BOOKING
I found booking the hotel online to be very easy. A confirmation email is sent to you in English with all of the relevant details.
Prices are quoted in euros but billed in Turkish Liras. I’m not sure if the Lira amount was the amount implied by the EUR exchange rate at the time of the reservation (in which case the rate wasn’t really guaranteed in euros) or at the time we were billed (in which case it was). You might want to clarify that with the hotel ahead of time. At any rate, as an American you are running exchange rate risk however you look at it against either the Lira or the euro (and that was a very bad thing leading up to my trip in late July/early August 2007).
Our room was quoted at 500 euros per night before tax (tax was about 20%) for a sea view room . We ended up on the first floor in the top building (room 801). Each building has two sea view rooms and two mountain view rooms. The mountain view rooms were considerably cheaper (I want to say 200+ euros but I can’t remember exactly). I believe rooms outside of the high summer season are also cheaper.
We booked the room early (January) which is recommended for the peak season (late July and all of August) as the hotel sold out several months ahead of time. I know this because a friend tried to book for the same time period in the spring and the hotel was completely sold out.
The Ev does not take American Express which was a negative for me as that is my primary credit card.
COMMUNICATING WITH THE HOTEL AHEAD OF TIME
We emailed the hotel ahead of time to ask them some questions. No one responded to my first email. I emailed again and received no response the second time. So I called the hotel and, after a very strained conversation with someone who spoken a little English, they assured me someone would respond to my email. Sure enough within an hour someone responded to my email and was apologetic for not having responded earlier which I appreciated.
We asked the hotel to make dinner reservations for us at Ship Ahoy for our first night there. After having to email them several times again to follow up they assured me my reservation was made. When we went to Ship Ahoy that first night they had no record of our reservation. That was annoying. Luckily they had room for us.
GETTING TO THE HOTEL
We rented a car from Bodrum airport. The drive to Turkbuku was very straightforward. The directions the hotel gave to me were very good up until we got close to the hotel (the people at Hertz also gave us a map and explained to us how to get to Turkbuku). The directions did not seem to synch with what we were seeing when we got to Turkbuku proper but we were able to find the hotel without too much trouble through intuition and signs.
CHECKING IN
Checking in was easy. Our room was ready as promised.
HOTEL LAYOUT
The Ev consists of eight “houses” in a vertical line up the side of a mountain. There is a road going up either side of the hotel. The road on the left (coming into the hotel) is on the bay view side and has a garage for each house. Each garage is large enough for two cars (a nice feature) and is wide enough to park cars along the side as well. There are steps leading up to the terrace of each house. The road on the right is the mountain view side and also has the entrances to the office, fitness center and restaurant. The office is in the first house. The fitness center was a joke. It was a tiny room with a maybe 2 weight machines one of which was broken and a few free weights. The restaurant and common pool are on a separate building off to the right of the main road and are at about the 6th house.
A warning: the road is so steep and made of a very lumpy rock that it is very difficult to walk up and down. We used our car just to go down to the restaurant - the equivalent of about 3 houses down!
The mountain is probably a mile from the nearest shore of Turkbuku Bay. There is nothing obstructing the views of the rest of the mountains or the bay except for the hotel itself. Each house has a clear view over the house in front of it. If you are on the sea view side the views are dramatic. If you are on the mountain view side the views are unremarkable but not ugly. There are many photos of the Ev available on the web most of which, not surprisingly, are of (or from) the sea view side.
There is nothing in the immediate vicinity of the Ev. We found the distance from the main club/restaurant/shopping area to be a big positive. The music at the clubs is deafening and goes until the early morning. Even way up in the hills we could still hear the music from Ship Ahoy from our terrace late at night.
THE HOUSES
Each house has 3 floors. The top two floors face a large yard/terrace (containing a swimming pool) and the bay. The bottom floor faces the mountain on the opposite side (but in the distance). Each of the top two floors is its own unit. The 1st unit is level with the swimming pool and has sofas and a dining table. The 2nd unit has a large balcony with sofas and a dining table. There are stairs leading from the yard level down to the mountain view units and other road. Two mountain view units share the bottom floor Each of those units has a small balcony/terrace.
The pools are beautiful. They are large, kept at a nice temperature, and are meticulously cleaned. Each pool has a row of comfortable sofas on two sides with umbrellas. They are lit at night and even change colors.
