Barut Hemera

We are a family of three with a 14 year old daughter, we were genuinely very sceptical about booking another all-inclusive holiday after being scarred by our previous experience at @pilotbeach in Crete, which parades itself as a 5-star all-inclusive but, in our opinion, is anything but. Barut Hemera has completely restored our faith in what an all-inclusive holiday should be.

We’ve now had three holidays in Turkey — @Liberty Fabay, @Akra Kemer and now Barut Hemera — and all three have been superb, each with their own little differences. But Barut Hemera is class on every level.

From the moment we arrived, the little touches stood out. We were each given an eco-friendly water bottle and a canvas towel bag, which was a great touch. There are multiple water stations around the resort where you can refill your bottles, making it both convenient and environmentally friendly.

But what really makes this place sing is the staff. The service throughout the resort is genuinely exceptional. QR codes are available at every table and parasol for ease of ordering but the staff are very attentive and quite often attend to you before the need to use them. A special mention has to go to Ozge in the reception bar, Ozgur and Mustafa at breakfast and lunch, Ayfer and Gaulam at the live pasta station at lunchtime, and Safiye in the Kusal Snack bar — just a few of the many people who made our stay so enjoyable. Nothing ever seemed too much trouble, and the warmth and friendliness of the staff really elevate the whole experience.

Our room was lovely, spacious and in a fantastic location overlooking the adult pool. It was kept immaculate throughout our stay, the minibar was topped up every day, and the coffee and tea facilities in the room were excellent.

The towel system is another small but brilliant touch. No faffing around with towel cards — simply go to one of the towel kiosks and exchange your towels whenever you want. Simple!

There are three pools, so there really is something for everyone. The main pool is fantastic, with plenty of loungers and four slides. There’s also a smaller but still lively pool, plus the adults-only pool. The over-16 policy around the adult pool wasn’t strictly enforced, but as long as guests were respectful and quiet, it worked perfectly well. We actually preferred this pool because there were always sunbeds available. By comparison, if you wanted a prime spot around the main pool, you really needed to be there by around 7am at the latest.

Our only real minor criticism would be the sunbed situation around the main pool. Quite a few families appeared to reserve beds and then disappear for a couple of hours. Perhaps this could be policed a little more strictly. That said, there were always plenty of alternatives elsewhere around the resort.

🍽️ Food & Drink

The food and drink offering is constant and consistently high quality.

We particularly loved lunch, especially the Kumsal Snack Bar. There’s lots of live cooking, a beautiful salad bar, a small patisserie, light live entertainment and, as everywhere else, excellent service.

Breakfast and dinner in the Hemera Restaurant cater for absolutely everyone. Breakfast has a live omelette station, while in the evening there are two excellent live stations — one specialising in pasta and another in meat and fish.

And then there’s the main patisserie, which is fantastic. Multiple pastries, cakes and excellent coffees available throughout the day — another place that became a regular stop for us!

🏖️ Beach & Location

The beach is beautiful and kept absolutely immaculate, with plenty of sunbeds available. We particularly enjoyed the large pontoon extending out into the clear water. It’s great for jumping off, swimming and even feeding the fish.

The grounds deserve a special mention too. They are beautifully maintained and feel much more like a lush botanical garden than a typical resort. There is an impressive array of fruit trees, plants and fauna throughout the grounds, with QR codes next to many of them so you can find out more about what you’re looking at. We were amazed to see bananas, persimmons and pomegranates growing freely around the resort, as well as herb gardens providing fresh ingredients that are actually used in the everyday cooking. It’s another example of the attention to detail that runs throughout Barut Hemera and makes the resort feel that little bit more special.

The location is also excellent. There’s a long paved walkway that takes you all the way into Side. It’s around a 2-mile walk, but definitely worth doing.

Side itself is lovely, with plenty of shops and bars, a beautiful harbour, the Ancient Theatre and the Temple of Apollo.

We also did the Land of Legends excursion. It’s not cheap, but it’s a fantastic experience and we thought it had improved since our previous visit two years ago with the addition of new slides that cater for those who need an adrenaline hit.

We also booked a speedboat trip along the Antalya coast, stopping at various locations for swimming and photographs. Another brilliant day out.

⭐ Overall

Overall, this has been a fantastic holiday.

Barut Hemera is a proper all-inclusive resort where you genuinely want for nothing. The facilities are excellent, the food and drink are superb, the location is fantastic and the hotel itself is beautifully maintained.

But above all, the staff and the service are second to none. They are what takes an already brilliant hotel and makes it exceptional.

After our experience at Pilot Beach, we were honestly wondering whether all-inclusive holidays were for us anymore.

Barut Hemera has completely changed our minds.

Five stars without hesitation. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

We never revisit a Hotel once we’ve been but Barut Hemera is definitely going to challenge that policy, we would highly recommend you visit here! 🇹🇷❤️

We arrived on August 2nd at 2am. We were all hungry and the chef kindly made us a plate of food each. We had room 1210 it was beautiful, very clean and a nice balcony. Nice touches were the room fragrance and the Pillow menu. We enjoyed using the app on our phones. The fridge was stocked up daily and the room was cleaned to a high standard. Food - was lovely especially the beach bar. We had 2 a la carte ( Turkish and Italian) Lots of choices to eat and all really tasty. The staff were amazing, really friendly and couldn't do enough for you. The beach was beautiful and clean and we loved using the bar code to order drinks. The entertainment we enjoyed every night and stayed for the DJ. We had a little win on bingo which was amazing! The pool was really clean and the pool party was brilliant! Such a good atmosphere. The only downside was people putting towels down and disappearing for hours. We did struggle to get a sunbed so we spent a lot of time on the beach. Definitely more for adults or families with younger children ( our son was 14 ) Overall a fantastic holiday and one of the best hotels I've stayed in.