White City Resort

I booked White City Resort after seeing it on TikTok as one of the cheaper all-inclusive hotels that offered Starbucks. Overall, I had a decent holiday, but this hotel is absolutely not a 5-star resort in my opinion. I’d rate it closer to a 3-star experience.

The Biggest Problem: The Food

If you’re vegetarian, prepare to live on chips, rice, pizza and ice cream for most of your holiday.

The vegetarian options were genuinely awful. Unless you love eating salad every day, there was very little choice. Most meals consisted of trying to piece together side dishes because there weren’t many proper vegetarian mains available.

What made things worse was the food labelling. Multiple times I noticed labels placed on the wrong dishes. For a hotel claiming to be 5-star, that’s unacceptable. For guests with allergies, intolerances or dietary requirements, it could be genuinely dangerous.

The snack bar wasn’t much better. Most wraps and snacks contained meat, and the QR ordering system didn’t allow ingredients to be removed. One afternoon we ordered food via the QR code and waited around 30 minutes. Eventually we had to ask what was happening, only to be told the item wasn’t in stock. Nobody informed us beforehand despite us sitting there waiting.

By the end of the holiday I was genuinely struggling to find things to eat and was counting down until I could get food elsewhere.

Sunbeds

The hotel has signs everywhere saying sunbeds cannot be reserved, but in reality almost everyone reserves them. If you don’t get up early, good luck finding one where you want. By 10am most decent spots were already taken, so I ended up reserving mine at around 7:30am and going back to bed.

Starbucks

One of the reasons I booked this hotel was because it advertised Starbucks. However, it’s only open from 2pm-5pm and the queues are ridiculous. Usually only one member of staff is working there and guests are limited to two drinks per person.

Entertainment & Atmosphere

The entertainment team work hard and are enthusiastic, but if you’re an introvert looking for peace and quiet, this probably isn’t the hotel for you.

Staff constantly approached us around the pool asking us to join activities. I know it’s their job, but when you’re trying to relax every day it becomes tiring.

The music was also incredibly repetitive. Most daytime music consisted of slow, depressing cover versions of songs and the same playlist seemed to play repeatedly throughout the week. The only time upbeat music appeared was during pool activities or evening events.

The evening shows themselves were actually quite good. My only complaint was the endless build-up before every show. There would be countdowns, audience warm-ups, more countdowns and more talking before anything actually started. If the crowd wasn’t enthusiastic enough, they’d sometimes repeat the whole process again before beginning.

Bingo night was also disappointing. Tickets were €15 per strip and the prizes mainly consisted of souvenirs, discount vouchers and small items rather than cash prizes.

Pools & Beach

The beach bar is much further from the beach than expected and involves climbing several flights of stairs.

If you sit around the adult pool, be prepared for water sports sellers regularly appearing throughout the day trying to sell trips and excursions. I found this disruptive when trying to relax.

Room, Housekeeping & Maintenance

The rooms were generally clean when we arrived and the housekeeping staff were friendly.

However, during our entire stay I never once noticed the floors being properly mopped. Housekeeping would make the bed, replace towels and restock the minibar, but the floor quickly became dirty and didn’t appear to be cleaned thoroughly. After a few days it felt like there wasn’t much point having the room serviced other than for fresh towels and drinks, so I ended up leaving the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door for much of the holiday.

The complimentary soft drinks in the minibar being replenished free of charge was appreciated.

The hotel overall shows significantly more wear and tear than the photos online suggest. The marketing pictures make the resort look much larger, newer and more luxurious than it actually is.

Our standard room balcony felt extremely small and overlooked the car park. With the metal bars across the front, it genuinely felt a bit like sitting in a cage, although it was useful for drying towels!

On our final day, a large piece of wood suddenly collapsed from the structure outside our room. Thankfully we were inside at the time, but had we been walking out of the room when it happened, someone could easily have been injured. To the hotel’s credit, maintenance attended quickly and repaired it within around 30 minutes, but it was still concerning to witness and reinforced my feeling that parts of the hotel are showing their age and need more attention.

Arrival Experience

We arrived at around 5am after travelling all night.

From around 10am onwards our room phone started ringing repeatedly from people claiming to be holiday representatives demanding we attend a meeting. We hadn’t booked through a company that provides resort reps and had no interest in attending.

Despite saying no, the calls continued throughout the morning. By this point we’d received around 14 calls in total.

When I spoke to the hotel, they told me the representatives weren’t affiliated with them. That only made me question how they had access to our room number in the first place when they were standing in the hotel reception area. Thankfully the hotel did block all incoming calls when I requested it.

Staff

Most staff were friendly and helpful, especially the blonde German member of the entertainment team who was lovely.

However, there were also occasions where some staff made comments that I found inappropriate. There were remarks about guests’ appearances and the use of terminology that felt outdated and unprofessional. One member of staff even joked to a plus-size guest “I’ll eat you”, which I found bizarre and uncomfortable. Also calling some guests ‘lady boy’ which in this day and age get with the times it’s so so offensive.

I raised my concerns through the hotel’s feedback system and management invited me to discuss them further, although this was unfortunately on my final day.

Location

One positive is the location. There are plenty of shops, pharmacies and a few restaurants within a short walk of the hotel. I unfortunately became very familiar with the local pharmacy during my stay!

The construction site mentioned online was also not an issue at all. I never heard any noticeable noise from it.

Overall

This wasn’t the worst hotel I’ve stayed at and I still managed to enjoy parts of my holiday. The evening shows were good, guest services responded quickly when issues were raised, and the location is convenient.

However, the food was by far the biggest disappointment. Combined with the overcrowded sunbed situation, repetitive entertainment, constant sales approaches, poor housekeeping standards and the overall wear and tear throughout the resort, I simply don’t think this is a 5-star hotel.

If you’re an extrovert who enjoys activities, socialising and spending all day around the pool, you’ll probably enjoy it much more than I did. If you’re looking for a relaxing break with good food and a luxury feel, I’d look elsewhere.

For me, it was a decent holiday but a very average hotel.

Rating: 3/5

Lovely food with great quality and choice. A big thankyou to our favourite butler Mr Kaan, Miss Kaan and from the entertainment group Mr Eren. Made the holiday special for us with great care. Will be back