There's a disturbing tendency these days for Holiday information sites such as "Holiday Truths - Holidays Uncovered - Trip Advisor" and the likes to be filled with what can only be described as unhelpful or misguided information. I have just checked out the Hotel Marbas and found some incredibly poor reports on what in my opinion is a little gem if what you are looking for is a beach front hotel with plenty of nearby amenities.
Janice and I stayed there with my brother John and sister in law Barbara in October 2010 at the end of the season and after sifting through all the reports, thought it would be ideal for our needs. Talk of tatty furniture, poor service, noisy guests, poor beach etc all proved to be well wide of the mark. Yes, there may be a few noisy guests but please show me a hotel where this is not the case anywhere you care to name, the Hotels certainly don't provide them by choice but our country definitely does.
The Hotel couldn't be better placed, right on the beach with a nice pool and bar facing the sea if you prefer it. The Restaurant was also facing the sea and was very clean with attentive waiter and chef service proving an excellent choice of foods. All inclusive food often comes in for criticism but in fairness when you cater for many different European and a growing number of Eastern European palettes in a country that doesn't serve pork produce, you're not going to live on sausage and chips here. The answer is to embrace what is provided and if you particularly find something that surprises you, tell the chef, it makes their job worthwhile instead of listening to moaning Brits going on constantly about rubbish foreign food.
The drinks on All Inclusive are much of a muchness wherever you go this side of the Atlantic and that goes for the Marbas but they are adequate. The neighbouring bar The Liberty serves all the recognised brands and of course the Efes beer is top notch. No entertainment in the Marbas but the neighbouring bars all provide something to cater for most tastes. We were fortunate to take in the Stella Show at the Harmony bar just 100 yards down the beach front. Being seriously homophobic I was very dubious about this one but Janice really fancied it so we gave it a go. Well what a cracking night it turned out. Fifteen Lira entrance (around £6.00) which included your first drink or free if you had a meal. Michael a drag artist from Blackpool put on one of the funniest shows I have seen on holiday miming to all manner of female artists dressed to the nines. His drunken Nun was something else - brilliant. I'm still homophobic but this guy was seriously funny.
We also took in a Michael Jackson show which was manic and the waiters at all the bars seemed geared to having a ball.
The town itself is a new resort built to accommodate the ever-growing tourist industry. There is a nice section where the man made canal runs through to the sea, this is lined with stalls selling the mandatory tourist tat but in fairness you can still find one or two nice bargains although this may be due to the lateness of the season. I managed to buy 18 DVD's of varying quality for a tenner and Janice picked up some things for the grandchildren after a hard time bartering with the dodgy dealers.
The town is of course full of bars and restaurants with the usual Sports bars and booming music. One bar we came across was really rocking and had a waiter dancing with a huge speaker almost as big as him balancing on his head blasting out Mambo Number 5..... that was quality!!
The holiday wouldn't have been complete without a boat trip so we ventured into Marmaris to book one on the waterfront. For a tenner each we had a full day including lunch cruising round the Bay of Marmaris and it's Islands taking in Turunç a lovely little resort not too far from Icmeler. I Have to say just as Marmaris outgrew itself and Icmeler looks like it's following suit, this quiet little backwater reminds me of how it used to be. The boat trip gave you ample time to swim in the lovely clear water and even managed to allow us to see two of the young deckhands do a spot of cliff diving.
Back to the Hotel - would we go back? Yes I would certainly go back and hopefully renew friendships with the friendly staff. As for those reviews - treat them with a pinch of salt, don't believe all you read especially the one where the contributor can't spell let alone put a decent sentence together, "no wot a meen m8".

Best Restaurant we visited - The Waterfall

 

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