"IC Green Palace Hotel & Villas – A Lovely Holiday with Room for Improvement
We had a lovely stay at IC Green Palace Hotel & Villas and, overall, really enjoyed our holiday. The hotel and grounds were beautiful, clean and spacious, with plenty of sun loungers available throughout the day, so we never had any trouble finding somewhere to relax. The staff were generally very helpful, and the villa/resident concept had some great benefits, especially for families.
Food & Drink 🍹
The food throughout the resort was lovely, with plenty to enjoy. However, I did notice a difference between the breakfast options at the main hotel restaurant and Mavi Restaurant, which is for villa guests.
The main hotel restaurant offered a much wider breakfast selection, including a toaster and proper sliced bread, sausages and various egg options such as fried and poached eggs. Mavi had bread options but no toast facilities, no sausages and a more limited selection. I was also never offered a menu at breakfast in Mavi, which would have been a nice touch. This was a little disappointing when comparing the two restaurants.
On a positive note, dinner at Mavi was excellent. The food choices were really good, there was also a buffet option, and the service was fantastic. I was promptly offered drinks and a food menu, and I felt very well looked after.
The villa minibar was another fantastic bonus. It was replenished every morning with fruit juices, soft drinks such as Coke, Fanta and Sprite, beer, and alcoholic miniatures including vodka, Jägermeister, Jack Daniel’s and gin. Chocolates, crisps and cakes were also replenished daily, which was a lovely touch.
One tip for future guests: scan the QR codes at the bars! These give you access to the drinks menus, including cocktails, mocktails and milkshakes. We weren't told about this initially and kept seeing people with lovely-looking drinks without knowing what they were or where to get them. Once we discovered the menus, we were spoilt for choice!
Pools & Facilities
The grounds are huge, but the villa guests can request golf buggy transfers from one area to another by text, and this service was brilliant. The buggies were very convenient, and the kids absolutely loved them!
One area I think could be improved is the availability of drinks and ice creams around the pools. Most of the fridges scattered around the grounds seemed to contain only water. I found one on the villa side with beers and soft drinks, and another on the hotel side, although I unfortunately couldn't find the latter again when I went looking for it.
There were also no towels available near the children's splash pool, meaning we had to walk up to the activity pool to collect them every day. The nearest ice creams were at Pool Bar No. 1, which was also a fair walk for little ones.
As a family with two parents, we could manage by having one adult stay with the children while the other went to get drinks or ice creams. However, I did think about families travelling as single parents, where getting the children out of the pool, drying them, gathering all their belongings and taking them along to the bar would be much more difficult. A towel point and an additional drinks and ice cream station near the children's splash pool would make a big difference.
Our Villa
The villa was lovely, and the daily housekeeping team did a fantastic job. Towels were replaced every day, and the minibar was consistently replenished.
Unfortunately, our experience with the sun lounger mattresses was disappointing. When we arrived, there were no mattresses for the wooden loungers on our decking. Our neighbours had three on their balcony, so we contacted guest relations to ask if some could be brought over.
Unfortunately, the lady who came to help took the mattresses from our neighbours' balcony and placed them on our decking. Understandably, when our neighbours realised their mattresses were missing, they took them straight back!
Two days later, we returned to find three mattresses left inside our apartment. We were pleased at first, thinking we could finally use the decking, but unfortunately they were filthy and smelled strongly of damp and mould, so they were unusable.
When our neighbours eventually checked out, we were able to use their mattresses for the final two days of our holiday.
This was particularly disappointing because relaxing on the decking was one of the main reasons we booked a villa in the first place. The photos made it look so peaceful and relaxing, and we had really looked forward to enjoying that space.
With six loungers provided, I feel that supplying the correct number of clean mattresses should be part of the villa's check-in and housekeeping process. It would be a simple improvement that would make a real difference to guests' experience.
