This is not a family hotel. It’s a hotel for adults..
. where kids are very welcome. Have you ever heard of a kids club that is open until 2am? Sorry kids, but that’s so that the adults can have fun for longer, not you.
This is what happens at the Maxx Royal hotel in Bodrum, the stretch of unbelievably pretty turquoise Turkish coastline which has also become a playground for the super-rich. With suites starting at £1000 a night, it’s a very exclusive hotel. Its private, secluded beach is surrounded on both sides by different levels of wooden decking, designed to maximise privacy for guests.
It is in a calm little enclave, somehow both family-friendly but also glam. That could be because of the staff who tend to every tiny need or whim we or our children have, including (and I’m almost embarrassed to say how much I enjoyed this) the people who were employed to clean our sunglasses. Or it could be because of the other guests.
When I visited, shortly after the hotel had opened, there was a huge spectrum of super-rich people, from conservative multi-generational Turkish families (one, I was told, had booked 42 suites to house his family for a reunion), to young and gorgeous families, to older couples on a big relax, to groups of friends who had clearly come to party in Scorpios, a high-end bar-beach club on the Maxx Royal estate. On entering Maxx Royal, there is a real sense of abundant space. The ceilings in the atrium are vast, with floor to ceiling windows opening onto.