"There is so much that Cullinan Belek gets spectacularly right.
We stayed with our three young children in a two bedroom, two bathroom room on the fifth floor, with a balcony overlooking the golf course.
In terms of the property itself, this is genuinely one of the most impressive hotels we have stayed in anywhere in the world.
The architecture, interior design, cleanliness and quality of the facilities are exceptional. Everything feels immaculate, modern and beautifully considered.
The rooms are particularly impressive.
Ours was spacious, beautifully designed and extremely comfortable. The two proper bathrooms made a huge difference for a family of five, and our golf course view was lovely.
Having also stayed at Maxx Royal Belek, I would say that the rooms at Cullinan were definitely better. They are newer, larger and considerably more technologically advanced.
Being able to use your phone to open your room door was incredibly convenient. You could also control Do Not Disturb and various lighting functions digitally. These are small things, but together they make the room feel genuinely modern.
The unlimited minibar was very good too.
The design of the hotel also seems to mean that most rooms have a pleasant outlook. That is something we really appreciated.
We are usually the sort of people who never go to the gym on holiday.
At Cullinan, we went several times.
That probably tells you everything. It is quite possibly the best hotel gym we have ever seen.
We also loved the indoor swimming pool and the way it seamlessly connects to the outdoor pool. It is beautifully designed.
For families, the location of the water park is brilliant. It is essentially part of the main resort, so moving between the pools and water park is incredibly easy.
This was more convenient than Maxx Royal, where you need to take a buggy to the water park. To be completely fair, we thought the water park itself at Maxx Royal was much bigger and better, particularly in terms of variety, but Cullinan wins on convenience, newness and presentation.
The entertainment at Cullinan was also better in our opinion. This applied both to the children's entertainment and to the main evening shows. The quality of some of the productions was genuinely impressive.
Our children also loved the games room, which was larger and newer than the one at Maxx Royal.
There were no games consoles in the main games room and no laser tag, with the consoles instead being located in the kids club. However, Cullinan does something with the consoles that I thought was particularly clever.
Parents are asked whether their children are allowed to use them and can specify exactly how long they are allowed to play.
So you can leave your child at the kids club for three hours but tell the team that they are only allowed half an hour on the PS5.
As parents, we thought that was excellent.
The kids club itself was immaculate and very good overall, although for children aged two and under we felt the offering was quite limited.
The main kids club also felt smaller and had less happening in one central space than Maxx Royal, but Cullinan compensates for this with its individual organised classes.
The children can take part in activities such as pottery, woodwork and dancing in separate large cabin style rooms. We really liked this concept because it feels more like the children are attending a proper small group class.
The outdoor play area was very good too.
One thing we would love to see in the future is more shaded swimming space for children. We found the shaded pool at Maxx Royal incredibly useful during the Turkish summer, and with young children it makes a surprisingly big difference.
### Zeynab and Atakan
We were looked after by Zeynab and Atakan and both deserve recognition.
They were extremely helpful throughout our stay and available to us on WhatsApp whenever we needed them.
They arranged milk for the children in the evenings, helped when housekeeping was running late and generally dealt with whatever we asked of them.
They also had to deal with some more unusual requests.
One of our children managed to throw a tablet over the balcony and Atakan recovered it.
Then some swimming costumes somehow went flying over the balcony.
Atakan recovered those too.
By the end of the holiday I am sure he wondered what we were going to lose over the balcony next.
Joking aside, both Zeynab and Atakan worked extremely hard for us and were consistently kind, responsive and helpful. We genuinely appreciated everything they did for our family.
### Sekhar Pillai
Sekhar Pillai, the Indian breakfast chef, deserves a very special mention.
He made fresh dosa for us every morning, often preparing different varieties, and they were honestly some of the best dosa we have ever had.
He is clearly a very skilled chef and someone who takes pride in what he prepares.
What made him particularly valuable to us was that he understood our dietary requirements. There was no feeling of having to repeatedly explain ourselves. He simply understood what we could eat and produced something fresh and excellent every morning.
We genuinely looked forward to seeing him at breakfast.
Cullinan has a real asset in Sekhar and I hope the hotel recognises just how good he is.
### Sona
Sona, the Moroccan hammam therapist from Turkmenistan, was phenomenal.
She was extremely professional and clearly very experienced.
You could immediately tell from the treatment that you were being looked after by somebody who really knew what she was doing. Everything felt thorough, unhurried and expertly delivered.
Beautiful spa facilities are expected at hotels of this level. What makes a treatment memorable is usually the person delivering it.
Sona made it memorable.
### Where Cullinan could become even better
There is genuinely nothing bad I can say about this hotel.
The areas where we felt there was room for improvement are really the fine margins that become noticeable only because Cullinan is competing at such a high level.
The most important for us was communication between departments regarding dietary requirements.
Before arriving, we had emailed the hotel to explain our dietary requirements, including that we do not have alcohol.
