The Hotel

Charisma De Luxe, Kusadasi (http://www.charismahotel.com/)

This hotel was the base for our 7 night tour. It is situated on the outskirts of Kusadasi - there are a few restaurants and shops in the immediate area but it is not too far to walk into town if you want more choice. Dolmus buses pass by the hotel at regular intervals if you prefer not to walk or the hotel can call you a taxi. We didn't really like Kusadasi town itself, it's a concrete jungle packed with carpet shops, Turkish delight sellers and Irish bars. The new looking Scala Nuova shopping centre at the port is worth going into to use the western style toilets, if nothing else.

The hotel has only been open for a few years and is still very modern and new looking. As we were there at a relatively quiet time of year, the staff were undertaking various bits of maintenance work around the hotel, but we didn't find this too disruptive. The reception area is very light and airy and the lobby bar has lovely views over the sea. The restaurant also has lovely sea views, but it is really a bit too small and canteen-like for a 5 star hotel. The furniture is already pretty worn and there is not much room between tables. Both dinner and breakfast are served as buffets with drinks ordered from the waiters in the evening. We felt that the choice of cold food was very good (e.g. starters and desserts), but the hot food choice was rather restricted and repetitive, given the 5 star rating and 160 euro per night room rate. This may have been due to the time of year though, and it's worth saying that we had no complaints about the quality. We did not eat in the hotel at lunchtime, preferring instead to go to the Antepli restaurant over the road which does great kebabs and baklava.

We were given a room at the far end of the annex block and were really pleased with it. Along with a balcony overlooking the sea, we also had large floor-ceiling windows in one corner which gave a lovely view of the sun setting each evening. We were slightly bemused by the large window between the bathroom and bedroom and were thankful for the integral blinds! We had some problems with the speaker in the bathroom making beeping noises, but this was fixed very promptly when we reported it to Reception. The reception staff were also very helpful when we had problems printing out our boarding passes for our return flight. There are still signs up stating that you should not bring food or drink into the hotel, but we had no problems smuggling in items in our rucksacks etc.

One thing which surprised us was that the hotel pool faces west, which meant that the area around the pool was in shade until mid morning (11am in April) and only in full sun after 3pm. The hotel has tried to counteract this with areas of decking nearer to the sea, but it is certainly possible that sun-worshippers might find this aspect of the hotel disappointing. It also means that the pool is very cold in the morning and the indoor pool is tiny so not really a substitute. We didn't make use of the Wellness Centre (Sauna, Massage, Turkish Bath etc) but others in our group said it was good. There is also a small mini golf area which we enjoyed using. Overall, this is a really nice hotel and definitely a good base for visiting the surrounding area.

The Tour

The tour lasted 7 nights and included 3 full day trips with lunch to attractions mainly in the local area. No optional excursions were offered, although we did have the opportunity to tweak the content and timing of the included trips. A summary of the trips is as follows:

Day 3 - Pamukkale & Hierapolis - this was our earliest start (7:30am) plus our longest journey (about 2 ½ hrs with one stop each way). As we were a small group (7 people) in good health, our guide suggested we start at the North Gate, which would mean a longer route but more things to see. This took us to the terraces via the main area of Hierapolis and then allowed us some free time to either visit the amphitheatre or use the thermal baths. It was a great route, allowing us to see a large area of the Necropolis along with views of the surrounding countryside. We only took a short walk on the terraces, partly due to time and partly due to having soft Western feet that didn't like the jagged rock surfaces. None of our group bothered to actually have a swim in the Thermal baths as it cost 23YTL per person (approx £10) and we didn't really have much time there. The museum is closed over lunchtime so the majority of the group spent our ‘free time' visiting the amphitheatre instead. We were all really impressed by both Pamukkale and Hierapolis so were a bit sorry to leave but a lovely lunch in a restaurant at the bottom of the terraces made up for this. Afterwards we were taken to an onyx shop which had some lovely but expensive items before heading back to Kusadasi for dinner.

Day 5 - Ephesus & Virgin Mary's house - a 9:00am start today with little driving. We went to the Virgin Mary's House first, which isn't really very exciting unless you have an interest in religion - but it did have some good toilets and souvenir stands. We then drove straight to the upper entrance of Ephesus where the guide told us that the tour was likely to take 2 ½ hours and therefore we would be well advised to make use of the toilets there before entering the site. What he didn't say was that there are actually toilets within the site, by the lower entrance near the large amphitheatre. As the guidebooks will tell you, the site has little shade and nowhere to buy water within the site, so make sure you bring some with you. Even though we were there at a reasonably quiet time of year, the site was packed with other tour groups and we found it quite difficult to view the ruins up close and to hear what our guide was saying at times. It is an extensive site which they have worked hard to restore but our enjoyment was certainly tempered by the popularity of the site. If you are able to make your own way there, I'm sure you would have a much better experience if you went at the start or the end of the day. After a disappointing lunch stop, we made a short visit to the Ephesus museum in Selcuk followed by a stop at the ruins of the Artemission. We were offered the chance to visit a carpet shop, but luckily non-one was interested so we went back to the hotel to relax for the rest of the afternoon.

Day 7 - Priene, Miletus & Didyma - an 8:30am start with a reasonable amount of driving. Our itinerary had originally included a trip to a railway museum, but our guide persuaded us that Priene would be a better option as we have much better railway museums in the UK. This turned out to be a great decision as we were all really impressed by the ruins at Priene. They are not as well maintained/developed as Ephesus, but much quieter and therefore more atmospheric. We then went to Miletus, which was just as good, if not better. We particularly liked looking at the areas that were under water and seeing all the local flora and fauna. We had a very pleasant lunch in a restaurant overlooking the Didyma temple ruins before have a short look around them. On reflection, although Ephesus was very impressive, we definitely preferred the ruins we saw on this day.

Our guide, Jan, spoke very good English, but he did have a tendency to go into the history of the sites in too much detail. I think everyone fell asleep while he was talking at some point! The minibuses we had were adequate with good air conditioning and as a small group we had plenty of room to spread out. Overall, we really enjoyed the tour and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who wants to visit this area - particularly if you have an interest in architecture and history. You can see the full itinerary at http://www.vjv.com/destinations/europe/turkey/turkish-meander/index.html