Nirvana Mediterranean Excellence

An exquisite hotel with exceptional cuisine. Everything is of the highest standard—beautiful, spotless, and environmentally conscious. The staff are incredibly friendly, attentive, and always ready to accommodate every request, making you feel truly welcome. Every detail reflects quality and care. The hotel fully lives up to its price and is worth every penny. We had a wonderful stay and would gladly return. Highly recommended!

Our family recently stayed at Nirvana Mediterranean Excellence in Kemer, Turkey. The resort is visually impressive, with beautiful grounds, excellent entertainment, and two aquaparks, including a dedicated area for younger children.

One aspect worth noting is that all of the main pools are 143cm deep, with only a very small shallow section still quite deep in the largest pool for young children, families with young children may find this limiting, we did!

Unfortunately, where the resort falls short is in the consistency of its service. While staff were generally pleasant, training appeared to be lacking in several areas. In the restaurants, main courses were frequently served before starters had been finished, and unfinished drinks were often removed from our table without being checked first.

The cocktail service was also disappointing. Many cocktails were poorly balanced, with an excessive amount of spirit and insufficient mixer. Having worked in the drinks industry for many years, I found that the disproportionate use of alcohol often spoiled the intended flavour and quality of the drinks.

There were also several issues regarding food service for children as both our grandchildren have allergies, they did try to cater for them but portions were bigger than adult portions and often the wrong items served even through we had given a menu to them that was simple to understand. They did make a sorbets for the children, but this was often served at the same time as the main course rather than afterwards which meant it was melted.

They only have gluten free bread, no vegan butter is available, although they did attempt to make it, but it melted into a pool of oil. At breakfast, I ordered two coffees for my wife and myself; while my wife was at the buffet, a hot coffee was placed directly in front of our three-year-old grandson, which could easily have resulted in an accident. On another occasion, a chicken and potato dish for the children arrived sitting in extremely hot water which was disgusting, unsuitable to eat.

The beach drink service was equally frustrating. On a quiet, cloudy day when the beach was almost empty, we placed drink orders twice using the QR code system. After waiting a considerable amount of time with no response, we eventually walked to the pier to collect the drinks ourselves, only to discover that staff had not noticed the orders despite there being very few guests around,as they were too busy talking and drinking

Food quality throughout the resort was average rather than exceptional lots of stews and pastries, with the oil they use to cook leaving an unpleasant taste in the mouth. Breakfast omelettes, in particular, were prepared using an excessive amount of oil, which affected both the taste and presentation and very over fried.

The resort also seemed to cater predominantly to Russian-speaking guests. As English-speaking visitors, we found communication difficult, with a significant number of staff unable to understand our requests, resulting in frequent misunderstandings and lots service errors.

Finally, on our first night we discovered that our three-year-old grandson was able to open the bedroom door no safety lock and could open the door easy and the room unsupervised. We had to request that an additional safety catch be installed, which was done, but only when we said if he leaves the room in the middle of the night your responsible, but it was something we felt should have been considered for families travelling with young children.

We travelled to Nirvana Mediterranean Excellence in Kemer at the end of May as a family of five, myself, my wife, and our three children aged 13, 11 and 7.

I’ll start with the only real negative. We stayed in a Superior Junior Suite and, whilst it was spacious and comfortable, it did feel a little dated in places. Some of the room equipment wasn’t working during our stay, including the room phone and some of the lighting. It was certainly a nice room, but it wasn’t quite the “wow” room I was expecting.

Now that’s out of the way, what can I say about Nirvana Excellence?

Quite simply, it was one of the most amazing holidays we have ever had.

The food was absolutely jaw-dropping. Every restaurant we visited was fantastic. For most of our stay we enjoyed table service, which was exceptional, but we also used the buffet restaurants and the quality there was excellent too. The choice, presentation and overall standard of food throughout the resort were outstanding.

A special mention has to go to Dennis, Enes and the chef at Sea Club. We were celebrating during our stay and decided to treat ourselves to lobster one evening. The food, service and overall experience were first class. The lobster was perfectly prepared and beautifully presented. It was an absolute pleasure to enjoy such incredible food in such a beautiful setting.

We also spent much of our holiday making use of the cabanas. Ismet arranged our cabanas for the entire week. We started with one on the beach, spent one day by the main pool, and then enjoyed the rest of our stay on the pier. The service there was genuinely second to none. Before we had even finished our drinks, staff were already checking whether we would like another. Given the heat, that level of attentiveness made a huge difference and was greatly appreciated. The staff simply could not do enough for us.

We also made extensive use of the spa during our stay. My wife enjoyed four treatments, I had three treatments myself, two of our children each had three treatments, and our eldest son had two. We spent a significant amount there, but genuinely felt we received excellent value for money because the quality of the treatments, facilities and service were exceptional throughout.

Ali and the spa team were fantastic from start to finish. They really looked after us during the entire holiday, helping arrange treatments, providing access to different facilities and making sure everything ran smoothly. Ali was always available via WhatsApp, answering questions, organising appointments and helping with any requests we had. Nothing ever seemed too much trouble, and the level of personal service made us feel genuinely valued as guests. The spa became a real highlight of our holiday and played a big part in making our stay so memorable.

The water sports team also deserve special recognition. Mustafa organised activities for all of our children and went above and beyond to ensure everyone had a great experience. One of the water sports wasn’t quite what my son expected, so Mustafa arranged for a Seabob to be brought directly to our pier cabana and even organised for him to switch over to a jet ski experience instead. The team also captured some incredible videos and memories that we will treasure forever.

Perhaps the most memorable part of the holiday, however, was the diving school run by Mutlu and her team.

My daughter, my wife and I wanted to try scuba diving. I’m not a strong swimmer, my daughter was only six years old, and our first diving trip took place on a particularly choppy day. Mutlu and her team were absolutely fantastic. When conditions weren’t ideal, they arranged a complimentary session the following morning in the pool so my daughter could experience scuba diving in a calmer environment. The care, patience and encouragement they showed were exceptional.

Even now, more than a week after returning home, my daughter is still talking about her scuba diving experience. That alone says everything about the impact Mutlu and her team had on our holiday.

Overall, this was quite honestly the best holiday we have ever had. I don’t say that lightly. We still find ourselves talking about it every day and saying that we would happily go back tomorrow if we could.

The facilities, food, service and staff were all outstanding, but what really made the difference were the people. Every member of staff we encountered genuinely seemed to care about making our holiday special.

Thank you to everyone at Nirvana Mediterranean Excellence for making our stay so easy, so relaxing and so memorable. We left with wonderful memories as a family and cannot wait to return.