Saphir Resort & Spa

A Disastrous Stay – Don’t Be Fooled by the Reviews!

I recently stayed at Granada Luxury Okurcalar, and it was nothing short of a nightmare from start to finish. I honestly cannot understand how this hotel has garnered such positive reviews. Perhaps they’re all from people with low standards or people who stayed in an entirely different hotel because my experience was beyond disappointing.

Let’s start with the service. From the moment we arrived, the front desk staff was rude and unhelpful. They barely spoke English, making communication an exhausting ordeal. I’ve never felt more neglected and frustrated as a guest.

The rooms were a disaster too. For a family of four, we were shocked to find that one person would have to sleep on a sofa bed. Are you serious? How do you expect anyone to comfortably sleep on a sofa bed for an entire vacation? This is supposed to be a “luxury” hotel, yet they couldn’t even provide adequate sleeping arrangements. Unbelievable.

Then there’s the food. Honestly, I’ve had better meals at fast food joints. The cuisine was bland, repetitive, and simply awful. The buffet looked like it was thrown together with no thought or care. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner felt like eating the same low-quality, tasteless dishes every day. The so-called “variety” was a joke, and the quality was worse than cafeteria food. I was genuinely appalled by how bad the food was – definitely not what you’d expect at a supposed luxury hotel.

As for the pool and beach area, prepare yourself for a claustrophobic experience. The areas were so small and overcrowded, it was actually scary. There’s no space to relax, no peace, just constant crowds. You’d think at a “luxury” hotel, you’d be able to enjoy some comfort, but here, it was a nightmare.

Entertainment? Forget it. The evening shows were amateurish at best. The performers seemed like a group of random people thrown together last minute. Poorly acted, horribly sung – it was just painful to sit through. We ended up leaving halfway through most shows because they were just that bad.

Oguz Anik, whoever you are managing this hotel, you’re doing a terrible job. The place needs a full restoration – from A to Z. Nothing about this hotel lives up to the “luxury” label, and it was honestly a waste of time and money staying here.

Overall, I would never recommend Granada Luxury Okurcalar to anyone. Save your money, avoid the disappointment, and book elsewhere. This was truly one of the worst hotel experiences I’ve ever had. Awful service, awful food, awful rooms – just an awful experience all around.

As an Asian covered guest with young children from the UK I would not recommend.
Pros: lovely scenery- good food- Unless you are GERMAN RUSSIAN OR TURKISH do not expect anything other than a 3* treatment.
CHECKING IN- was great - you want an upgrade you pay for it. Reception staff are nice.
ROOM - comes with a lovely view, can get a bit loud with the DJ but if you close the balcony door it’s not an issue. The biggest issue was loud guests shouting in hallways at night walking past rooms. Twice it woke my daughter up as she got scared.
RESTAURANT - This is where most of the issues occurred. We realised on the very first day of being there that we were not treated the same as other guests. Most waiters and waitresses walked past us and never offered us a drink with our meal. They went upto tables near us and took all alcohol orders and ran back past our tables for the empty glass re fills all the while ignoring us. From all the waiters and waitresses only a handful actually offered us a drink once during the meal and on the last day we met a lovely waiter who offered us drinks throughout the service. I wish we met him sooner.
LOBBY - Again the staff walked past us as if we didn’t exist anytime we went to the lobby for drinks. Only on one night when we got shisha to smoke we actually got a waitress who took our drink order and that’s the one and only time of our 6 day stay we got offered drinks in lobby area. Bear in mind other guests were getting second and thirds straight to them.
GUEST RELATIONS - we had a incident where a waiter banged into our table with a trolley and threw hot chocolate on my sons lap and my tea on my face, the young boy hurriedly threw a few wipes on table and left. Didn’t bother to get us any help. We went to guests relations to let them know and the manager was nice about it and said she will speak to them and get my sons clothes dry cleaned. The next day we went back for his clothes and the girls sitting at the desks outside managers office made it out like they don’t know any English to my husband and they don’t understand what happened with a attitude. Finally after trying to get Google translate to help she admitted she understood English and handed his clothes over.
OVERALL - if you wear a hijab and speak English I personally would not choose this hotel there are many other hotels available where you would be treated same as other guests. Some guests stared at me and made us feel uncomfortable, others at my kids and spoke in their language - no concept of queuing so people pushed into line for food and also pushed plates into the kids backs while waiting. As someone that has traveled to other parts of turkey and had amazing experiences I would not let this one put me off and look to return to a different part of Antalya/alanya for a positive stay. Sadly for such a beautiful hotel I would not recommend this hotel to my family and friends in the UK. Thank you to all the staff that made an effort and spoke to us and smiled and approached us and made us feel welcome.