| What Is This Website All About Big times... Mass tourism has come to Turkey in a big way. Too long the domain of specialists and enthusiasts, Turkey now hosts an annual influx of nearly ten million vacationers from all around the world. Istanbul alone boasts more than 80 large hotels in the luxurious five or four-star class — some 60 of them built in the last 15 years. The holiday coast of Southwestern Turkey is overpacked with brand-new resorts and hotel complexes that leave few patches of undeveloped shore between Ýzmir in the west and Alanya in the south. The tourist industry has meanwhile grown in size and professional élan. The big resorts have become adept at feeding and entertaining several thousand tourists at once, while tour operators run mammoth package deals involving the simultaneous movement of ten thousands of persons. The Antalya airport handles with aplomb 300 charter landings a day. A large carpet showroom can deliver a sales lecture in six languages each day to over 100 tour buses. In this rush for numbers, the individual is very often a casualty. The independent traveller looks like an endangered species in Turkey — an old relic shunted aside on the highways of mass travel. ... small wonders The Little Hotel Book (originally called The Best Small Hotels of Turkey) was first published in 1998 as a handbook for the traveller seeking an alternative to mass tourism. The original introduction of the book stated our outlook in the following words: "We believe that the romance and excitement of travel is reserved for those hardy souls who set out to discover a new land on their own, guidebook in hand, without a fixed itinerary or immutable plan. We also think that the best place to get to know a country is the small, family owned hotel — the sort of place where the proprietor joins a guest for a drink after dinner, the cook actually cares whether you liked your food, and your next-door guest is willing to share a tip about the coming country fair. The fabled Turkish hospitality, too, shrunk into a synthetic smile at the great tourist-processing centres, remains a fascinating fact of life in the pansiyons and one-man (or one-woman) hotels of this country." The guide was an instant sensation. It jumped to the top of the bestseller charts within weeks of publication, and it has remained there for most of the time through three consecutive annual editions. There was a nationwide shift towards a more personal, small-scale and environmentally conscious style of tourism. A new breed of absolutely charming small hotels came into existence, in part encouraged by the spectacular success of the Little Hotel Book. We count ourselves lucky to have contributed, if only slightly, to this change of tide. |
Small hotels of the cyberspace Our website was launched in 2001. Like its hard-copy twin, it means to be an independent guide to small, charming, individual and truly extraordinary hotels around Turkey.  It is independent in the sense that the authors alone are responsible for the choice of hotels and the commentary, guided largely by their nose — and a few guidelines as sketched below. Small means 25 rooms or less, although in a few special cases we stretch that limit upward into the forties and fifties. We use the word hotel for just about every type of short-term accommodation from luxury boutiques to modest family-run "pensions". We include self-catering "aparts" as well as a wilderness camp and some providers of serviced short-term house rentals. What we seek in all of them is individual character and charm. We prefer privately owned hotels to those run by impersonal managing companies, and hotels with a largely independent clientele to those catering wholly to the package trade. We pay attention to a genuine — as opposed to simulated — personal touch which so often derives from the strong presence and individuality of the host. Our commentary, too, unlike most other guides of this sort, stresses the personality and background of the host where we feel this gives a key to the hotel's character and spirit. Having — regrettably — outgrown our own backpacking days, we look for a certain standard of comfort and quality. Here and there we could not resist picking simpler establishments which we felt were extraordinary in some way. We have never lost sight, however, of the luxuries that really count: a clean bed, a hot bath, and a glass of well-iced whiskey. Help us update We went to a lot of effort to ensure that our facts and figures are as accurate and up-to-date as possible. Things, however, change fast in Turkey. And there are plenty of small hotels around the country which we have not had a chance to check. So please write to us. Share your tips with us. Help us correct our errors of fact and judgement. Or tell us just how right we were. Suggest a hotel We especially welcome your nominations for small hotels which you feel we must have in our database. Remind us about hotels which ought to have been here, or warn us about those which could better be left out. You will be rewarded for your trouble. Authors of best letters will receive a free copy of the next edition of The Little Hotel Book, provided they are kind enough to include a mailing address with their communications. |
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Mutlu & Mujde TONBEKICI | ||||
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