Meet the GoToBeach team
The people behind every GoToBeach holiday
We're a small team of travel specialists who only recommend the hotels and resort areas we've seen for ourselves — across Turkey, Greece, Malta, Morocco and Egypt. Between us we've spent decades in the UK and European travel trade, and every writer on this page specialises in the destinations they cover. We're specialists, not generalists.
Our commitment to you
- Our guides are written or reviewed by named specialists with first-hand destination knowledge, hotel visits and product experience — before they are published.
- We don't take payment to feature any hotel, restaurant or attraction — there are no paid placements on this blog.
- We tell you the honest picture, including the negatives. If something doesn't work, we say so.
- Each writer covers only the destinations they truly know, in their own words and from their own visits.
The writers
Twenty-eight years in European travel — I want every hotel we recommend checked, questioned and understood before we put our name to it.
Thomas Kaplan has spent 28 years at the highest levels of European travel, with positions at some of its most respected names — TUI, Thomas Cook, Neckermann and Vrijuit among them. As GoToBeach's Product Manager, his job is to build a collection of hotels that earns its place rather than one that simply fills a brochure.
That means getting on planes: he runs inspection visits across Turkey, Greece, Malta and Morocco, and is in Turkey three or four times a year alone — Belek, Lara, Bodrum, Marmaris and Kušadası. After nearly three decades across the major operators, he is comfortable turning well-known names away, because a curated collection only means something if some hotels are left out.
My job is to be sceptical so you don't have to be. Every hotel that reaches our collection has already been through an inspection, a scoring against our criteria, and one simple test I apply on every visit: would I send my own family here, at this price, for this week?
On an inspection I look past the lobby. I check the standard rooms rather than the suite they want to show me, eat in the restaurants on a normal evening, and walk the beach at the time of day you would actually use it. Twenty-eight years across the major operators taught me that the difference between a good hotel and a great one almost always lives in the parts a brochure never shows.
It also means I'm comfortable turning hotels away. Plenty of well-known names don't make our list, and that is rather the point of a curated collection. When a hotel does earn its place with us, you can take it that I have seen the reasons for myself.
Thirty years showing British holidaymakers the real Turkey — from Belek's fairways to Antalya's old harbour.
Raşit Eti is one of the most experienced figures in Turkish tourism working in the UK market today. His career spans more than 30 years — from senior management at leading Antalya hotels including Sunrise Queen and Mylome Luxury, to director-level roles at major operators including Air Tours and Sunrise Travel. He joined GoToBeach in February 2026 as Turkey Destination Specialist.
His patch is the whole Turkish coast, but his heart is on the Antalya Riviera. He has watched Belek grow from a handful of golf resorts into one of the Mediterranean's finest beach destinations, and still visits Lara, Side and Kundu every season to keep his recommendations honest. Across his career he has inspected more than 200 hotels in person.
Away from work, Raşit is a devoted motorcyclist who travels widely across Turkey sampling restaurants, local dishes and lesser-known places to eat — recommendations that come from personal visits made on his own time, with no one told in advance that he is coming. It is that first-hand, unsentimental knowledge of the real Turkey, not the package-holiday cliché, that he brings to GoToBeach.
Most people who call me already know they want Turkey — what they're really asking is which part, and which hotel. That is the conversation I enjoy most. A family with young children, a couple after a quiet adults-only week and a group of golfers all want different things from the same coastline, and the Antalya Riviera can give all three if you know where to point them.
So I start with how you like to spend a holiday, not with a hotel list. Do you want to walk to the beach or to the bar? Is the buffet the highlight of your day or an afterthought? Are you happy with a short transfer from Antalya airport, or would you trade a longer drive for somewhere quieter? The answers narrow a couple of hundred hotels down to a handful very quickly.
From there I will be honest about the trade-offs. The resort with the best beach might not have the best à la carte, and the newest hotel is not always the one I would book. Thirty years has taught me that the right recommendation is the one that fits you, not the one that photographs best — and that is the standard I hold every suggestion to.
I spend my working life inside Turkey's best hotels, so you never have to gamble on yours.
