[Update: Despite what the online reservations system initially told us, this hotel is offically opening on October 16th. Online reservations are being taken for stays later than October 18th.]
There are at least two reasons to stay at the new Park Hyatt Istanbul Maçka Palas: Istanbul is the only city in the world located on two continents, and Emporio Armani and Gucci boutiques are in the same building.
Of course, there is also the limestone bathrooms, with 25 of the 90 deluxe-sized rooms featuring authentic Turkish baths with heated stone seats. And it's located smack in the middle of the ultra-trendy shopping district, Nişantaşi, home of some of the best shopping in the world.
Each guestroom is equipped with the latest technology including high-speed broadband Internet access, flat screen television, a DVD/CD player and iPod docking station. And a boutique hotel wouldn't be complete without an exclusive spa and special spa suites.
This renovated 1922 building has a unique blend of the old art deco and new modern architecture found in other Park Hyatts. Glass tile is found in much of the hotel with a "Bordeaux Wall" in The Prime, the first Istanbul steakhouse, made entirely out of wine bottle glass.
The hotel officially just opened September 1 but already appears to be sold out for much of September. Rates start at 230 euros ($336 US).
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.
This week our roving correspondent Monica Guy is writing about an oft-overlooked aspect of hotels and travel: disabled access. Monica knows a lot about this subject as she works and travels frequently with Stephen Hawking. However, feel free to chime in with your thoughts and experiences too. Got a question? Let us know and we'll get it answered for you.
Accessible hotels are gradually popping up all over the hotel scene, but particularly near seaside resorts in the Mediterranean. They've been designed by architects to be suitable for guests with all sorts of different disabilities, from physical disabilities and wheelchair users to those with visual and hearing impairments.
Rooms often have hoists and lowering beds, wide doors, wheelchair-charging facilities, hand-bars everywhere, emergency cords, low-level switches, flashing or vibrating pillow alarms, accessible swimming pools, and all the rest, along with more disabled toilets than you can shake a walking stick at.
Quick, name the third largest city in Turkey. Too late--it's Izmir. 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
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 İzmir, a boutique-style hotel created by converting an old office block, and the 60-room Kordon Hotel, built to target higher-budget travelers with every room boasting a sea view.
And in the coming months, both the Mövenpick and Swiss Hotel brands are going to add to the stream of new Izmir hotels. Soon there'll be no excuse not to know about it. Now, we just sit back and await the ubiquitous press release from W and aloft hotels announcing their first hotels in Turkey to open by 2008.
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 Lavanta 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.
If you're not sitting around the pool (which becomes a pleasure again when a dozen children aren't jumping in and splashing your book each time you roll over), you can walk or take the shuttle bus to the beach. Breakfast is included but you can only get dinner three times a week--although with special poolside, Turkish-themed meals, it sounds pretty tasty--outside of Monday, Wednesday and Friday you'll have to fend for yourself in the village. Or just stay the whole day by the pool not using any energy, and you won't even need to eat until breakfast.
The UK Times this week decided to dish us up a serve of underground accommodation options for those of us feeling we're spending too much time up on earth. So if you're feeling like you need a change of scenery, there seem to be two highlights from the Times' diggings.
First off, the Cappadocia Caves in Turkey, in an area where entire villages are dug underground:
Some of these ancient cave homes have been turned into elegant hotels and self-catering apartments, decked out with antiques and featuring whirlpool baths and Turkish steam rooms dug deep in the bowels of the earth.
That certainly sounds cosy. An alternative is the underground village of Matmata in Tunisia, inspiration for and location of some of the filming of the Star Wars movies. Here some of the traditional Berber houses have been converted into hotels, with tunnels and interconnecting craters and pits.
The Times goes on to give tips about other underground accommodation options in Spain, France and Greece, so almost whichever warm part of Europe you're headed for, you'll be able to get the troglodyte experience.