Staying in the 1st floor is great because it feels like the whole terrace area and pool is yours. The downside is that the pools are for use by everyone in that house so you do have people walking in front of your unit. If you want more privacy opt for the top floor. We had no problem with noise from any of our neighbors, however, and I am very sensitive to noise when I sleep. The top floor also has slightly better views although the views from the first floor are stunning. It is very windy out on the terraces particularly at the top unit.
As far as I could tell most of the other guests were Turks from Istanbul. The people above us were from Australia and England, however. Because the houses are unattached and not on the same sight line you have a great sense of privacy. You barely notice other people because there are so few guests relative to the size of the hotel and most people are out and about outside of the hotel. I can see how it might be annoying if you happened to have a family with a bunch of kids in your house, however. I think the hotel management does a good job of trying to segregate families with kids from those with out kids. I would make a point of telling them that you are a couple looking for privacy (if you are).
OUR ROOMS
The inside of the houses, like everything else at the Ev, are all white. The sea view units are expansive and have a living room and large kitchen in the middle with a bedroom, large closet and full bathroom on either side. The kitchen comes fully stocked with appliances, glasses, silverware and dishes and has a large dining table. This is ideal for families or people who don’t want to go out too much. The refrigerator was stocked with drinks which are replenished every day (you pay for them of course).
The bathrooms have a large counter which is nice. The shower/bathtubs have great hot water and pressure but are very messy as there is only a partial shower door (which seems to be very popular in Europe).
The closets have great hanging space but no shelves or drawers which is a BIG negative. Each closet has a safe.
The bedrooms were large. The beds were not particularly comfortable. There were no lights by the nightstand which was a drag. There were alarm clocks.
The AC worked great in our unit. The wireless internet connection was laughable. It did work better at the restaurant which is closer to the office where the internet base station is, presumably, located.
The surfaces were all clean and appeared relatively new.
One problem: We had a lot of trouble with the lock to our front door and had to have it repaired many times.
RESTAURANT
The restaurant was one of the biggest surprises of the trip. We weren’t expecting much when we walked in but were blown away by how beautiful it is. There is a long bar area followed by a dining area - both indoors. The bar/dining area opens up completely onto a large swimming pool which is for use by anyone at the hotel. The whole are is built into the side of the mountain giving it an elevated feel. The restaurant is beautifully decorated. A great place to relax when you don’t feel like going out but want a change of pace from your room.
The food at the restaurant is very good. It has an extensive food menu from mezes, salads, and hot appetizers to all manner of entrees. The menu is English as well as Turkish! It has a full bar. The service at the restaurant is very friendly and surprisingly quick. It was open from very early to late at night (I think 8 am to 12 midnight) when we were there.
The restaurant also provides room service to your apartment. We had dinner on our terrace the last night when we didn’t feel like going out which was really nice. The downside is that because most of the staff does not speak English, communicating what you want to eat on the phone can be difficult. Also, they did not have a menu in our room for some reason.
STAFF AND SERVICE
The staff at the hotel was uniformly friendly and courteous. The only negative is that most of the staff did not speak English including the front desk staff. The only person who spoke English well at the front desk was named Adam Pipir so we relied on him for everything.
The cleaning service was very good. The towels were changed every day. The room was cleaned well every day. The kitchen and dishes were cleaned every day. The refrigerator was restocked every day. The terrace and pool, as mentioned previously, were meticulously cared for.
TRANSPORTATION
If you plan on spending most of your time at the hotel and the Ev Beach club down on the bay you do not need a rental car. The hotel has a mini van which will take you anywhere in the local area and charge it to your room (another nice perk). You are on your own for coming back except from the beach club.
Cabs are plentiful BUT cab drivers do not speak English and will “take you for a ride” if you don’t know where you’re going.
I would recommend renting a car. I value the independence. We spent most of our time out at the beach clubs, bars and restaurants lining the bay. It’s easy to drive from the airport. Rental cars are very cheap (we paid 30 euros a day in peak season). There is a little town area close by you can drive to get supplies. Nothing is within walking distance of the hotel – even getting around the hotel is difficult as I described earlier.
MORE INFORMATION
For more information on our experience and in particular the beach clubs (including the Ev) see my post “Observations on Turkbuku” in the Bodrum Forum.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
