Mark Warner Holidays Bewertungen 403

We stayed at Phokaia, Foca in Turkey. Great Watersports Facilities and excellent beachfront and sports staff. The food was lovely and varied. The hotel, the grounds and facilities were fantastic. The drinks were very expensive and the staff struggled to understand us at times but overall a lovely holiday.

Very disappointing beachfront. We’re all experienced sailors and wanted to return to Lesvos as the resort is marketed as “for expert sailors”. But as soon as the wind hits force 5, they stop all dinghy sailing. Not once this week did they do the sunset sailing race. Intermediate and advanced sailors should go with Neilson instead. Waste of a week.

Stayed at Palairos. Good accommodation and resort. However tried to get child on the Indy club on the first day but were told there were no places. Ah! That’s part the reason for booking with MW. Were very unhelpful and came up with lame excuses such as they were booked months ago (doesn’t say this on the site) and finally said it’s due to ratios. Could just use another member of staff! So be warned if you book you may not be able to use the clubs. I did email mark warner customer services at the beginning of the holiday to ask them to fix it so that I didn’t get a lame post holiday ‘you should have said excuse’. I didn’t receive a reply. Very disappointing, especially as we lost the first day of the holiday due to an 11 hour plane maintenance delay.

Great resort with loads to do.
Beach front had lots of good equipment. Winds good on most days, generally more in the afternoons.
Local village only short walk/cycle away with many great lunch stops and shops.
Kids clubs great fun for our 11 year old but teenagers club for 16 year old didn't really happen as not many turned up.
Plenty for them to get involved in with adults. Sailing/windsurfing, runs/hikes & social Padel all good fun.
Staff were all amazing and encouraging. Shout outs to those that we crossed paths with. Sam, Lucy, Ollie, Will, Ali & Costas.
Only slight downside was length of transfer but worth the wait!

Mark Warner are a fantastic holiday company. They are great for families, especially if you are in to sports and activities. They are not the cheapest, but you get what you pay for.

Like
1. Resort is beautiful with lots of space and ability to be private or in the thick of it as required

2. Beach activities good. Sailing, windsurfing, kayaks, ski, etc

3. Good other sport activities - tennis, pickleball, cycling, running, gym

4. Many of the MW sports personal - very committed, happy to help, nice people.

5. Quality of food / buffet is good

6. Villa in general good and spacious.

7. Close to Foca so an easy opportunity to leave the resort if required

Can be improved:

1. Variability and fun of the kids club activities. Nielsen has much more content, committed staff and flexibility than MW. Feels very reactive and inflexible at MW. The kids club programme is not bad but it’s not exceptional. For example no proactive drive to bring kids together - eg movie night, disco night, beach bbq, charge in the weekly plan to reflect kids interest in that week.

2. Noise - music too loud at night and goes on too long at the Jetty and Tiki bar.

3. Excursions quite arbitrary

4. Loos in villa very smelly - drain problem

convenient, helpful, relaxing.

Expensive and Not the quality of their competitors.

I wish I had found the other honest reviews about Mark Warner at the Aeolian resort before we booked.
We have been doing beach active holidays for years, first with Sunsail, then onto Neilson. Mark Warner costs as much as, but does NOT meet the standard.

The first thing you need to know is that this is not a just a Mark Warner resort, you are sharing it with other people who have booked independent holidays, but who can pay as they go to use the Mark Warner facilities on a first come first served basis.

We took a teen, who was booked into their Indy club, but it was very clear from the first morning, that the staff were not interested in looking after these kids and it didn’t go on past the second day.

The rooms are ok, however, two of our rooms had mouldy showers that leaked from under the frame, where you could see layers of patching.

The beach sailing and other off-beach kit was good and the staff very nice, but each staff member would say they’d only just arrived.
Some kit advertised is no longer available.
The beach area is lovely with a nice little bar, with amazing bar staff, (not MW staff) but this is shared with whoever wants to go to the beach, lots of day visitors drive in and use the sunbeds and bar.

The food is good, but it has nothing to do with Mark Warner, it is run by the hotel.
There doesn’t seem to be any air conditioning in the reception or food service area.
You must return your towels to have €15 per towel taken off the bill, although the bills do not make sense.

