Oliver Phelps’ tips for a magical family holiday at Rixos Premium Belek

Actor and dad, Oliver Phelps, shares his top tips for creating a magical family holiday as he reminisces about his trip to Rixos Premium Belek, Türkiye and the thrill of Land of Legends. 

Oliver Phelps and family, The Land of Legends

All in the distractions – how to have happy family flights

When it comes to flying with little ones, the greatest advice I’ve ever heard is that the best parents on planes are the ones who don’t have children with them! I’m lucky enough to fly around the world with my job but when it comes to getting on a flight with children, it’s a whole other ball game. There are some key tricks that my wife and I follow, to ensure our kids enjoy the flight and we all get to relax during the journey.

We’ve learnt that the art of distraction and entertainment is key. Bring along activities your children love to do. For us it’s colouring and creative activities, and lots of it. Plus, with an inquisitive two-year-old, we make every trip into an adventure – the excitement of travelling can heighten all emotions, so we take the time talk her through it, let her know what’s happening around her and engage her in the journey.

My number one tip? Jump on that plane when your baby is young. The newborn stage, in my opinion, is the perfect time to travel. You can be fluid with your travel plans and as long as you overpack (and then some), your baby can slot in with your holiday plans… and you don’t need to buy another seat for them! 

Cabana, Rixos Premium Belek

Choose location wisely: short flights, great weather, and a perfect hotel

When our second child came along, there were some changes in dynamic and travelling with two young children wasn’t quite as smooth as we’d had as a family of three. Short haul at the moment, is our preferred choice of holiday, to enjoy our time away in these early years. As we’re based in the UK, the options for breaks within our four-hour window are plentiful and thankfully, very varied. This past October, we travelled to Rixos Premium Belek in Turkiye for some family fun in the sun. With amazing weather, minimal time difference and of course, the short flight, the hotel offered the perfect retreat for our winter sun holiday.

Deluxe Room, Rixos Premium Belek

Seize the day for mellow mornings and me-time

One thing I do like to do when on holiday is to get out early and seize the day. Leaving my wife and the girls happily snoozing in bed, I love to soak up the quiet mornings and head out around the hotel When staying at Rixos Premium Belek I spent each morning doing something different, one day I  worked out at the outdoor beachfront gym, the next day a swim in the spa’s indoor pool and another day, a leisurely coffee at one of the many lounge areas – a dream with two young kids!

Smiles all round, Rixy Kids Club

Creativity without boundaries at Rixy Kids Club

Despite catering well for adults, it was clear that Rixos Premium Belek was a place for all the family, at any age and with whatever interests. There were children of all ages enjoying the facilities at the Rixy Kids Club, which is often not the case. A clubhouse set-up for teens to hang out away from parents, with table tennis, foosball and even a bar for refreshments, gave young adults that much needed independence.

For our little ones, there was so much to keep them entertained and our eldest wanted to go to Rixy Kids Club at every given opportunity. She loved getting creative in the kids’ art studio, crafting designs in the workshop and even tried clay modelling, not your normal kids’ club activity! There was also a film studio for wannabe TV and film stars, complete with green screen. I have to say the choice of activities were pretty impressive, they’ve really thought of everything.

Mythical Journey, Land of Legends

Trying new things makes memories and valuable knowledge

A varied choice of things to do is one of the things we look for when holidaying as a family, and at Rixos Premium Belek we were spoilt for choice, with every day presenting the opportunity to try something different. The activities not only kept us busy but gave the girls so many chances to learn new things – without them even realising it!

As our stay fell at the end of October, we were there for the Halloween and Turkish Independence Day celebrations, which was super fun. The hotel went all out for the Halloween party, with decorations, acrobats, performers and a full DJ set, and what we loved most was how the staff interacted with the children to engage them in what was going on.

The Turkish Independence Day celebration was really interesting and it piqued our eldest daughter’s curiosity, with her asking a ton of questions about what the day meant and resulted in her learning about the Ottoman empire! The hotel team put on an impressive parade, displaying Turkish culture and again, encouraged younger guests to interact. With so many different nationalities at the hotel, this was a truly special event and great to see all nations celebrating together.

At the end of each day of the holiday each member of our family felt like they’d achieved (and enjoyed!) something, which meant we went home richer in both experience and knowledge.

Canal tour, Land of Legends

Go with the flow and you’ll find the Land of Legends

You can plan for every eventuality, but we’ve learnt that things will just be. I saw this myself at Rixos Premium Belek, with the amazing roller-skating waiting staff. Yes, that’s right, the hotel had waiters on roller-skates delivering refreshments to poolside guests! I felt quite bad ordering a hot cup of tea, but I needn’t as I soon witnessed the expert skill of the staff meandering through sunbeds, dodging playing children all whilst delivering drinks with a smile and without a drop spilled.

After a couple of days enjoying all the activities at the hotel, we knew it was time to head out to explore more of the local area and the first place on our list was The Land of Legends Theme Park. The park comes under the same ownership as the hotel, so all guests at Rixos Premium Belek (and its sister properties) receive free access and hotel shuttle every day – a huge benefit for families. The girls were in awe of the park and were so excited to visit. Not only did it have out of this world rides, but there was also an Aqua Land section. Our family loves the water (with a surname like Phelps it’s hardly a surprise!) so this was an ideal place for us to splash about and experience all the water-based rides.

The Land of Legends was very impressive and aside from the adventure, there was also a huge shopping mall with a large choice of shops and restaurants. You could definitely spend the whole day and evening there, and it added a completely different element to our family holiday.

Wave Shock Pool, Land of Legends

Diving right in with the help of Rixos Premium Belek

My final tip? Just get stuck in! The best part about staying at an all-inclusive hotel is being able to try everything. Try the new food, dabble in the language, learn about a new culture – the most special part about travelling with children is seeing a new place through your child’s eyes. On the contrary, there’s one thing that I won’t be trying anytime soon – paddleboard yoga. Even though our hotel in Turkey offered the activity, I’ve learnt the hard way that getting into yoga positions on a stand-up paddleboard is not my forte!

Circus Circus show, Land of Legends

Reminisce together to seal magical memories with your kids

We love to look back at photos with our daughters and it’s so nice that our eldest now looks forward to looking through our holiday snaps and chatting about the captured memories. I think it’s important that when they’re older, the girls can look back not just at different places, but significant world events and where they were at the time.