The Arcade – A Big Disappointment
Unfortunately, the arcade was probably the biggest let-down of the resort for us. This is a family-friendly hotel aimed at children, so I expected the arcade to reflect the same high standard as the rest of the complex.
Sadly, around 70% of the games machines appeared to be broken, while the remaining machines were very dated and, in my opinion, not worth spending money on. It really felt as though this area had been neglected.
The staff member also rents out little electric cars for children, which my kids enjoyed. There are three-wheeled electric bikes available too, but one we saw was missing a seat, leaving you having to hover above the seat post. This was concerning and looked like an accident waiting to happen.
The arcade area definitely needs attention. The resort itself feels five-star, but unfortunately the arcade falls well below that standard.
A Lovely Final Touch
One thing worth mentioning is that the hotel provides a packed lunch for guests on their departure day at checkout. This was a really thoughtful touch and much appreciated.
Would We Return?
Absolutely, yes!
Despite the issues mentioned, we had a lovely holiday. The beautiful grounds, clean surroundings, great food, excellent villa service, generous minibar and convenient buggy transfers all helped make our stay enjoyable.
There is definitely room for improvement, particularly with the villa sun lounger mattresses, facilities around the children's splash pool and the neglected arcade. These are all things that could be addressed to make an already lovely resort even better.
I'm sharing an honest review because the hotel has so much going for it, and with a few improvements, it could be an even better experience for families.
Overall, we had a great holiday and would happily consider returning! ❤️
A Word of Warning About the Taxi Desk and Local Bazaar
Unfortunately, we also had an experience worth sharing to make other guests aware.
We booked a taxi from the on-site taxi desk at the main reception to visit the local bazaar. The price displayed was €30 for a return journey.
As soon as we got into the taxi, the driver took a phone call. After about a minute, he handed the phone to us. The person on the other end introduced himself as the hotel manager and said he had heard we were going to the local bazaar. He asked how many of us were travelling, what we intended to buy and whether we had visited before. Initially, I thought this was fantastic customer service and that the hotel was genuinely looking out for its guests.
However, when we arrived at the bazaar, a man standing in the middle of the car park nodded to our driver. It turned out to be the very same person who had spoken to us on the phone. He was not, as far as we could establish, the hotel manager, but a shopkeeper at one of the shops.
This immediately raised alarm bells. I suspected there might be some arrangement between the shopkeeper and the taxi driver, although I cannot confirm this.
The driver refused to accept payment from us, saying we could pay on our return, and handed the shopkeeper the taxi card instead of giving it to us. We were then ushered into his shop, where he immediately began trying to sell us a variety of goods. We were interested in one particular item and agreed on a price, but as soon as he knew the clothing size we needed, he began bundling additional goods together and trying to push them on us. We declined the extra items.
At this point, he handed us the taxi card the driver had given him, wrote a price on it for the return journey and told us to come back to his shop when we wanted picked up.
When we converted the amount from Turkish lira into euros, we realised the return journey was being quoted at €70 instead of the €30 advertised at the hotel taxi desk.
We were not happy with this and, on our return, refused to accept the new price. We simply paid the driver the original €30 quoted by the hotel. He did not look particularly pleased, although there were hotel staff standing outside at the time.
I reported the incident to a lady at reception. She told me this was the first time anyone had mentioned such an experience to them, said she would look into it and took my room number. Unfortunately, we never heard anything further, so I cannot say whether anything was investigated or what the outcome was.
My advice to other guests would be to agree the full return fare directly with the taxi desk, make sure you have the agreed price in writing, and be cautious if a driver hands you over to a shopkeeper or someone claims to be the hotel manager over the phone. I cannot say for certain what was happening, but the whole experience left us feeling uncomfortable and disappointed.
This did not ruin our holiday, but it was certainly not the kind of experience we expected when using a taxi arranged through a five-star resort. I hope the hotel takes feedback like this seriously and looks into the arrangements with its on-site taxi service."
