Cornelia Diamond Golf Resort & SPA

Cornelia Diamond sits on 200,000 square metres two kilometres outside Belek, with Sir Nick Faldo's 27 holes on the other side of the drive. It is a large resort — 611 rooms, beds for 1,550 — and it is built to absorb a golf group without the group feeling like it is queuing.

Most of those rooms are the standard category at 42 to 50 square metres, with a garden or partial sea view. Above them sit two Golf Suite types at 65 square metres, lake and garden villas, and a handful of larger suites with private pools and their own hamam. Every room has a safe, minibar, Wi-Fi and wired internet, and turndown service as standard.

Food runs from seven in the morning to half past midnight across the main restaurant, a pâtisserie, a 24-hour snack bar and six bars. The three à la carte restaurants — Mediterranean, Far Eastern, and a Latin and North American grill — are the part worth knowing about before you arrive: each carries a 25-euro service charge per person, needs booking in advance, and stops taking orders at nine. Room service is 24 hours at 15 euros an order. Everything else sits inside the Diamond All Inclusive concept, including a long list of named spirits and Turkish wines.

The Crassula spa covers 5,000 square metres over two floors, with a traditional hamam, saunas at three temperatures, an indoor pool and eighteen treatment suites. Elsewhere there are eleven pools, three full-size football pitches, nine tennis courts, padel, and 250 metres of beach.

Winter is the golf season here, and the resort runs a separate concept from 15 October to 5 May. The heated outdoor pool opens on 1 November and closes 1–20 December for maintenance; the indoor pool is heated throughout. The jetty and the water slides shut for the season — which matters less than it sounds, since nobody books this week for the jetty.

Cornelia Golf Club is on the property: Sir Nick Faldo's 27 holes across 1.4 million square metres, reached on foot or by the hotel's buggy service. Green fees sit outside the Diamond All Inclusive concept — they are booked and paid separately, as is the Cornelia Golf Academy. We price them into the package so there is no surprise at the starter's hut.

From here you are inside the gates of most of Belek's other courses within about twenty minutes: Carya, Antalya Golf Club's PGA Sultan and Pasha, and the rest of the cluster. A four-round week never needs a change of hotel.

One booking detail worth getting right. Of the two Golf Suite types, only Type 2 has twin beds; Type 1 is French-bed only and there are just eight of them. For a society, or any four-ball where nobody is sharing a double, ask for Golf Suite Type 2 or a standard twin. We check this on every group booking here, because it is the kind of thing that only becomes a problem at check-in.

An early tee time is never a problem here. Bubble is open 24 hours, so you can eat before any start — it is a menu rather than the full spread, and the buffet breakfast in the main restaurant runs from 07:00 to 10:00 with a late sitting until 11:00. Room service is also 24 hours, at 15 euros an order.

Two more practical notes. The three à la carte restaurants carry a 25-euro service charge per person and take last orders at 21:00, which is early if you finish a late round and want to eat properly — book them on your non-golf evening. And check-out is at noon; if your flight is in the evening, ask us about a courtesy room, which the hotel allocates on availability.