The fitness classes are basic, because there isn’t really any facilities, the teachers were very nice, although even with paying for an all inclusive sport beach holiday, you have to pay again for some classes.
The bikes are good, staff nice, but take your own pedals! The road rides are out and backs and you need to map your own rides!
Beware also, for your 2hour bus ride in 35-40°C heat, there is NO AIR CONDITIONING in the bus.

I cannot recommend Mark Warner Holidays, if you want an all inclusive beach sport holiday, book Neilson.

So, I was hoping that MW would get in touch to ask for feedback directly as I fed back to the resort manager, however I have heard nothing so will take to this platform for my review.

After spending a very large amount of money for a family of 4 to do 2 weeks at Aeolian Village, we made it a lovely holiday, however there were many points of improvement.

To set the scene, we have done activity holidays for the last 10 years, and decided to give MW a try as have previously been to this site with another company. Spoiler alert - we won't go with MW again. The other one, rhymes with Meilson - is MUCH better!

Main points! We are a tennis mad family - however you have to pay extra for the tennis?! At £120 each per week, this was an extra cost that was not accounted for. The tennis coaches were great, however their programme is dull and very technique based. No fun games or drills which were sorely missed. So much so, we decided not to do tennis for the second week which was a shame. Also, we were supposed to be in the Intermediate/Advanced group, however had total beginners in our group which changed the level of tennis considerably. Not the coaches fault! I fed this back to the resort manager and was given my favourite thing...'a shoulder shrug'.

Cycling. My husband loves his bike riding on these holidays so packed his cleats. Only to get there and for them so say you needed to bring your pedals if you want to use cleats?! That is like saying bring your own tennjs balls!! What a waste; so no cycling was done. Had they mentioned this in the booking be could of taken them.

MW staff - lovely and friendly but lacking in that 'oomph' that we are very used to. When you walked past them they were heads down, not very chatty and were clearly all tired and worked hard. I do put this down to people management and there were a few grumblings about unhappy employees.

Fitness classes. Great PT's, full of enthusiasm and cant fault them. But their kit was AWFUL. One set of each size dumbbells, a few scraggly looking kettlebells. Really poor kit for a fitness holiday.

And where were the staff and management? We hardly saw people, the bar was pretty dead every night and we all had to make our own entertainment. The only night they were around is the last evening for awards night and even that was a little limp. In other resorts, there is always something fun on to create an atmosphere.

And a real cruncher!! As we did two weeks, Wed is the handover day and NOTHING was open. We did not have a single event taking place, could not use the beach kit, no fitness classes etc. So we lost an entire day of activities; this was not told to us beforehand.

Hotel overall is old, tired and needs some TLC. The Greek staff were lovely, very friendly and great service from them.

However, Water stations. There is ONE! Yes ONE place to refill your water bottle on the entire site. It is in the restaurant and you have to by pass the rope that is clearly meant to keep you out to use it. In 40 degree weather, this is rubbish. Again, when I raised this....'shoulder shrug'.

Food was good but not amazing. Salads, bread etc all exactly the same every single day. The other food did change but it was just Ok - nothing that stood out as being amazing.

Some quick wins that would help:
Volleyball every night - make it sociable and fun!
Don't do 30 mins as 'happy hour' in the beach bar - it is such a beautiful spot - keep it open for us!
Maybe stagger your staff days off - this would allow for every day to be covered for activities.

And lastly - FIX THE AIRCON IN THE BUS! 2 hour transfer in 40 degrees is not too much fun.

Perfect holiday

Great range of activities for adults and children. Accommodation was clean and comfortable, the main Hotel room doors slam quite a lot. Food was fine, good range of options. Alcoholic drinks were expensive. Everything we could want

Great Mark Warner staff
Hotel and staff fairly average
Annoying stray cats around food areas
Wasps at every meal
Transfer is 2 hours on a hot bus, not ideal.

Paleros resort didn't fail to deliver (on the whole). Great staff, lovely food and the resort is clean. Rooms were of a very good standard and the AC was quiet and kept us lovely and cool at night. Cycling was a key aspect for me at resort, given it does not have the best sailing weather. However the bikes are in their 3rd season, and they are not in good condition. IMO they are poorly maintained and on group rides (at times) staff were not adequately equipped to deal with issues. It appears the bikes are kept running with as little expense as possible, which is not acceptable given the operational environment.

