Arora Hotel Review (Kusadasi, Turkey)

Arora Hotel was the first all-inclusive resort that my family and I visited in Turkey. Located in Kusadasi, this resort grew nicely over the years – and today I am here to tell you, based on my own experience staying here for 7 nights in early June if it’s worth it or not.

I have to admit that the first and main reason why we chose Arora Hotel was its incredibly low price for an All Inclusive deal. Check prices for your dates – you’ll be surprised with how good they are.

TIP: Book well in advance, ideally in January to mid-March if you want to travel during the summer, to get the best rates.

Arora Hotel – First Impressions

Although rated at just 4 stars, Arora Hotel makes a pleasant first impressions, although it’s nowhere near the luxury offered by the amazing 5-star resorts Turkey offers, like the best All Inclusive resorts in Lara that I shared in a previous article.

Of course, this is a 4-star resort, so you shouldn’t compare it with the extravagance of 5-star Turkish resorts. But, for sure, it’s no Titanic Mardan Palace!

The building itself is on a smaller side, but looks good. The personnel is always smiling and tries to be as helpful as possible, even though most don’t speak English.

When we visited, most employees were really young and untrained – they appeared to be 18 at most, all wearing pink t-shirts and shorts, and not looking extremely professional.

But they were doing their best, so no complaints here!

Rooms in Hotel Arora: Impressions

We got a full sea-view room, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to get anything else. The view itself was amazing and worth all the money you pay for your stay.

The rooms have been renovated since our visit and are much improved. The best part? The room itself was large and clean and even though the carpet was a bit worn out, it was perfect for us.

Nothing fancy, but nothing to make us want change rooms or regret choosing this hotel. It was clean, it had a great view and the beds were comfortable – and that’s all that matters, in the end.

The bathroom was small but again you don’t need much space there either. It was in a pretty good shape too and awaited us with a single pair of slippers, shower gel and shampoo (which where both refilled every three days or so) and there were no problems with the towels or the hot water.

All in all, your regular hotel room: not too shabby, but not “write home-amazing” either.

Pools and beach at Arora Hotel

Since our original visit, the pool-part of the hotel has changed a bit. Improved, I would say, as the pool is now larger and fancier and there’s a bit more space for the tourists.

However, the outside pool – the main one, which is where you will spend most of your time, probably – is still a bit too small for the number of tourists.

Also, there’s the annoying sunbed reservation problem: people still wake up early in the morning to place towels on the sunbeds in order to use them later on.

Therefore, you will either have to do this yourself or risk not finding empty sunbeds (and definitely none in the best areas).

This was the main reason why we didn’t spend much time at the pool during our stay – even though once we got there at 9AM and were surprised to find two sunbeds available. We took them immediately, but that’s a rare occurrence.

I personally hate the people who reserve their sunbeds, only to arrive late at 10 or 11, not allowing the early birds like ourselves to enjoy the pool.

I know that hotels don’t really want to upset the people doing it, but I would be more than happy if they really did something about this.

Anyway, back to the pool offering, apart from the main outdoors pool, you have an indoors one that looks nice (but I have to admit we’ve never felt the need to visit, as the weather was amazing), but also a small one for kids and a slide. So pretty decent.

It’s really interesting that each night, there’s entertainment at the main outdoor pool area, where you also have the outdoor seats for the restaurant, and it’s usually really nice. More on this later.

Because first, I want to talk about Arora Hotel’s beach.

The beach is very, very small but kept clean and rarely overcrowded. There are sunbeds and umbrellas and the water is crystal clear, even though you will probably need watershoes because of the vegetation and rocks.

There are two big things that I didn’t like about Arora’s beach: there was no beach bar in the first place and in order to get there, you had to either go down a very steep road or through a nearby hotel (which, strangely, most people did).

But despite its small size, the beach is actually nice and cozy and gives you a great feeling to be there. Too bad that the water itself is not cleaned (or the vegetation grows too fast too be kept under control).

But it looks even more natural this way, which is a bonus. And you still have nice chunks of crystal clear water to enjoy, plus colorful fish to watch – so bring your water gear!

Food & drinks at Arora Hotel

We were a bit disappointed with the food offering at this all-inclusive resort. However, you have to also take into account the price you’re paying for your stay. In this case, the value for money is more than fair.

With these in mind, I have to say that food is always a delicate subject and personal opinion certainly matters a lot here.

