Maxx Royal Belek Golf Resort

Maxx Royal Belek Golf Resort

Opened in May 2011 on a stretch of pine-backed beach a kilometre from Belek and thirty five kilometres from Antalya airport, Maxx Royal Belek arrived as the largest all suite hotel on the Mediterranean, built by Zorlu Holding, the Istanbul industrial group that made its money in textiles and consumer electronics before turning to hospitality under Ahmet Nazif Zorlu and his brother Zeki. The 531 rooms, spread across a crescent shaped main building on eight floors, a family annexe, and a scatter of private villas along the fairways, sit beside the Montgomerie course, the Colin Montgomerie designed layout the hotel bought outright and has hosted the Turkish Airlines Open since 2013. The scale is resort scale, over a hundred hectares of grounds, but the ownership is still close enough that senior Zorlu family members are known to check in on the place themselves. Inside, the rooms run generous, eighty square metres as standard, with wooden floors, walk in wardrobes built for golf bags, and separate bath and shower in most categories. The food programme leans heavily international rather than regional, fourteen distinct outlets across the property including a patisserie, a chocolatier, and eight à la carte restaurants covering Japanese, Italian, Turkish, and steakhouse registers, with Michelin starred Italian chef Alfredo Russo attached to the culinary direction. The spa, Maxx Well, runs a traditional hammam alongside more contemporary treatment menus, and the hotel has been a member of the Leading Hotels of the World since its early years, a marketing designation more than a design philosophy here. What it feels like is less a boutique retreat and more a very well drilled small city, the kind of place where an aqua park with eleven slides sits a short buggy ride from a floodlit championship golf course and a private butler is standard issue in the villas. The Maxx Assistant system, a dedicated point of contact for each guest from arrival to departure, is the closest thing to a signature here, and it does genuinely smooth the friction of a resort this size. Families with young children and golfers travelling in pairs or small groups are who it is built for, and the all inclusive concept, imported spirits included, removes almost every decision from the day except which restaurant to book. You should not come if you want the quiet, considered architecture of a small hotel, or if the idea of beach parties and acrobatic shows running most evenings sounds like noise rather than entertainment, this is a resort built for volume and it does not pretend otherwise. You should come for the golf, for children's facilities that are genuinely superior to most five star competitors on this coast, and for the particular ease of a stay where nobody has to ask for anything twice. The short version: A 531 room all suite beach resort on Belek's coast, opened in 2011 by Zorlu Holding, built around the Montgomerie golf course, fourteen dining outlets, and a private assistant for every guest.