We are just back from 2 fantastic nights at the Hotel Rilican in Selcuk. We found this hotel accidentally and what a great find! We arrived to Izmir from Assos by bus then took an air conditioned mini-van to Selcuk....the trip from Izmir to Selcuk takes about 1 hour and cost 6 Liras per person.

Hotel Rilican is located 10 minutes by foot above downtown Selcuk. We arrived at the Selcuk bus station and had one of the travel agents in the bus station call the hotel for us…..few minutes later, our host and owner of the hotel came to pick us up in his car (at no charge).

We were worried that the hotel may be a bit out of the main town but to our delight we were able to walk to the center of town in 10 minutes with no problems at all (walking up is also no problem but I would not recommend it with heavy luggage). The walk to town is also very interesting; on one side of the street you see normal buildings and on the other side a Roman aqueduct with live Storks on top.

The hotel itself is far more beautiful than many of the downtown Selcuk ugly block buildings. The rooftop restaurant has a fantastic view to the Citadel on the mountain opposite as well as the holy church of Saint John the Baptist. The sunset from the deck was breath taking!. The other options to stay in Selcuk is by the beach, the area is flat and the hotels there look like your run of the mill resorts without not much character.

The rooms at the Rilican hotel are simple and clean but have no air conditioning. There was always a good wind due to the location of this hotel so we did not miss air conditioning too much.

Best part was the food. The owner, Alydin an ex European Karate champion is a great cook! His family owns a farm in the flat land near Selcuk so all the ingredients used in his cooking were as fresh as you can get. When we arrived after the long bus trip we felt lazy so we asked the owner to cook for us……what a feast he turned out.

The next day after a fantastic breakfast, he drove us in his car to Ephesus. It is however cheaper to walk down or have him drive you only to the bus station and take a mini-van which will cost you about 3 Liras per person.

As it was our wedding anniversary, the owner and his wife not only made us another fabulous dinner feast but had our table decorated with about 3 dozen red roses ….and to top it all they gave us a beautiful ceramic serving plate as a gift.

The next morning, after a full breakfast, we were picked at 7:30AM by a free shuttle which took us to Kusadasi for our 8:30AM trip to Samos (cost of ferry is $30 per person- including $10 tax). Please note that there is no free hotel pickup for the afternoon ferry to Samos. Normal mini-vans to Kusadasi leave from the bus station and run often, the trip is 20min and cost is about 6 liras per person.

The room with full breakfast cost about 25Euro per night and a dinner feast was about 5-10Euro per person(depending on what you want to eat). Turkish tea and the sweetest cold cucumbers are provided all day free of charge on request. I would highly recommend staying in the Rilican hotel and experiencing the real Turkish hospitality. You can find their website with google