Halal Holidays have become popular in the past decade. With Muslims from the West and East looking to spend their holiday in a halal (permissible) environment.

It has given rise to an industry with the tourist industry capitalizing off of the needs and wants of the Muslim sector. Countries such as Turkey are at the forefront of offering an environment of sun, sea and sand for the whole family whilst adhering to Islamic principles.

Whilst it is rather new and becoming more popular there is a lot that needs to be improved in this potentially very lucrative niche to be able to make it a main stream competitor.

A Muslim brother went in June 2018 to Turkey on a halal holiday to the Wome Deluxe Resort with his wife that wears niqab (face veil) and young child, this is his review. He’s from London, UK.

The Good

Transfers that I pre-booked via halal booking were excellent, bang on time and friendly drivers.

Luggage porter was very helpful and polite and was very welcoming on our first day. I would urge management to acknowledge his hard work and friendliness towards foreign guests, he also spoke great English.

Wide selection of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner and deserts were wonderful. Bare in mind all this is buffet style. DIY Drinks available throughout the day. Huge place.

Mixed swimming pools were fine. Mens swimming pool was okay, both had children’s pools on the side.

Nice prayer area with wudu facilities. Most staff are wonderful. Shower was great.

Halal environment as in no alcohol and everyone is Muslim so pretty much adhere to our do’s and dont’s, a family environment throughout.

Staff was good even though some didn’t speak English they did try to help. Google translate was well worth downloading.

There is a small shop in the hotel that has most stuff like sun cream, wet wipes, biscuits, cigarettes etc… WiFi connection was excellent and the AC was perfect.

The Bad

Upon arrival as we went to reception I was met with a young lady (short in height, dark hair looked like a teen) at the desk, as she was trying to get my details I asked her if we could eat somewhere, she said lunch had finished 10 minutes ago but we can go to the snack area and have snacks there. When I asked where it was she huffed and puffed and rolled her eyes then called over a luggage porter and told him to show us the way. She was very rude and not welcoming at all and on top of this she said that our room wasn’t ready and it’ll take 1 hour.

So altogether me and my family travelled 6 hours plus from London to come here for someone to say we can’t eat lunch even though it’s a 5* place and even though my room was pre booked I had to wait another hour because my room wasn’t ready? Really.

Long story short first day was a bad experience for me and put my mood off for the whole day. I wish I got her name now.

They should provide a tour of this place, it’s huge and because of the language barrier it’s hard to get around initially. They do provide a map with the key card but the whole map is in Turkish.

Please take this on board we spent 2 whole days trying to figure out the place. Why doesn’t the hotel offer a tour to the guests on the first day? It really doesn’t make any sense.

Mixed beach area is small and has a handful of sun beds which are cramped up tight, I’d say around 12 beds. Tiny sand area. Womens only beach area is small, no sand.

Womens spa ridiculously priced 65 Euros but was dropped to 45 lol and also Mrs said a lot of women were not adhering to Islamic practices i.e. uncovering themselves completely in front of other women.

Kids playground was crap with only 2 swings and far away on top of a hill. 

Kids games area is charged at 4 Lira per game, only has a few arcade machines and a soft play area which is charged at 20 Lira for 40 minutes or something.

Kids entertainment is just a room with balls and some toys, staff are really good though shame about the facilities. They do a sing-song with the kids in the evening and go up on stage (outside theatre area) but it’s all in Turkish because most of the kids are Turkish speaking.

This whole resort is on a hilly area and it’s difficult to go up and down with a buggy. 

Room was cleaned very nicely the first day and the second day and after that it seemed like they weren’t too bothered. They did sweep it and change the linings but wasn’t a top-notch job unfortunately.

We were put in a room on the 9th floor (top floor) and there were noises coming from the ceiling mostly during the day and sometimes at night. I think there were utility rooms above our room, if you book a room here do NOT accept a room on the 9th floor.

Food was all good but not spicy and it’s not as good as the Turkish food here in London. Eating time is hectic as you got to get your food then look for a place to sit which was a mission every time we went to eat, too many guests. By the time you find a place to sit your food is cold.

This resort caters for the people who speak and understand Turkish, most of the guests were from Turkey itself. Unfortunately I felt the Turkish guests went around the place with an attitude of entitlement. The ugly truth was Turkish speakers did get preferential treatment. 😦

There aren’t shops near by, you’re practically in the middle of nowhere (highway) and if you do go out be aware everything is tourist prices and you won’t get shown mercy for being Muslim, kind of reminded me of Bangladesh.

For the practicing brothers and sisters who are thinking of booking this place just to let you know there was live music being played every night til late like 12.30am and also music in the pool areas. From 9.30pm every evening there was shows at the outside theatre most shows were singing and dancing with music.

Be aware some facilities aren’t available outside of holiday season like half term time etc.. Always check before hand.

My Recommendation

I’m not writing this to put anyone off but unfortunately this is how it was when we were there from the 21-27 June 2018. Biggest flop was with the kids stuff my son didn’t feel like he fitted in.

All in all I’d say this place caters for Turkish speakers and definitely needs to improve on a few issues, it’s still a fairly new establishment and hopefully improves.

I would definitely use halalbooking again Insha’Allah but I’m sorry to say it wont be for the Wome Deluxe.

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