We were therefore disappointed to find a welcome cake in our room that did not meet those requirements, together with alcohol in the minibar.
We asked for the alcohol to be removed and it was.
The next day the minibar was replenished and the alcohol appeared again.
None of this is a major issue by itself, but at this level of hospitality the ideal experience is for information supplied before arrival to follow the guest throughout the hotel.
We should not need to explain the same requirements independently to guest relations, restaurants, housekeeping and minibar staff.
This is one area where Maxx Royal set an exceptionally high benchmark for us. Their assistants seemed to coordinate very closely with chefs and different departments, which meant we rarely had to think about our dietary requirements once they had been explained.
Cullinan certainly has the people and ability to achieve the same thing.
The lacto vegetarian selection was also quite limited compared with the enormous choice available to other guests.
There was always enough for us to eat, so nobody went hungry, but at a hotel of this level there is such an extraordinary selection of food that it would be nice for guests with dietary restrictions to feel they are experiencing more of it.
Our advice would be to arrange specific dishes in advance, because the chefs are clearly capable of producing excellent food.
The Italian restaurant became our usual choice and we enjoyed it.
The chocolate covered strawberries available every day in the foyer also deserve a mention. They were fantastic and became one of those little things everyone looked forward to.
One difference we noticed from Maxx Royal was the restaurant flexibility.
At Maxx Royal it was possible to sit in one restaurant and order food from another restaurant within the resort. We had never encountered this before and it was incredibly useful with children when everybody wanted something different.
Cullinan follows the more traditional approach of ordering from the restaurant you are sitting in.
That is not necessarily a criticism. It is simply a difference in how the two hotels operate, but as a family of five we certainly noticed it.
### The smallest service details
We stayed while Cullinan was extremely busy, which I think is one of the true tests of a luxury hotel.
At times you could tell that staff were under considerable pressure.
Service from the waiters at breakfast and dinner was generally good, but not always exceptional.
Sometimes extra cutlery took a long time to arrive.
Occasionally a drink would be forgotten.
As a family of five, many tables were initially set for four, and sometimes an extra chair we requested would also be forgotten.
These are tiny things.
But when everything else about the hotel is operating at such an exceptional level, these are exactly the details you notice.
There was also one charge that genuinely surprised us.
We were told it would cost €5 to inflate the children's pool inflatables.
It is obviously not about €5.
It is about how that charge feels in the context of an ultra luxury resort.
We have stayed at many resorts and cannot remember ever being charged simply to inflate a child's pool toy. It felt unnecessarily transactional and slightly out of place with the otherwise generous experience Cullinan provides.
I hope management considers changing this.
We also personally did not enjoy being approached at breakfast about additional restaurants or being offered photography services around the pool.
We had not fully appreciated before arriving how many of the additional restaurants were excluded from the standard offering.
Again, this is not about the cost.
Guests choosing hotels at this level generally have the means to purchase whatever additional experiences they want.
For us, real luxury is being shown what is available and then being allowed to decide without feeling that anything is being sold to us.
### Why four circles rather than five? Well TripAdvisor doesn't give me the option to choose 4.5
This was actually a difficult rating to give because there is nothing fundamentally wrong with Cullinan.
Quite the opposite.
Physically, it is one of the best resorts we have ever stayed in.
The architecture is stunning.
Our room was excellent.
The technology was superb.
The cleanliness was exceptional.
The pools were beautiful.
The gym was outstanding.
The water park was extremely convenient.
The games room was excellent.
The entertainment was excellent.
And people such as Zeynab, Atakan, Sekhar and Sona helped make our holiday genuinely memorable.
But when hotels reach this level, the difference between excellent and exceptional becomes incredibly small.
It is remembering the drink.
It is knowing that a family of five needs five chairs.
It is making sure dietary information reaches every relevant department.
It is removing alcohol from a minibar once and knowing it should not reappear.
It is inflating a child's pool toy without thinking about charging for it.
None of those things are major complaints.
They are simply the final few details that separate an excellent luxury hotel from an exceptional one.
If I could combine Cullinan's rooms, technology, design, views, entertainment and newness with the extraordinary consistency of service we experienced at Maxx Royal, I genuinely do not know what more I could ask for from a family resort.
And that is why I have taken the time to write such a detailed review.
We would absolutely return to Cullinan.
The hotel already has an extraordinary property and some genuinely outstanding people. The remaining opportunities are mostly small improvements in consistency, communication and coordination.
Most importantly, I hope the people I have mentioned are given the recognition they deserve.
Zeynab and Atakan worked incredibly hard for our family.
Sekhar gave us something to look forward to every morning.
Sona gave us one of the most memorable hammam experiences we have had.
If we return, we would be genuinely delighted to see all of them again.
Cullinan has nearly everything required to be one of the very best family luxury resorts anywhere.
For us, it is now simply about those final few details."
