Whenever I see a magazine listing top hotels, I peruse the list to see if I have stayed at any of them. For Travel & Leisure’s 500 top hotels, the list was derived from the 2020 World’s Best Awards survey results. On this list, I found three hotels where I had stayed: one in Turkey and two in South Africa. In Istanbul,
Tag Archives: Turkey
In central Turkey’s Cappadocia, a landscape of fairy chimneys and cave dwellings
By Marilyn Jones In the predawn hours, an employee from Voyager Balloons meets me at my hotel and drives to a large facility where dozens of other would-be flyers wait. Each of us is assigned a number, and we are soon directed to corresponding vans. Our driver weaves along a bumpy dirt road lined with hot-air balloons in various stages of
A most elegant hotel — Ciragan Palace Kempinski
During my travels I stay in lovely hotels all over the world, but none lovelier than the opulent Ciragan Palace Kempinski in Istanbul. After a 12 hour Turkish Airlines direct flight from Houston I am taken to the hotel by a representative of KD Tourism & Travel. The hotel reception area is charming and beautiful, but, as I will soon
Turkey restaurant serves up more than food
I am picked up at the airport in Kayseri, Turkey by Travel Atelier guide Bunyamin Ozmen. It’s close to noon, so we head for the Old Greek House for lunch in the village of Mustafapasa. The restaurant is housed in a 19th century stone mansion. Its first owner was a Greek artist by the name of Yorha Vasil. The house