The breakfast and especially dinner buffets were amazing in choice and quality. Lots of local specialties.

The room had some maintenance issues e.g. the toilet flush, which it took management a few attempts through their maintenance staff then a plumber to fix. The room had a cleanliness issue with the sofa being quite dirty.

We had a great time at Paleros this Summer.
We especially enjoyed the Padel which was unexpected as we were planning to play tennis. The Padel was great fun, expertly led by Phil and culminating in a brilliant social tournament. Beach front activities were great as always. Bikes needed some attention so we only went on them once. Sunset stretch a must at the end of the day.
Room was clean and air con was great and powerful. Evening entertainment was great fun - special mention to Tipsy Tennis!
Myself and my two adult daughters had a fantastic time and hope to be back.

Great service, food and organised activities. Mark Warner always delivers and the team at Kamari were excellent.
We did a whole load of activities and my daughter was in the Indy club and made loads of friends.
I think the hotel would benefit from water fountains although we did buy water at the local supermarket which was good value.
Also think a happy hour would be good.
If you enjoy an active holiday this is the one you should do

From start to finish this was a brilliant holiday. The whole MW team were great. The kids loved kids club and made lots of friends, as did we!
The chance to try windsurfing and sailing was also fun and the tennis/padel and fitness team helped keep the pounds off with multiple opportunities for exercise.
All in all we loved it and will be back!

This was our fifth visit to Mark Warner Lemnos. We’ve always loved the location, the food and the wonderful team led by the brilliant Sue Thomas — thank you to everyone who helped make previous trips such fun and so memorable.

This year, though, a lack of flexibility and empathy from the Kids Club head, Zoe, turned what should have been another five-star holiday into a two-star struggle.

Mark Warner sensibly assigns children to Kids Clubs' groups based on age, which generally works well — you wouldn’t want a nine-year-old mixed in with toddlers, nor would it be appropriate for an 11-year-old to be placed with the Indys (ages 15–17).

However, the 11/12–13/14 age range is certainly a grey area. At this stage, some children are more mature and prefer to socialise with older peers, while others feel more comfortable with kids their own age.

My daughter, aged 12 years and nine months, has always enjoyed the company of girls slightly older than her. When we arrived this year, the Surfers group (ages 11–12) consisted of only five boys and no girls (other girls had been assigned to the group but hadn’t turned up on that first morning).

Given this, and the fact that we saw there were only two girls in the next group up (Bondi, where no boys had turned up), my daughter decided to join them (she had moved up in previous years without any issue – and still remains in contact with many of the friends she made there).

Only a few months younger (five in one case; 11 in the other) than the other two girls, my daughter got on very well with them and was thrilled to tell me at lunch how much fun she’d had. So I was shocked when she returned to our room later, near tears, saying she had been asked to leave the group. She found the situation both embarrassing and humiliating.

It was especially disappointing that this was addressed directly with my daughter by the Bondi team leader rather than involving me in the discussion. The handling lacked sensitivity and fell well short of the standards I'd expect from anyone working with children.

When I approached Zoe, the head of childcare, I was shocked to be met not with understanding but with dismissiveness. She was brusque and insistent that there was no flexibility whatsoever. Her explanation was that the Bondi group was ‘full’ (as I understand it, 12 kids had signed up) and could not accommodate any more members. If she wanted to be in Kids Club, my daughter would have to return to the Surfers group, which she was very reluctant to do.

The result was a frustrating and totally avoidable situation. My daughter remained friendly with the two girls from Bondi outside of Kids’ Club, yet was barred from joining them during daily activities. This really upset our whole holiday, meaning my daughter had no close ‘buddies’ to hang around with during the day, no waterfront activities to participate in and spent most of her time on the sun lounger by the pool feeling excluded.

To make matters worse, I was later informed that the Bondi group mostly only had those two girls attending – sometimes there were three and, on a one or two occasions, at most five had turned up – with some days seeing no attendance at all at certain times and the team leader having to join an older group (I witnessed this first hand) —so space clearly wasn’t the issue.

It was even more disappointing that Zoe made no effort to follow up, show empathy or monitor the situation throughout the week. In the past, the Kids Club staff have been very happy to accommodate children moving between groups based on their friendships and maturity. This year, it was a rigid, impersonal approach that seriously undermined our holiday.

