We arrived at Barut Hemera on one of the most beautiful, hazy blue nights whilst the sun dropped slowly into the ocean. It was the perfect idyllic moment to get our camera out and try and capture a glimpse of what our (travel-tired) eyes could see. Absolutely breathtaking.

So this was our home for a week, we couldn’t have been luckier and happier. The hotel is located close to the historic town of Side (pronounced See-dah) with the larger city of Antalya around 20 minutes away. Both are popular tourist areas along Turkey’s beautiful Mediterranean coastline.

We had a lovely jacuzzi bath on our balcony with a sofa on the other side. On some mornings I found myself getting up before the rest of the clan just to sit and ponder about life and read a couple of chapters of my book. It felt like such a calm place and just what I / we needed. Hugo was often the second to wake up where I’d hear his little foot steps pattering up towards me along with ‘muuummmmmyyyy’… he likes to really drag out my name sometimes and I secretly love it.

In the middle of the day, it was about 35°C but were told – due to humidity and little wind – that it would feel around 40°C so we enjoyed camping out under the shade quite a lot. The cabanas were great for this as these were close to the beach and you could feel the breeze coming in from the sea… perfect for when Hugo decided to nap. There are no extra charges for these either so you could grab one everyday if you wanted to!

On the skincare front, I originally started using factor 30 from the P20 range which is supposed to last 10 hours but I still managed to burn so for the rest of the holiday I used Hugo’s factor 50 ‘extra water resistant sun block’ – really high factor but if I’m being honest I’d highly recommend it as I’ve not only kept my tan longer but I haven’t peeled, yay! Also the older I get, the more aware I seem to be of not wanting to damage or age my skin.

We spent so much time in the sea here because it was so beautiful and warm and really shallow, you could walk pretty far out and it was still only waist high. Hugo enjoyed crashing into mini waves and generally bobbing up and down in his armbands, the smiles they create are just priceless!

Hugo’s swimwear and the little suit in the vlog with flating panels inside are from Sunuva.

The resort has four ‘à la carte’ restaurants all offering different cuisines and situated at different places around the resort. One of my favourites, probably due to the stunning decor which was right up my street, was ‘Olive’ which is Italian-inspired and pictured below. We were lucky because this was situated right opposite our room which is the quiet side of the resort with a beautiful pool with a palm tree as the central feature. As it was open for lunch too, instead of heading to the main buffet we enjoyed lunch here a few times.

The cleaners liked leaving us little treats like this after they had been and also just to note, they do all your washing and ironing for free too, such a godsend and real 5-star service.

On our last night we were treated by the owner of Barut Hotels to an absolutely gorgeous meal – they handpicked the best restaurant in Side at the harbour with the most incredible views, it literally took my breath away. The restaurant was called Karma and the food was absolutely scrumptious, the best salad I’ve ever had with grilled halloumi and avocado. We were accompanied by Beril who manages the social media marketing for Barut Hotels and despite her wanting us to enjoy the meal as a family, we insisted that she stayed and joined us. She is absolutely lovely and it was a pleasure to spend our last evening with her.

Barut Hemera was such a lovely family holiday, great for kids with all the playgrounds, kids pools and entertainment they have at night too. It’s such a shame what’s going on in certain parts of Turkey as it’s had a real effect on the tourist industry, I know whilst we were there we had family and friends asking us if we were OK after news broke of civil unrest in some of the northern cities but, to be honest, had it not have been for those messages we wouldn’t have known that anything was going on. We felt totally safe and had a blissful time. It was great to hear that the hotel was fully booked and I think it’s such a shame when bad things affect good people. We heard that other hotels – mainly smaller independents – had decided not to open this year due to lack of bookings which must be hard when it’s your business and livelihood and you’re impacted by worldly events beyond your control. I thought I would just mention this side of things because I know people might be thinking about it in the back of their mind but we honestly couldn’t have felt safer. People will ultimately make their own decisions about where they feel comfortable going and we can only speak from our experience that we never felt any cause for concern.

If you haven’t already, please don’t forget to watch our holiday vlog below. I’m also pretty new to YouTube and would love to build up my community on there so if you enjoy my videos then don’t forget to subscribe too. I’m going to try and do them on a more regular basis.

View our holiday vlog HERE or click the picture below

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed the post, thanks so much for reading and for taking time out to visit my page! I just want to say a special thanks to Barut Hotels as well for such a lovely holiday… they really made our time there such a special one.

Lots of love

Sally

xxx