Turkey: Izmir
Sleeping: stayed at The Residence Comfort hotel.
Gaziler Caddesi. No:206 | Yenisehir Basmane, Izmir 35240, Turkey. Tel: 90 (232) 4259503
Category marked as 5 stars.
Price was £51 (59€) per night for 2 persons in a Junior Suite Double, breakfast included (and served in the room).
It was not in the guides, found it and booked it through expedia.co.uk. Decided to book it as it was strongly recommended in tripadvisor
It was a really nice surprise. Room was huge, modern decoration, clean, with a very good kitchen, spacious and modern bathroom, big plasma screen, complimentary drinks, free parking and very friendly and helpful staff (no doubts why is ranked so high in tripadvisor).
It gave me the feeling we had rented a luxury apartment rather than being at a hotel.
Breakfast served in the room. The day before you fill a menu checklist form with many choices, so you can have a breakfast a la carte. They bring it to the room at the time you specify. Brilliant.
The not so good things were:
– Location: while location is convenient (close to the train station and the city centre (10-15 minutes walk to the bazaar)) the street is a sort of red light district, with several places with big neon saying “nightclub”. We did not have a single problem but I understand some people might not like it (maybe not be ideal for women solo travellers).
– Bathrooms were connected through the air fan and when in the toilet you could hear everything happening in the other bathroom. Not sure if the other rooms had the same problem.
Eating: we tried random Kebap places or small restaurants around the Train Station area.
On average, on a kebap place, 2 kebaps and 2 beers were 10TL.
In Anafartalar Cadesi street, 3 dishes to share for 2 persons and 2 beers in a random small restaurant (mostly with local people) was 17TL.
All kebaps and dishes were really tasty.
Following the guides advice we went to restaurant Asansor and I must say it was one of Izmir’s highlights.
Asansor Restaurant
http://www.eatinizmir.com/asansor.html
Address: Dario Moreno Sk., Karatash, IZMIR. Telephone:0090 232 2622626
Food was excellent (I tried lamb chops), bill was 110TL for 3 people, drink and dessert included, what I think is a fair price for the location and the quality.
Restaurant was beautiful. Views were great, a good idea is having dinner at sunset so day and night views can be enjoyed. Most of the customers seemed to be couples on romantic dates. If you are sitting outside and feel cold the friendly staff will bring you a blanket. There was turkish live music.
Shopping: If you have a car, there are lots of Outlets in the outskirts of the city with all possible brands (not sure how to reach them by public transport). Prices were not too cheap but quality for price was good. Definitely cheaper than in places like the UK.
About Izmir:
We flew directly to Izmir and spent 3 days there (much longer than we expected), managing to see quite a lot of the recommended sightseeing.
Despite being a highlighted city in guides like Lonely Planet we found Izmir not too attractive or interesting. What I liked the most was to be able to see normal ad daily life in a big and developed Turkish city (we could compare it later with other more rural cities in the inlands).
The recommended sightseeing (Kordon, Konak Meydani, Agora/Marketplace, Passaport Pier) were just ok, nothing impressive. The best sightseeing was the Bazaar area (don’t miss the wedding dresses shops!!!).
I’d say that one full day visiting the Bazaar, walking along Konak Meydani and having dinner at sunset in Asansor Restaurant is enough.