Ian Schrager’s done it again.
Working with Marriott, he’s designed and developed one more drop-dead-gorgeous resort that gracefully assaults all seven senses at once.
This one’s near the remote Turkish city of Bodrum, overlooking the Aegean Sea. Clear and green-tinted at water’s edge, the water turns bright sapphire further out. It is, in fact, the source of our word for turquoise – Turq being the operative syllable here. The water establishes an atmosphere of peace.
This is another in the series of uber-luxurious resort hotels that Schrager calls EDITION. We reviewed one in New York a few years back, while others have opened in London, Istanbul and Miami Beach. On the Turkish Riviera, though, this one on the Aegean takes the cake.
It tumbles down a steep slope, with multiple levels offering eye-popping views of the desert foothills behind, beyond and around, the azure-blue sky wrapping visitors in a 360-degree envelope – with the Aegean beckoning at every glance. The hillsides are covered in square and rectangular residential boxes, white stuccoed and modern, pine trees bursting up between terraces.
There’s Mexican and Cuban music piped in at the top level, Jamaican ska a little farther down, and by the time a visitor reaches the infinity pool, the Kitchen and restaurant below, a gentle, Middle Eastern beat is thumping and pulsing away. Breezes abound; exotic scents waft lazily about.
When you finally make it down to the beach on the Aegean, you’re walking in marble dust and stepping over small chips of crushed limestone. A distant sailboat’s single mast rocks rhythmically, white flags snapping in the breeze.
The staff here is multilingual. They smile at every opportunity. And they possess an uncanny, intuitive desire to serve – and to please.
Bodrum would be a paradise without the EDITION, but this Aegean resort adapts to and complements its place. High season is in June and July, I’m told, and a time when the resort turns into its own private and rocking Riviera.
But I was an invited guest in September 2019, when the atmosphere was quiet and even a little wistful.
It’s as blissful a resort as any you’ll find on our troubled planet today. And once we’re out of this pandemic business, the Bodrum EDITION is going to be the place to be.
For more, go here.
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