We stayed for 1 week at Club Med Bodrum. We had a fantastic time, the staff were really kind and we got to do a lot of activities. One shortcoming however was the lack of support for those with dietary requirements like coeliac disease, I’ll dive into this later in the review.
Sailing
Did a beginner sailing lesson with GO Charles. The lesson was excellent, very clear and concise, he also kept a close eye on us when we went out on the catamaran and made sure we came back safely.
Football
There is no mini football / 5 a side football. This was falsely advertised as an available sport on the website. (Maybe it’s not available in late September?)
Volleyball
GO Max did a great job at coordinating the volleyball. He gave everyone tips, explained the rules, how best to strike the ball with your arms. We managed to get 6 v 6 players most days and had a lot of fun. Max got the right balance between having a competitive game while also keeping it fun.
Tennis
I did a tennis lesson most days with GO Mert. They were pretty decent. The coaches are great tennis players and I would love to hear them share more of their techniques during lessons, e.g. how to adjust your feet for a volley.
Drinks
The drinks were very good, lots of choice and the cocktails were decent too. GO Candice definitely stood out for their cocktails. They always did a small taste test before serving the drink a which meant the drink was always of high quality.
Food
There were 2 restaurants, one buffet and one à la carte. The à la carte was decent, and they made a real effort to serve gluten free food for my partner who is coeliac.
The food in the main buffet area is generally very good with huge variety - there’s always pizza, asian stir fries and options of local Turkish food. The staff really gave it socks at producing tasty amounts of diverse food every day.
Unfortunately the handling of allergens, especially gluten free, was really not good enough at the buffet. We have been to 2 Club Med resorts before where the gluten free handling had generally been okay but Bodrum was notably missing some things:
- There were no clear allergen guides, marking which foods contained wheat, or eggs or peanuts or whatever.
- Despite a large dessert offering of 6+ desserts for dinner each night. More often than not there was not a single gluten free option (except ice cream). I would have expected the chefs to prepare a gluten free option given we were asking them every night what was gluten free, this is what the chefs in Club Med Magna Marbella did.
- At breakfast, there was no dedicated gluten free toaster - to prevent cross contamination. In comparison to Club Med Cefalu and Magna Marbella, both of these places had gluten free toasters.
- The gluten free bread was particularly bad.
If not for the issues with the food, I would have given this stay a perfect 5/5.