Özgür Yavuz represents the next generation of Turkish travel expertise within the GoToBeach team. Working within Raşit Eti's Turkey operation, he focuses specifically on the upper end of the Antalya and Belek market — the ultra-luxury and premium all-inclusive resorts, where the gap between 'very good' and 'unforgettable' lives entirely in the detail.
He personally audits properties across collections such as Maxx Royal, Cornelia and Susesi, checking everything from à la carte dining and spa standards to the quality of the beachfront itself. A glossy lobby is easy; consistency across a thousand rooms is not — and that is what he is there to test.
Knowing these resorts at first hand means Özgür can say which suits couples, which suits families, and why. How long is the wait for the popular restaurants? Is the 'beachfront' a stroll or a shuttle ride? Are the premium rooms genuinely a step up, or just a higher number on the door? Those are the questions he answers before guests ever have to.
At the top of the market, almost everything looks faultless on a website. My job is to find where the polish ends. A five-star price tag promises a certain experience, and I'm there to check the resort keeps that promise on an ordinary Tuesday — not just in the brochure photography.
So I test the things that quietly decide a luxury holiday. How long is the wait for the popular à la carte restaurants? Does the spa live up to the spa menu? Are the premium rooms genuinely a step up, or just a higher number on the door? Those are the questions that separate Maxx Royal, Cornelia and Susesi from one another, and all three from everything below them.
When you're spending what these resorts cost, the details are the holiday. I would rather tell you honestly that one resort suits couples and another suits families than sell you the most expensive room in the building. Getting that match right, for your group and your week, is the whole of my job.
Crete-born, island-raised — the Greek islands aren't a destination for me, they're home.
Eleni Trachalakis was born and raised on Crete, which gives her a perspective on Greek island tourism that no amount of inspection visits can replicate. Before joining GoToBeach she spent years as a Thomas Cook resort representative across Greece — the role that builds the kind of on-the-ground knowledge desk-based product managers simply cannot match.
Today she runs all of GoToBeach's Greece operations: every hotel, transfer and local partner across Crete, Rhodes and Kos passes over her desk before it reaches a guest. She splits her time between the resorts and the harbours, checking that the places GoToBeach recommends still live up to the photos — because an island can change a great deal between one summer and the next.
What Eleni brings is the guest's point of view. Years of meeting holidaymakers off the airport coach taught her what people really want, and which details the photographs leave out — which bays are sheltered for nervous swimmers, which resorts need a taxi for every meal, and which harbours are worth basing yourself beside.
The Greek islands look alike from a distance and feel worlds apart on arrival. Crete is big enough to be three holidays in one; Kos is flat and wonderfully easy to get around; Rhodes pairs a medieval old town with long family beaches. My first job is simply to match the island to the holiday you already have in your head.
Because I grew up here and worked the resorts, I can tell you the things the photographs leave out — which bays are sheltered for nervous swimmers, which resorts need a taxi for every meal, and which harbours are worth basing yourself beside. I would much rather you arrive knowing exactly what to expect than be surprised, pleasantly or otherwise, on your first morning.
And if you have already settled on an island, I will help you find the right corner of it. Hersonissos and the quiet south of Crete are the same island on paper and completely different in feel. Tell me how you want your days to unfold, and I will point you to the part of Greece that delivers it.
Forty years in UK travel, and a lifetime in love with the Red Sea.
Paul Cowley began his career as a travel agent in Sheffield and has spent more than 40 years at the centre of the UK travel industry. He has held senior roles at Yugotours, Balkan Holidays and Sunquest Holidays — followed by the integration of Sunquest into First Choice — and went on to be Sales Director at Jewel in the Crown Holidays, General Manager of the Midconsort Elite Travel Group, Sales & Marketing Director at resorthoppa.com and Managing Director of The Travel Integrity Group.
Paul sits on the board of GoToBeach and contributes directly to the company's strategic direction. He is Finance Director and Vice-Chair of the Education and Training Committee at the Institute of Travel and Tourism (ITT), sits on ABTA's Membership Committee, and serves as a Campaign Ambassador for the Family Holiday Association.
