you wanted them with your lunch/dinner.
Snack Bars: Mostly just basic burgers, chicken nuggets, pizza and chips. The kebab bar food felt pre-prepared, though they did add pizza for some variety. However, there are ice cream bars, once they are gone, they are not restocked until the next day - at lunchtime only.
Waffle Bar: The waffles were amazing, but they only offered chocolate sauce—no other toppings.
Starbucks: Having a Starbucks on-site was a massive bonus. However, they only ever had one person working, leading to huge queues. A massive shout-out to Bursha, she who served at the Sea Breeze bar, was absolutely amazing, cheerful, and friendly! We will miss her.
Beach & Aqua Park
The Beach: The "sand" is actually mostly sand/shingle. Walking into the sea is quite dangerous because of the rocks—make sure to bring aqua shoes and not suited for the elderly, plenty of sunbeds, so no sunbeds wars, however, if you walk past the water activities there are beds there, and sandier beach, which you share with the locals.
Aqua Park: The waterslides themselves were great, this opens from 10.00am and shuts at 5.00pm, but the lifeguards were not very attentive at all, all very young and on phones/chatting.
Service & Entertainment
Language Barrier: The reception and guest experience staff did not understand English very well. While we understand it is their country and we are the foreigners, if you work in front-of-house hospitality at a major resort, you should at least be able to converse and understand basic English.
Activities: The entertainment was so-so and daytime activities were terrible—unless you happen to love water polo - there were no announcements about what was on nor no board to tell you when/where/what/time. The evening entertainment was very cheesy "Miss Duja Contest" "Duja Couples" plus there weren't enough seats, however, there is a candy floss/popcorn stand which was 5euros.
Night Market & Taxis: The ladies' Night Market outside was good. The hotel will ring a taxi for you, and you pay when you return (just remember to barter at the market).
Personally in my point of view, the management has a massive amount of work to do. If you book this expecting a seamless 4-star holiday, you will be disappointed.
Very nice hotel, clean rooms and good entertainment in the hotel - shout out to kamal the bar captain!!
Lovely hotel, friendly staff. Food what you would expect from all inclusive really. Rooms really nice and clean. Good atmosphere.
The hotel was clean, some of the staff were very abrupt, most couldn’t talk English which is quite frustrating, we was told the pool was heated but it was absolutely freezing, I love swimming but I only went in once for 5 mins, the food was cold.
We had such a lovely stay at this hotel and would definitely recommend it! The staff were absolutely incredible — so friendly, welcoming and helpful throughout our stay, and we genuinely couldn’t fault them.
The beach is absolutely beautiful 😍 The water is stunning and it honestly felt like being in the Maldives! The water park was also so much fun and was open during our stay, which was a great bonus, especially for families.
There’s entertainment every night, which was brilliant and makes the hotel especially good for kids and families. The pool area was also really good, clean and enjoyable.
The rooms were good and kept clean. The only thing I would mention is that the room-cleaning staff did enter our room a few times while we had the Do Not Disturb sign on the door. I was actually in the room when this happened multiple times. We did report this to reception, so hopefully this can be addressed.
The food was okay overall. I had seen quite a few reviews mentioning that people had left feeling unwell, and unfortunately both my partner and I, as well as my brother, did become quite unwell during/after our stay. I can’t say for certain that this was caused by the food, as it could simply have been a common cold or another bug, but it is something worth mentioning as we all experienced it. There were also a few things that didn’t agree with our stomachs, although you can sometimes expect this when travelling abroad.
One thing we absolutely LOVED, though, was the waffles at the bar by the sea — they were incredible and definitely worth trying! 🧇😍
Overall, we had a fantastic holiday. The beautiful beach, amazing staff, entertainment, pool and water park made it a really enjoyable stay. Despite the few things mentioned above, we had a great time and would happily return!
