The Arkin Iskele Hotel

(Long review but worth to read!) I come to North Cyprus nearly every year, and this is almost always my number one pick. Overview: The 396 roomed hotel is a luxurious, comfortable place to stay. One of my top choices in North Cyprus. The rooms are always wonderful, A/C occasionally has a lingering stench, likely from older filters. Rooms contain drinks, and a few snacks. Room service meals are great as well. Bathrooms are nice, as well as the overall vibe of the hotel. Food: Food service has unfortunately been a constant issue here. Whilst Caretta and Club Lounge take the cake, Aşık Baba constantly falls behind. The service is slow and chefs are inexperienced. Meat arrives overcooked, or undercooked. It takes a few tries it get it right. One thing about all the restaurants is that the service is quite slow, I understand that the hotel is constantly packed, but still. Activities: This place is absolutely packed with activities. Perfect for all age groups, people big or small. The beaches and pool facilities are AMAZING! The ocean is warm, which is amazing, despite the occasional trash within the water. I recommend water shoes if you are entering from the sand, since small rocks are present. But if you are entering from the docks, no issue at all. Little to no fish are in the waters, so do not be afraid! The entertainment team at the hotel is amazing, constantly making activities and fun opportunities for guest to be included. The Okey tables are great as well, fulfilled with padding, but occasionally missing playing pieces. Pool tables are great as well, but you MUST pay to play, and the sticks are usually messed up. The gaming lounge is great as well, but some games are outdated, such as FIFA 23 being offered even though FC 26 has already been released. Rooms: Rooms are very nice, with almost all rooms configured with a balcony, mini-fridge containing sodas, water, and alcoholic beverages. Roll-in beds are available on request, (depending on your room type). A/C systems are very very strong, so they can freeze your room within 15 minutes. Bathrooms come with hand soap, shampoo, bodywash, and conditioner. Showers are very nice, with a faucet, handheld shower head, and rainfall shower head on the ceiling. Toilets feature a bidet as well. Special amenities: Parents can request a “snackbox” for their children for a fee, which includes all different kinds of assorted chips, chocolates, and crackers. Location: The hotel is less than 25 mins from Famagusta (Gazimağusa) which contains their other hotel branch, Arkın Palm Beach. Approximately 45 minutes from Nicosia (Lefkoşa), and 1 hour 25 minutes from Kyrenia (Girne). A great location!

This was my second visit withing 4 months and it is always pleasure to be there .During this visit I was sad not to see Guest Relations Supervisor Duygu during this visit. She made our previous stay truly special, with her excellent highly professional customer service skills, multi language abilities , highly educated totaly driven towards fully customer satisfaction . and we missed her.”

The Hotel is were beautiful in terms of rooms location and luxury. However they are not aware of food security. Especially for summer months i observed lots of warm food waiting outside deşivered in non hygienic conditions. At the end i had one of my worst vomiting and diarrhea. My wife also suffered. This is a clear improvement point for them.

Recently built hotel with good atmosphere. Restaurant was very clean with delicious food. Overall very satisfied with the stay. It has a good kids club, indoor swimming pool, Turkish Hamam, sauna and a steam room. The only issue we had was that the rooms did not have air conditioning on as it was still February amd apparently they are centrally controlled but the rooms were a little hot.

Cockroaches in the rooms. yes, sadly. Very new hotel and to have cockroaches crawling about in the bathroom at night time and found one in our room on the 3rd floor means a big drain issue. I told the guest services staff and although they sanitised the room, we seen another one. They were only small ones thank god but made our skin crawl and scared to enter the bathroom every night. Guest services just fobbed us off and made no attempt to make us feel happy once again. No goodwill offer other than move us to a slightly bigger room which we couldnt be bothered to do, wasnt worth it for a bath whereby I wouldnt feel comfortable with the drain issue anyway. Other than this, the hotel is very nice. Stunning place, great for the kids. Amazing water slides and kids water park. Buffet was big but food could have tasted better and cuts of meat could have been better (more chicken breast dishes please) But no inclusive restaurants included either which i found ridiculous for a hotel like this and for the cost. Buffer every single night isnt what you expect in a hotel like this costing 500-600 per night. Wouldnt return BUT it is the best hotel in the area and doing IVF in Famagusta it was convenient.