Turkish Palace
A five-acre swimming pool navigated by gondola is only one reason why the recently-opened Mardan Palace is attracting attention as “radiating new-money kitsch” and “resembling a Turkish Disneyland for adults.”
The $1.4 billion project has a separate channel around its perimeter for the motorized gondola.
Some newspapers are calling it the most expensive hotel in Turkey.
“Its columns and arches accented with gold leaf indoors and out, Mardan Palace is loosely designed to evoke the posh Dolmabahce Palace of old Istanbul updated for a modern traveler,” says one newspaper report.
It takes half an hour to cross the pool by gondola.
The spa has a room full of real snow.
The bathrooms have gold-plated mirrors but not on the wall…on the floors.
The hotel itself – where suites cost up to US$17,500 a night – is a temple to “bling,” fitted out with 2,500 tons of gold, 500,000 crystals and 23,000 meters of Italian marble, says the Daily Mail.
Champagne can cost US$ 45 a glass. Guests select linen and pillow firmness from a ‘pillow menu’ alongside each bed and the private beach has been created from 9,000 tons of the silkiest white sand imported from Egypt.
However, despite all, daily rates of under USD $400 were also being quoted.
By David Wilkening
David
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