Turkish Riviera on Ulitzer

Today I arrived in Bodrum for a long weekend. Divan Palmira kindly declined my reservation request after my 2007 review of the hotel. They were nice enough to recommend another boutique hotel in the area, so I checked in to Maca Kizi Hotel. My first half day here so far, the view from my room is fantastic. It is too early to write a formal review but if they don't royally screw it up between now and Sunday morning, this hotel has a potential to me my Bodrum summer stop going forward.

Today it rained here. I see it rain in Bodrum for the first time since more than a decade of my summer vacations here.

I did walk to Divan Palmira to visit my paparazzi photographer friend Gokhan, he was not there. I had lunch at Divan Palmira, the young waiter said they opened the season on May 19 and he thinks today they have five or six rooms full out of 65. I asked the same question to our waiter at Maca Kizi Hotel. He said they have 14 rooms occupied today. They also opened the season on May 19 (a federal holiday in Turkey) and last year they had only three rooms occupied the same day. He knocked on wood.