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Mardan Palace Is Wacky, Glitzy and Has A Vacustyler

Where: Kundu Koyu Oteller Mevkii, Antalya, Turkey

Any hotel that uses Mariah Carey and Tom Jones for its opening entertainment is bound to offer a few surprises, and the Mardan Palace in Antalya, Turkey, does that and more – a whole lot more, if a recent Daily Mail review is anything to go on.

The review throws a bunch of crazy superlatives around right at the start, calling the Mardan Palace the brashest, wackiest and glitziest resort they know. And then the amazing facts begin: the bowls in the Italian restaurant cost $840 each, the cutlery bill for the hotel was $28 million (which seems a little hard to believe, but...) and the hotel's private beach includes $1.7 million worth of imported white sand, much of which will need replacing every year.

If money's no object, then you can have a heck of a lot of fun at the Mardan Palace. There are professional divers to help you explore the hotel's own reef, bathrooms with gold-plated sinks, a chocolate fountain at breakfast and a Vacustyler in the spa which is a kind of shrink-wrapping machine originally developed to help the circulation of astronauts.

Surprisingly, there are some relatively affordable room rates — we found a Premium room in October at €260 ($370) a night and even an Executive suite was only €480 ($680), although all the bookings from October 15 onward are blacked out — so get in quick for your glitz and brashness at this price.

Tags: Celebrity Scoop / Mariah Carey / Hotel Openings / Hotel Opening Rates / → All Tags

Mariah Carey Lends Her Diva-ness to Turkey's New Mardan Palace

Where: Kundu Kayu, Oteller Mevkii, Antalya, Turkey, Lara 07110

When you're opening up a ridiculously expensive, lavish, opulent hotel — whether the place is in Dubai or Dallas — you want to bring out the biggest of the big guns when you're selecting your celeb starpower for the opening. Someone who is well-known to have the most discerning tastes; someone whose reputation for accepting nothing less than the best and finest goes unquestioned. That is: you may want to bring in a Diva. Yes, with a capital D.

And who screams Diva more than anyone? Um, Mariah Carey. Duh.

Page Six tipped us off to the news that Miss Mariah spent her Memorial Day-ish weekend with her husbie Nick Cannon in Turkey, where she was paid a hot $1.5 million to sing at the opening of the Mardan Palace Hotel in Antalya last week (where the other half of the entertainment was covered by Tom Jones). The Mardan Palace is supposedly touted as Turkey's first luxe destination resort, boasting an amphitheater, a botanical garden, a fleet of luxury cars, insane water features, and a massive spa.

Rates at the Mardan Palace start at 260 Euros, and — bonus — some beds at the hotel have already been slept on by Sharon Stone, Richard Gere, and Heidi Klum, who were flown in for the massive opening gala as well.

Tags: Turkey Hotel Reviews / Odd Hotels / Killer View / Hotels With Revolving Restaurants / Sweet Suites / → All Tags

The Marmara Antalya's 'Revolving Loft' :: A Room With a View. And Another View. And Another View.

Where: Eski Lara Yolu, No. 136, Antalya, Turkey, 07100

While we are on the topic of hotel room views today....

In this fast-paced superlative-chasing world of ours--best, fastest, wildest--we were recently pleasantly surprised to find a new-to-us hotel that claims to be a first. The Marmara Antalya, on the Mediterranean in Anatalya, Turkey, bills itself as the world's very first revolving hotel.

Talk about a room with a view. Make that multiple views. The Marmara Anatalya's "Revolving Loft" is a 24-room wing that rotates between two and 22 times every 24 hours. For those who prefer stationery digs, the hotel's 208-room main building sits perfectly still 24-7.

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