For GoToBeach he leads on Egypt and the Red Sea — a coast he knows with particular depth as a passionate and experienced diver. He visits Hurghada, Sharm El Sheikh and Marsa Alam several times a year, and his assessment of a dive site, a house reef or a Red Sea hotel carries the authority of someone who has dived these waters for decades. He is just as honest about which resorts make an easy warm-winter base for families who don't dive at all.
The Red Sea rewards a little local knowledge more than almost any destination I know. Two hotels a mile apart can offer completely different snorkelling, and the resort with the smartest pool is not always the one with the best house reef. If the underwater half of the holiday matters to you, that is exactly where I can help.
I'll ask whether you're diving, snorkelling or simply after a warm winter beach, because the answer changes everything. Hurghada, Sharm El Sheikh and Marsa Alam each suit a different sort of trip, and within each I know which hotels put you closest to the water you want. Forty years in the trade and a great deal of time below the surface goes into that advice.
Just as importantly, I'll be honest about which dive centres are properly run and which resorts make an easy base for families who don't dive at all. A Red Sea holiday should work above and below the waterline, and I won't recommend one that only manages half of that.
My job is to make sure the way we talk about our holidays is as honest as the holidays themselves.
Sharon Rowarth has built her career at the intersection of travel sales, marketing and industry representation. As Sales & Marketing Director at The Travel Rep since 2010 — a role she has held for more than 16 years — she has worked with tour operators, hotels and travel businesses across the UK and Europe, providing consultancy, marketing support and trade representation.
Her qualifications span the full breadth of the travel trade: Dip TS, Cert TS, BA (Hons), Ticketing BA I, II & III, full GDS training across Galileo, Worldspan and Amadeus, airline experience and international marketing. Before The Travel Rep she was UK Sales Manager across several travel brands, including Allbury Travel, Argo, Libra, Jetlife, Enable and Goldenjoy Dive.
Sharon doesn't write destination guides — GoToBeach's country specialists do that far better. Her job is to look after the trust around them: making sure the way a hotel, a resort or a price is described is something the team would happily stand behind in person. A details person by nature, she is the reason guests can believe what GoToBeach says in the first place.
You'll probably never speak to me directly when you book — and that is rather the point. My role sits behind the specialists, making sure the way we describe a hotel, a resort or a price is something they would happily stand behind in person. If a page promises a short stroll to the beach, it is because someone on our team has actually made that walk.
In sixteen years in the travel trade I've seen how easily marketing can drift away from reality, and I have built my role around closing that gap. Our best price promise, our reasons to book with us and our hand-picked standards are not phrases I reach for lightly — they are commitments I am responsible for keeping true.
So while my colleagues will tell you which island or which resort, what I look after is simpler and just as important: that you can believe what we say in the first place. Get that right, and the holiday itself tends to look after the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Who writes the GoToBeach blog?
Our guides are written or reviewed by named specialists with first-hand destination knowledge, hotel visits and product experience, and checked by our product team before publishing. Each writer covers the destinations they know best — Turkey, Greece, Malta, Morocco and Egypt.
Does the team actually visit the hotels they recommend?
Yes. Our specialists inspect properties in person — checking the standard rooms rather than the show suite, eating in the restaurants on an ordinary night, and walking the beaches and reefs themselves — as part of selecting, contracting or reviewing the hotels in our collection.
Does GoToBeach take payment to feature hotels or write positive reviews?
No. There are no paid placements on our blog. We don't accept payment to feature any hotel, restaurant or attraction, and we give the honest picture, including the negatives.
Which destinations does GoToBeach specialise in?
We focus on five destinations we know well: Turkey, Greece, Malta, Morocco and Egypt. We're specialists in these, not a generalist booking site — which is why every writer here covers their own patch in depth.
Can I speak to a specialist before I book?
Yes. Email hi@gotobeach.co.uk or call +44 208 211 00 01, and we'll put you with the specialist who knows your destination best — before you commit to anything.
Is GoToBeach ATOL protected?
Yes. GoToBeach is a trade mark of Caria Holidays Ltd (ATOL 11211). Flight-inclusive packages you book with us are ATOL-protected against the failure of the package, and we'll confirm the protection that applies before you pay.