Paradise Garden Hotel

The gardens are full of lush Mediterranean plants, with peacocks and friendly cats wandering around looking for company. The stonework feels authentic, and the staff were extremely friendly. I’ve stayed at plenty of resorts and hotels across Europe and the Middle East, and this place really is beautiful and worth checking into. The scenery and atmosphere reminded me of Tuscany. Paradise Garden is truly magical.

The hill is steep, but walking it is pleasant, with lovely scenery, flowers and animals along the way. A free shuttle goes to the beach, and the dolmas shuttle costs 3 tl to get to the center or back down to the beach, where there are lots of restaurants and shops. For the location and facilities, this hotel is very affordable. Some parts feel undeveloped because the grounds are so large, but there’s plenty of potential. We spent five days here, and nothing was too much trouble for ömer and the other staff. The restaurant area has the best view of Oludeniz, and there are two beautiful pools with lots of sunbeds. Our room was cosy and clean. The WiFi wasn’t very strong, and housekeeping sometimes forgot to replace our toilet rolls, but otherwise we had a perfect stay. We’ll definitely come back, and I’d recommend it to couples and families.

We stayed three weeks as two adults in a standard room, so we had time to see how things worked. The hotel is in a forest on a mountain with nice views, but walking up to it is more like climbing, and you’ll need a vehicle to get there. Their shuttle runs only in narrow windows, from 10:00-11:00 to Ölüdeniz and 16:30-17:00 back to the hotel, so you have to plan your day around it. We saw a wild pig by the bottom gate and a snake near the top reception entrance. Both seemed to avoid people, so we didn’t feel in danger. A large spider shared our room for the first week until I trapped it in a cup and put it outside. The balcony was a Juliet balcony, too small to sit on. The doors are hollow wood with no soft closing, so they bang in the wind and make a lot of noise when shut. They woke us several times. Shower temperature kept changing. The bathroom smelled of sewage, so I blocked a floor drain with scrunched plastic bags, though the bath drain still smelled. The bedding and towels smelled moldy, which made sense after the poor laundry service: our white clothes came back gray, apparently washed with other items. They ran them through a second wash for free, but there was no ironing service and no dryers, so we still had to take everything to a laundrette and some bedding and towels were damp. The “Satellite TV” meant four channels, RTL, Cartoon Network, Kanal D and Star TV, on an old CRT with no HDMI input. The “Free WiFi” was also awful. Some rooms were too far from the router, and the internet often stopped even when reception was fine. We only got mobile reception for a hotspot by putting the phone on the balcony. Senior staff were rude and arrogant, with poor communication and customer service. They came across as patronising and self-important instead of treating guests with respect. Some replies to negative reviews show the same attitude. After our experiences, we stopped raising these issues, and saw other guests treated similarly. Take your business elsewhere, or try to avoid the senior staff. Positive reviews may be from people on short stays who didn’t deal with senior staff, or who got one of the limited better rooms.

The hills mean you need a vehicle to go anywhere, though it’s hard to want to leave this little piece of paradise. We had a very relaxing week here last July, with outstanding staff, views and food. It was well worth the visit, so I’ve booked another sneaky week for this June.