I'm writing this review with genuine disappointment about Mark Warner's poor customer service and lack of support for loyal customers, which has left me feeling very let down. While we ultimately made the best of our trip, the company's handling of several issues was unacceptable:
1. Price Reduction After Booking - No Consideration for Early Bookers
The most frustrating aspect was discovering that our holiday price was reduced by £370. I understand that prices fluctuate and certainly didn't expect a full refund of the differential, but when I contacted customer services to express my disappointment, I suggested reasonable alternatives such as a partial refund or discounted/complimentary water sports lessons to help offset this substantial amount. Instead, I was told they would provide a room upgrade to a sea view as compensation. This upgrade never materialised.
What made this worse was meeting other guests who openly admitted they always wait until the last minute to book Mark Warner holidays because the company consistently discounts prices closer to departure. This seems to be a well-known practice that penalises loyal customers who book early and plan ahead.

2. Damaged Luggage - No Support from Mark Warner
My suitcase wheel was completely ripped off during the outbound journey with Enter Air. Despite providing extensive evidence including photos of the obvious damage and various claim forms, Enter Air only offered £60 compensation because I couldn't provide proof of purchase of my bag - yet I provided proof of how much it will cost to replace, which surely is more relevant! This has left me £100 out of pocket through absolutely no fault of my own, as a like for like replacement bag costs £160.
When I contacted Mark Warner for support, they simply stated that "flights were outside the scope of the contract" and completely washed their hands of the situation. A simple £100 gesture of goodwill from Mark Warner would have covered my shortfall and demonstrated they actually care about their customers' - but clearly customer service isn't a priority for them. More reputable airlines like British Airways and even budget carriers like EasyJet handle these situations far better and actually support their customers.

3. Resort Experience
There were several other minor issues during our stay, including the air conditioning not working in our room. To his credit, the resort manager Alistair did try to help and offered us a complimentary sailing lesson as compensation. However, this was only one hour for two people when they could fit it in on our final day, and the instructor informed us we really needed at least three hours to gain anything meaningful from it - making it more of a token gesture than genuine compensation.

*Overall Assessment*
We're not the type to let problems ruin a holiday, and we did manage to enjoy ourselves despite these issues. However, my overall impression of Mark Warner is one of disappointment and feeling completely unsupported as a customer.
A simple gesture of goodwill - perhaps contributing towards my damaged luggage replacement - would have gone a long way.

*Advice to Others*
Based on this experience, I would recommend:
- Book with Neilson or Club Med instead - having holidayed with both companies, they genuinely care about their customers, much more than Mark Warner.
- If you must book Mark Warner, don't book in advance - wait until the last minute to get better deals.
- Set your expectations low and don't expect any support if things go wrong with flights or other issues.

*Final Thoughts*
What makes this experience particularly disappointing is how easily Mark Warner could have rectified these issues at minimal cost to them. I genuinely wanted them to make things right, but they deliberately chose not to. In today's competitive market, gaining loyal customers is incredibly challenging, and recommendations and trust are vital to any company's success. It's baffling that Mark Warner wouldn't invest such a small amount in customer goodwill when the long-term value of satisfied customers far exceeds the short-term cost.

I'm left with a bitter taste and the certainty that I won't be recommending them to friends and family.

Lovely resort that’s only a short ride from the airport.
Rooms are a good size with nice, quiet air-conditioning.
My only disappointment was the tennis. This is one of the main reasons we go on Mark Warner holidays.
It was badly organised, with no attempts made to put players of similar standards together in social tennis. I appreciate that Padel was more popular, but I can see why…
Padel was VERY well organised with a very thorough introduction to the sport and then very well run social times, with regular advice given by Phil (the coach) on how to play/improve your game.
Overall a lovely holiday in a very pretty location with nice eateries only a short cycle/walk away if you fancied something different.

We had a wonderful holiday to Paleros!! Kids aged 9 and 11. The resort is clean and spacious enough for the number of guests at the time. The food is lovely. Watersports great. Staff charming. Well organised. Transfer short.
There is something for everyone!
A couple of small things would be the possibility of booking spa treatments before arrival and bikes for kids - but I wonder if this is an insurance/liability issue.
Priveza is a small airport and we queued a lot but it was worth it for the great holiday we all thoroughly enjoyed! We'll be back!!!