We first heard about the Casa Dell'Arte in Bodrum, Turkey from the Travel + Leisure list of this year's top 30 new hotels, and now we can see for certain it made this list for a good reason.

Casa Dell'Arte--"Hotel of Arts and Leisure", as the website says--is a genuine art hotel, run by a family who also have an art gallery in Istanbul.]]> amandak 2008-08-27T15:24:09-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/5/9/61428/00134 <![CDATA[<p><i>This week our roving correspondent <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/user/femmefatale"><b>Monica Guy</b></a> is writing about an oft-overlooked aspect of hotels and travel: <b>disabled access.</b> Monica knows a lot about this subject as she works and travels frequently with <a href="http://www.hawking.org.uk/text/about/about.html">Stephen Hawking</a>. However, feel free to chime in with your thoughts and experiences too. Got a question? <a href="mailto:tips@hotelchatter.com"><b>Let us know</b></a> and we'll get it answered for you.</i><p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/admin/accessroom.jpg" class="imgborder"><p><i>A room at the Access Centre Hotel Marmaris in Turkey.</i>So, you're disabled and planning a holiday. Given <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2008/4/29/102959/098/hotels/Do_you_have_Wheelchair_Access_">all the nightmare involved in finding a reliable, accessible hotel</a>, aren't you tempted to go for specially designed and designated accessible hotel?<p> <p>Accessible hotels are gradually popping up all over the hotel scene, but particularly near seaside resorts femmefatale 2008-05-15T16:40:11-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2007/4/13/6059/02349 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/admin/izmir.png" class="imgborder"/><p>Quick, name the third largest city in Turkey. Too late--it's <b>Izmir.</b> If you didn't know, it's probably because there's nowhere near enough hotel accommodation in Izmir, but they're now rapidly trying to catch up. Visitor numbers are rising rapidly, with tourists coming to visit nearby ancient sites, and business travelers arriving for various trade fairs and conferences</p><p>As a candidate city for World Expo 2015, Izmir are pumping up the number of hotel rooms available across this Aegean coast city. In just the last month, five brand new high-standard hotels have opened up. These include the Ontur &#304;zmir, a boutique-style hotel created by converting an old office block, and the 60-room Kordon Hotel, built to target higher-budget travelers with amandak 2007-04-13T09:29:23-05:00 http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2007/3/2/24658/04977 <![CDATA[<p><img src="http://www.hotelchatter.com/files/admin/lavantabay_turkey.jpg" class="imgborder"/><p>If you want a truly peaceful holiday with all the nice parts of a beach resort holiday and none of the crowds, noise and ugly breakfast buffet scenes, it might be time to try something like the <a href="http://www.hotelchatter.com/hotel-reviews/Lavanta+Hotel/local/322"><b>Lavanta</b></a> boutique beach hotel in southern Turkey. To start with, it has a "no kids" policy, so you can be sure that all your fellow guests will be over 14 years of age. The Lavanta is built quite steeply into the side of the hill overlooking Turunc Bay, and you can get views out to sea as well as to the forest and mountains. Every suite has a private balcony and French windows to maximize the views.</p><p>If you're not sitting amandak 2007-03-02T11:24:10-05:00 Search HotelChatter string http://www.hotelchatter.com/search/