I owe you all an apology. My trip to the Liberty Lykia was way back at the start of October, but the reason I haven’t gotten around to the review is that on the 31st of October, I got taken into hospital and have been there for 11 weeks, and after years of back and forth, have finally been diagnosed with an IDB. Not fishing for sympathy, simply an explanation. If anything, the Consultant confirmed coeliac was a misdiagnosis, so I am thrilled that I no longer have to be Gluten-free. It also explains why the GF diet was doing nothing.

Anyway, my diagnosis makes me even more glad I enjoyed a holiday to the Liberty Lykia before everything happened, it was one of the most luxurious places I have ever been to and the staff couldn’t do enough for you. As you all know, I am a massive fan of Jet2. Because I was feeling under the weather (unbeknownst to me, my IDB flare-up had already started by the time I went on this holiday), I booked with them, because I know for a fact you just have absolutely no hassle or nonsense while travelling with them.

A LOT of people couldn’t understand why I wanted to go alone. This baffles me. I LOVE my own company. Why WOULDN’T you want to go on holiday on your own? You can please yourself for the whole holiday, and you don’t need to make a democratic vote in the room every time you need to decide between beach and pool (I despise sand, I am a pool Queen). I am also, very much not shy. Everyone told my Mum I would be, as I am an only child. It worked the opposite way for me. Without brothers and sisters, if I wasn’t friendly and chatty to randomers, I’d have no friends I made quite a few friends across the week, but also, I was still fairly happy to keep my own company. This Liberty Lykia review is a solo traveller one, but you could go here with anybody.

Arriving at the Liberty Lykia as an adult is what I imagine comparable to when a small child arrives at Disneyland, especially if you are as partial to a spa hotel as me and you haven’t been to a spa hotel abroad for a year. We all have our vices. I don’t drink or do anything remotely fun, so my disposable income goes on holidays. The reception staff at the Liberty Lykia are incredibly welcoming. When you arrive, depending on the time, they will either check you in or if it is one of the meal times on the all-inclusive, they will ask you if you want to leave your case and eat first. I got there at lunchtime and asking me if I want to eat first is a stupid question. Of course, I want to eat. As a matter of fact dear reception lady in a mere 3 weeks’ time I will be put on nil by mouth for over a week and then on a liquid diet for over two months. I’ve never been more grateful to have eaten my way through a week of all-inclusive in my entire life. The main restaurant has so many choices, I was a touch overwhelmed on the first day so I just went with meatballs and chips. I know how “someone who goes to Benidorm and can’t believe nowhere does a fry up or roast dinner” of me but honestly, I don’t think I can express to you the sheer amount of food this hotel had. They had “theme nights” like Turkish and Asian so there was a bit of a change each day. They had a pizza oven going every day, and a wide selection of meat dishes, pasta, sides, salad, veg, fruit and desserts,

Next up was being shown to my room. I’d seen a couple of reviews online saying the rooms needed a revamp, but this must have just been the side of the hotel for kids because my room over on the adult side was wonderful. Very modern and clean and spacious. I had a balcony, and the Liberty Lykia has the charming little quality of being in a forest, near a beach, but also having pools that are not underneath trees. I had a balcony that had a forest view, which was so relaxing, and relaxing is exactly why I went on holiday.

The amenities there are out of this world. There were so many swimming pools for both the adult and kids I didn’t even discover one of them until the last day. I found the main pool and pool bar at the adult side to be the best one, sun loungers got pretty full but I get up at the crack of dawn, so I just used to have an early breakfast, grab one and nap until the sun came around. Special shout out to Ercan in the pool bar who never let me feel lonely being on my own. I even had a couple of drinks as a treat even though I don’t usually drink, and again, I’m glad I did because there is no way on this God-given earth I will ever put literal poison into my broken bowels ever again.

There are some seriously cute beach bars, which are hidden sort of in the forest with sea views. It was lovely to venture to these when they opened to get a morning coffee in the sun. The actual beach itself is a private beach, like the entire resort, and has plenty of sun loungers and beach bars if you are looking to spend the day there. I did brave the beach one day as it wasn’t particularly sandy, and I even swam in the sea out of my depth which is not something I would usually do AT ALL.

There are a couple of different restaurants that are an extra charge (most are fairly cheap), but I didn’t venture to those which I regret slightly but also I enjoyed the food available in the main all-inclusive restaurant.

One of the main reasons I found the Liberty Lykia in my holiday search is because I like a hotel with a spa. As I mentioned before, holidays are pretty much my main luxury so I don’t see why I can’t indulge. I decided to book a day of spa treatments about halfway through my holiday. Once you pick up a bit of a tan, your skin cells start to die and dry out and make your tan look a bit duller. It might sound counterintuitive to have a Turkish bath and get exfoliated when you are tanning, but it makes it last longer and look better. I sauntered into the spa after the said couple of “treat” drinks which as you can imagine went to my head more than a normal person, to look up the prices. For this reason, I probably accepted paying 80 euros for a Turkish bath, a massage and a facial more easily than one would have sober, however, when I did go down to have the treatment I was seriously impressed.

The spa is reasonably sized and has a full Turkish bath. Before the Turkish bath, I was urged to sit in the sauna but I had to move after a while because I am an absolute sauna wimp. The member of staff promptly moved me into the salt room, which was much better. After that, I was taken for my Turkish bath. I’ve been to places in Turkey that rush these a bit, which is fair as I have only ever previously been busy public places not attached to hotels, but here they took their time and I’d say the full Turkish bath lasted about one and a half hours and I had never felt cleaner. After that, I was taken for a full body massage. Again, previous experiences with massages in turkey didn’t lead me to hold out much hope. I once had a massage in Side that was more like a sports massage or chiropractor session and I had bruises all over me. So many so in fact, that once when we were walking down the “strip” a man said to me “massage?” and I replied “no look what the woman did to me two days ago” and showed him my bruises and he left me alone. This massage was nothing like that. It was gentle, and again they took their time, and the oils they used smelled lovely, which is something else that contributes to that “clean” feeling, I think when you leave a spa. Last up was the facial, and for this, they took me into the “relaxation room” and gave me herbal tea and did the facial there while I had panoramic views of the surrounding forest. It was one of the nicest spa experiences I have ever had.

Although I only ventured to the children’s side a few times to visit the bars with some friends I’d made or the shops, this hotel overall is amazing. If you are looking to book a treat for you, you and your partner, you and your family or you and a friend it caters to everyone.

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