Getting to MW Sea Garden and the Accommodation

In May half term we visited the MW Sea Garden resort in Bodrum, Turkey with four children ages ranging from 1 to 14 years.

It was the first time the children had flown and although they were very excited, there was also some trepidation, especially from 7 year old Isaac. We parked with the secure airport parking with APH which meant that we left the car at Terminal 5 and they then securely parked it offsite and brought it back in time for our arrival back at Heathrow in a weeks time. We sailed through check-in at Terminal 5 in Heathrow Airport with no problem and who knew that airports were so comfortable theses days?

There were large comfy sofa’s and padded bucket seats looking out over the airport and Sebastian loved watching the planes landing whilst Isaac and Eliza burned off any excess energy in the soft play area before heading off to board our BA flight to Bodrum.

It was clear from here on in that our holiday was going to be extra special as we mentioned to the stewardess greeting us on the plane that the kids were nervous and she took them straight in to meet the pilot, who took a couple of minutes to reassure them and to give them stickers.

The four hour flight with British Airways went past quickly as the time was broken up by food and drinks arriving and we were soon on the ground in sunny Turkey. Our baggage was unloaded quickly and we were welcomed onto coaches by the smiling faces of the Mark Warner reps as soon as we stepped outside the terminal.

The coach journey to the resort takes 50 minutes and much of that journey is along a coastal road with stunning views over the aqua blue Aegean Sea, which kept the kids happy as they spotted yachts and pleasure boats along the way.

Arriving at the MW Sea Garden resort, we were welcomed by lovely cool Virgin Mojito’s whilst we handed in our passports, picked up our paperwork and room keys and were given the times of a late afternoon meeting . We labelled our cases with our room numbers for the porters to take to our rooms and headed off to explore.

The walk down to our Hotel took less than 5 minutes and the air was filled with scent from flowering trees all the way down. As we were a party of 6 we had an interconnecting room with three singles beds and a bathroom in one, and a huge queen size bed and the travel cot plus another bathroom in our side. Both rooms also had balcony’s with high sides to ensure the children were safe and that all important air conditioning too.

We unpacked our cases and headed outside to explore.  The great thing about Mark Warner is that they cater for families and one of the first thing we did was meet the Kids Club Manager Kirsty who ran through all the clubs the kids could attend – the Toddler Club for Sebby, the Mini Club for Eliza and Junior Club for Isaac.  We also found out that they served a children’s meal between 5.30 and 7pm each night, with food that the children will eat – sausages, chicken nuggets, salads, spaghetti bolognese etc.  Then at 7.30pm they have a kids club where the kids can watch a DVD and play games with their friends whilst the adults eat.  This was run on the first night so we could listen at the full meeting without being disturbed and the kids got some much-needed downtime after the long days travel.

The MW Sea Garden resort is the only one that is all-inclusive, so the meeting involved telling us about all the facilities and which restaurants / bars were included in this as well as where the facilities were and where we could find any information we needed. Once we had finished we headed off for our dinner and collected the kids from their clubs so we could get some rest before our first day of activities tomorrow.

To be continued………..