It’s a matter of taste and expectations, and you’ll always have people who are extremely satisfied and people who feel that the food and drinks are miserable.

Personally, I didn’t find the food too attractive: it was incredibly repetitive and basically breakfast and dinner were always the same thing – you had some choice, indeed, but eventually it became boring especially since there were just a few dishes that I found eatable.

Lunch was a bit better, having a wider array of food types to choose from, but don’t expect to get back with extra pounds following your Arora vacation in Kusadasi – which is never a bad thing, right?

Either way, we definitely had a much more pleasant experience at the Alva Donna Hotel that we visited the following year.

Another problem I had with the food there was that they didn’t replenish the dishes fast enough. So if you weren’t there when lunch started, you ran the risk of no longer finding the good things.

Especially when it came to sweets, they did not tend to replace the ones that were finished. So the later you arrived, the less options you had for your meal.

The drinks were extremely limited too. For an all inclusive resort, you would expect them to have some variety.

Here, there was not much of a choice: the Turkish beer (Efes) which was probably halved with water, a traditional Raki which was the strong alcoholic drink, Turkish vodka and gin: these were the options when it came to alcoholic drinks and they usually finished them too very quick and never refilled until next day.

Juice was served from 2 liter bottles, glasses were all plastic and overall the feeling you had was that they were doing their best to offer the cheapest products available.

The restaurant staff wasn’t particularly charming either, especially the bartenders who almost ignored you and treated you rudely unless you tipped them (in that case, they became a different person and were all smiles and good service).

This is something that we have often found, later on, at all inclusive hotels, even at hotels with more stars and more pretentious guests. But despite this, it’s still not a joy.

Personnel and entertainment at Arora Hotel

Unfortunately, the people who worked there barely spoke any English, but they did their best to be helpful and always had a smile on their face (apart from the restaurant and bar personnel).

They do tend to get rude to single women, especially blond ones, but it apparently is a thing of the Turkish people and not necessarily of the Arora staff. So we were told – not sure if that is indeed the truth or not.

Entertainment is decent – far from being impressive, but at least the hotel tries to keep you entertained: every night we had a different show, including live music and a very impressive water ballet team and during the day there was music from the DJ.

No entertainment team, but the place was so small that there wasn’t much space to do stuff anyway. The animation teams are usually annoying in my opinion, so I wouldn’t consider them a loss.

All in all, you won’t go to Hotel Arora in Kusadasi for the entertainment value, but if you want something to do during the nights, you will surely have a thing or two to keep you busy.

And, as it was in my case, things got better as more glasses of beer were consumed. Ooops!

Arora Hotel’s Location: Not Its Strongest Point

The hotel is outside of Kusadasi (or at least pretty far from the City Center) but there’s a dolmus station (a bus) right across the street and they arrive every few minutes and for around 1 Euro, you can get to the city center in around 10 minutes.

I found these buses to be pretty safe and much cheaper than taxis. You definitely have to take a trip to the city during your stay. And make sure you read my article sharing the best things to do in Kusadasi before you do.

Around the hotel, there’s not much to see or do. The hotel itself is rather small and surrounded by other hotels.

There are no quality restaurants around and just a few shops within walking distance, but it might be best to visit the center of Kusadasi if you want to do some shopping.

You normally don’t need the restaurants, as the hotel’s all inclusive plan keeps you well fed throughout the day, so no loss here.

Conclusion

Hotel Arora is certainly not one of the best hotels in Kusadasi. However, you have to consider the price you’re paying.

We spent around 300 Euros per person for our week-long stay, and that is extremely low for an All-Inclusive vacation. You can’t expect to be served caviar and expensive foods or drinks on such a budget.

All in all, it is a good 4-star hotel, so if your funds are tight, it’s a good choice. The value for money is excellent, especially if you get one of those amazing sea view rooms.

Check out prices for your dates here.

But I personally wouldn’t chose a 4-star hotel in Turkey again. Their 5-star options give you more in terms of quality (although the prices go up fast).

So while I would personally not return for a second visit, I do not regret my holiday at Hotel Arora! It was a great place for extra trips to various main attractions in Turkey – such as the amazing Pamukkale and it’s more impressive Pam Thermal Hotel.

Have you been to Kusadasi or stayed at hotel Arora? Let us all know what you think about the place by commenting below.