In a Nutshell: Very nice--a pleasant experience…read more
The property consists of the main hotel which has five rooms of different sizes (very pretty but most on the small size), a library, and a restaurant; there may be more public areas but those are the ones we used. It's very lovely, decorated in a relaxed, old-world style that I found completely charming. All guests--including those in the cottages and also those in the three private homes--are welcome to use the hotel facilities, which include an outdoor pool which is on the small side but is stunningly beautiful.
The cottage area has a central outdoor "breakfast area" and "shared kitchen" for the cottage guests' use; I don't know if those staying in the hotel and private houses can use this area or not.
When first researching the property, I was a little leery of the "shared kitchen," haunted by memories of "shared kitchens" in college days, but it turns out the kitchen is supervised. The woman in charge was wonderful--kind, very hard-working, very nice. She had a samnovar of tea running all day in true Turkish style, and also prepared the morning breakfast. When I expressed an interest in the garden, she gave us a long private tour. It had walnut trees, apple trees, a mammoth vegetable garden with tomatoes, zucchini , and darkly shining eggplants as well as an herb garden and perhaps the biggest single stand of lavender I've ever seen. It really was spectacular.
The breakfast itself was very nice, with fruit and vegetables picked fresh from the garden. When we decided to leave very early for Efes one morning and thus had to miss breakfast, the woman (I wish I could remember her name because she was so very nice) offered to pack us a lunch, which was delicious (grapes from the garden, sandwiches, etc.). Really, the service could not be better, and we appreciated it tremendously.
Another thing we appreciated: the owner of the hotel, whom I was told is a professional writer, put together a FANTASTIC guide to the area, complete with directions to/from Efes and detailed history of the site. Management asks that the guides are left in the rooms for the next tenants to enjoy, but they emailed the guide immediately upon request so we could have a take-home copy, which was very nice.
All this said, I do try to give a very well-rounded perspective in my reviews because that is what I want when I am researching a place to stay. And while we liked the property very much, there are a few things that might be a downside to prospective travelers.
* Smell in cottage: for us, this was the worst thing about the place--a strange, pervasive gas odor. We thought maybe it was due to the bottle of gasoline/ethonol/lighting fluid (?) that was in the bathroom for starting the fire for the water heater, but the smell persisted even after we put the bottle outside. At night in the cottage, I felt a little nauseated and we had to change the direction of the way we slept and open the widow wide to get fresh air. This is the only thing in this review that prevents the property from getting five stars in my opinion--it is also the only thing that is giving us pause for thought on returning, which we would like to do but are concerned about doing for any length of time bec. the smell did affect us.
* Proximity to others/noise: This didn't bother us, but it did bother another couple with whom we made friends. Because the breakfast area is so central, and because many of the cottages do not have a private outside area, people tend to congregate in the breakfast area. This area was directly above the private outdoor area of our cottage, and people did ask us if we were disturbed by conversation/early breakfast noise (we weren't--we could hear it but it didn't seem that bad, but I can see how one would be at the mercy of your fellow travelers).
* If you are elderly, have mobility issues, or are disabled, this probably isn't the place for you, certainly not the cottages, which require a 50-100 yard walk on uneven terrain. I believe all of the rooms in the hotel are on the second floor and I believe--but am not positive--that there is no elevator.
*You should also be aware, as the hotel does mention on its website, that the only road leading to the hotel is very, very, very, VERY steep, narrow, and windy. Again, this didn't bother us, but a woman we befriended had only made one trip off the property in a week because she found the trip so terrifying. We did also notice that another group asked for hotel personnel to drive their car down the hill rather than hazard the drive themselves. And we did encounter big trucks on our own way to and from the hotel, requiring that one s-q-e-e-z-e over to the very edge of the cliff, complete with pebbles falling over the edge like you see in cartoons. Thus if you have serious issues with heights, be forewarned.
(Note: We stayed at this hotel in July 2009. This review was originally published at another review site whose account I've since closed.)
