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We’ve just had the most fabulous week at a family friendly hotel in Kalkan, The Kalkan Regency Hotel, hosted by Simpson Travel.  I know already that I am going to be raving about this place for some time to come, and could genuinely see us returning again very soon. If the kids had their way we would book for May half term 2019 now!

The Kalkan Regency Hotel is an adults only hotel for the majority of the year but turns into a Family Friendly hotel in the school holidays. Check Simpson Travel’s website for details of the actual dates.

Our time at The Kalkan Regency Hotel reminded me of the weeks we had at Mousses in Lefkas (two years in a row) with good food, great company, and beautiful restaurants close by.  While at Mousses it was the incredible British nannies that entertained the children for 3 hours every day allowing us some precious ‘me time’ at The Kalkan Regency Hotel it was all the other children (20 or so aged between 4 and 10) that provided the entertainment.  The children absolutely loved it and as we all know happy children means happy parents. It defined family friendly hotel in Kalkan for me.

You can see our video of The Kalkan Regency at the bottom of this post!

So what was it that worked so well about The Kakan Regency Hotel?

The size of the Kalkan Regency Hotel.

The Kalkan Regency Hotel was small enough that the children (last week it was those over 6) could have the freedom to explore (run amok) the hotel.  They could move from the large pool to the games room on their own and generally have the independence that they crave but often can’t have.  With only 41 rooms, it really was the perfect size. There are also a variety of room types and sizes from rooms with just a double bed to, an extremely large family suite with 2 bedrooms, a lounge and its own pool like we had.

The Large Pool

The large pool could fit two giant flamingos, a giant unicorn, a batman body board, two lilos and plenty of other pool toys all at once with room to spare.  It also had plenty of sunbeds around it and whilst always busy there was never a time when we couldn’t get two sunbed to use so no towel reserving necessary. Parts of the pool were also in the shade during parts of the day which meant the kids didn’t always have to be in the sun, but you could be if you wanted too.  Countless pool towels were provided and refreshed during the day and the sun loungers were comfy too. No cheap plastic rubbish ones to contend with.

Watch out for the slippy marble around the pool though, the kids learned quickly not to run!

Food

It’s bed and breakfast at the Kalkan Regency and breakfast is plentiful with most options you’d expect being available.  Whether it’s poached eggs on toast that you want to start your day, or Nutella with strawberries and heart shaped pancakes you will most certainly enjoy it.  I’m also assured that most dietary requirements can be dealt with too. Gluten Free bread was made every day for one of the teenage girls staying during our week there, and they even made gluten free pizza bases for her too.

We ate in a couple of nights during our stay at the Kalkan Regency and whilst at times we found the service to be a little slow, this didn’t detract at all from the fun we had.  Dinner is served on the hotels terrace overlooking the sea so it’s a pretty wonderful spot.

We also ate lunch by the pool most days and everyone found something they liked on the large menu ranging from nuggets and chips, to pizza, salads and tuna wraps.   Prices were also reasonable and you certainly didn’t feel like you needed to leave the hotel to get a good deal.

BBQ Night at The Kalkan Regency

The Kalkan Regency runs three different themed nights during the week. Seafood night on Monday, BBQ night on Wednesday and Spit Roasted Lamb on Friday. Ideally you need to book to attend these but I’m sure they’d fit you in if you didn’t manage to.

BBQ night at The Kalkan Regency is legendary in Kalkan it appears and lots of people arrived just for the night. BBQ. Watching all the kids raving in the pool until midnight and having an incredible amount of fun with their friends was really rather special.  Izzy actually sobbed when I told her we had to leave and the night was over, and then declared that it had ‘literally been the best night of her life!”.

Oh and the food and the salads were fantastic too; this would have been a more important part of the review but the bar stool dancing in the pool eclipsed it.

Friendly Staff

The Kalkan Regency Hotel is family run and it shows. There is a really family friendly atmosphere around the hotel and you begin to feel like part of the family as the week goes on. The staff look out for the kids and whilst the fact that the kids feel happy to order their own drinks and ice creams means your bill may be larger at the end of the week, it does make them feel grown up and independent.

Massage Treatments and Turkish Baths

I had a very powerful Turkish massage (or perhaps it was Thai) whilst I was staying at the Kalkan Regency Hotel which was intense but certainly got rid of a lot of the knots I was carrying around. Such a treat to leave the pool for 45 minutes or longer if you can negotiate it and take some time out whilst the kids carry on playing.  All guests in 2018 get free access to the Turkish Baths but I’d highly recommend getting a treatment too.

The Location of the Kalkan Regency

Set on the hillside with beautiful views of the bay, but a short ten minute walk down into Kalkan (£1 taxi home due to cardiac hills)  meant we could explore the fabulous restaurants of Kalkan on a nightly basis. There must be over 100 different restaurants in Kalkan and we tried and loved Trio, Lal and The Olive Garden, definitely check them out if you’re heading to Kalkan.

What else did we do whilst in Kalkan?

The Boat Trip

During 2018 every guest staying at The Kalkan Regency Hotel gets a free day trip on the hotels gullet. You leave the hotel at the very civilised time of 9.45am for the short 5 minute drive to the harbour and don’t come back until 5.30pm. With a glass of champagne to start the trip, grilled sea bass for lunch (spaghetti bolognaise for the kids) a wonderful meze and three different places to dive into the sea it was such a lovely day.

Indigo Beach Club

Simpson Travel guests in Kalkan also all receive complimentary entrance into Indigo Beach Club on the harbour.  If you love swimming in the sea then it’s the perfect spot for you. We had an amazing time on the Giant Mable, you’ll have to wait to see our video to see what that was, but the lure of the other children around the pool at the Kalkan Regency made us return earlier than we might otherwise have done!

Patara Beach and Ruins

You are transferred to The Kalkan Regency Hotel by private taxi (takes around 2 hours) so if you want to do any exploring whilst you are there you will either need to hire a car or book some transfers. It’s about £35 a day to hire a car so you can weigh that up against the cost of a taxi to wherever you want to go. We chose to head to Patara Beach the day we had a car.

On the way to the beach you drive through Patara Roman ruins. You pay a fee to get into the national park area of the beach, and slightly extra to visit the ruins.  It was incredibly hot so we only managed to convince the girls to visit both of the amphitheatres and the main street but it was worth it. They have re-instated one of the amphitheatres so you can see what it would have looked like and you can test out the acoustics.

Patara Beach itself is eleven miles of glorious sand. In May it wasn’t too busy and it’s a short walk from the car park to the beach front where there is also a café with reasonable food, showers and toilets.  We hired a couple of sunbeds so we could take advantage of the umbrellas – we actually needed these as the sand got too hot to stand on later in the afternoon – and set up camp next to one of the other families from the Kalkan Regency Hotel. We had taken the giant flamingos with us, and the batman body board and spent the day messing about in the sea and trying to build Buckingham Palace in sand.  I actually wish we had visited the beach earlier in the trip as I would definitely have liked another day there.

If you haven’t already worked it out, we absolutely loved our trip to the Kalkan Regency Hotel and Kalkan and hope that we get the opportunity to return one day soon.  Put it on your list of places to go!!  You can check out the website here!

Why not check out our video of the trip below!

With thanks to The Kalkan Regency Hotel and Simpson Travel for hosting us. All views and opinions are, as always, our own.

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