Gastgebruiker
29 augustus 2023
What a brilliant time we have just had at the Mark Warner Phokaia Beach Resort. We did seven days there, actually six once you factor in the 12hr door to door travelling and it was just so fun, as I believe is the term now. We have been on Mark Warner holidays before (including to Phokaia) so knew the form. A nice rep came to meet us at the airport (late on Sat evening) and explained to us, with the help of timetables and schedules, the format for the coming week. In short, activities for everyone every day. My 13-yr old son was packed off to the Kidz (sic) Club and there met a great bunch of like-minded children, while my wife and I picked and chose between lounging by and a few lengths of the pool, swimming in the sea, tennis, and water-skiing. Actually my son is the waterskier and Cagatay and Tunc (sorry for the spelling) who were running the skiing really made the holiday. They were just fantastic. Understanding of and taking it more gently with me (coming out of a recentish hip op) and encouraging my son to go further, seeing that he is impatient to do more and so challenging him which he responded to brilliantly (well I would say that, wouldn't I). We had such fun with those guys. Now, the water at Phokaia isn't necessarily the best for waterskiing (Paleros, Sivota much better) as the wind really does get up. There were also zillions of (barrel) jellyfish in the sea which provided added incentive to get up quickly and then not to wipe out but they were a minor distraction. Despite the wind and the jellyfish, however, it is the staff that make it and we weren't going there to run a slalom course, just to have fun, and that's just what we had from Cagatay and Tunc. Smiles all round every day. I attended the social tennis in the afternoons. There are also morning formal courses which I vaguely remember as being complimentary elsewhere or previously but not here (I think they were around £100 for the week, could be £120). I am a very mediocre tennis player (hi guys if anyone is reading this from the group) and both my fellow guests and the staff there, Steven, Will and Karay (again apols for the spelling) were super supportive. I took part in an "after hours" (ie 6pm) server clinic (group, charged for) run by Will and in that one hour he completely transformed my service. If I could apply what he told me every time I served I would be a slightly less very mediocre tennis player so huge thanks for that. What else? The food is, as with these places, reliable and plentiful. I tried and failed not to overeat so attempted to have vaguely sensible things - I might have eaten the resort out of its fantastic grilled (right in front of you) sea bream. Perfect with the local Angora white wine. I am a decaf coffee drinker and that was provided (in jars) but it might have been nice to have proper coffee decaf but I'm perfectly happy with what was there. Of the restaurant staff, Emin and Berk were particularly helpful and friendly. We didn't venture
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