Travels in Turkey, Part 6 of 12
When we travel, it has become our standard practice to find “self-catering” apartments for the bulk of our stay, then taking day trips from the central locale. We really like the convenience, the space and the reduction in number of times we need to relocate. The kids seem to like staying in the same place for a few days, and I like the low(er) cost …
Upon arrival in Turkey after having spent the night on the plane, we spent our first night in a hotel in Istanbul and the second night on a train in a sleeping compartment. Were we ever so happy to arrive at our apartments at Bilkent University in Ankara! Rob, the girls and I had one apartment; my mom and dad had another across the hall from us. Our apartment had two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, a kitchen and even a washing machine!
We took a few moments to unpack and settle in, but then the next step, as usual, was to find a place to buy groceries in order to stock the fridge with snacks, dinner foods and, of course, coffee! Thankfully, we found a store not too far away, though down at the bottom of a steep, steep hill. We took a taxi back with the food from that first trip, but got our exercise lugging the food up after that.
While in Ankara, we took an overnight trip to Cappadocia and stayed in a pretty boring tour bus hotel instead of one of the very cool cave hotels. This was one of the disappointments of our trip — we had really wanted to stay in a cave house for a couple of days, but our plans fell through.
From Ankara, we flew west to Izmir and were met by a driver who took us to our next self-catering — a gorgeous villa in Selcuk, just a mile from Ephesus and a couple of miles from the Aegean.
We can’t recommend St. John’s House enough. Across the street from the Basilica of St. John (there was a broken ancient column just across the street we could use as a bench), the location was ideal. A block’s walk down to the main street and the pedestrian shopping area was so convenient. We had four bedrooms, a kitchen, two indoor living areas, two bathrooms, a pool, an outdoor living area and, yes, a washing machine! (Oh, and free wi-fi too!)
The manager, Alison, is the sister of the villa’s owner and is in the hospitality business. We were equipped with wonderful resources for us to use while exploring the area (Ephesus, Selcuk, Kusasai and beyond). For the 7 of us, we would have spent a whole lot more on hotel rooms and food. Instead, we could buy fresh, local ingredients, eat at home in the lovely garden by the private pool, and have plenty of places for us all to sleep.
The girls love having a “home” with living areas and outdoor spaces. I do too. Self-catering is the way to go, if at all possible. We’ve never had a bad experience with self-catering, but, as always, it is best to be cautious. My mom found both of these apartments for us — the first one through her conference organizers and the second through the web.
