Imagine a hotel with champagne that costs £36 a glass, offers remote controlled toilets (no kidding) when you go for your private business and is situated on one of the most remarkable coastlines of Europe – introducing the very expensive Mardan Palace on the Turkish coast of Antalya. Reminiscent of a European Dubai as the Times Online labelled the area, Antalya is fast becoming the latest tourist hub for sun starving tourists of northern regions.
The fact that the English pound still has some buying power in Turkey also helps to draw a healthy amount of tourists to the regions of Antalya.
Boasting some remarkable hotels already, Antalya is now going to be home to the most expensive hotel in Europe at a cool price of £1bn.
Hotel Lobby
Aquamarine Restaurant
Ballroom
Deluxe Hotel Suite
Events Area
Grand Hamam Suite
Gym
Seminar Hall
Natural Surroundings
Swimming Pool Area
Premium Hotel Suite
Sauna
Mardan Palace at Night
Looking at the pictures of the hotels website Mardan Palace we can’t help but be reminded of the grandeur we often come across in Las Vegas. Hand picked staff will cater to your every whim at all hours of the day and night and the international airport is a short 15 minute car ride.
The hotel is fitted out in so much gold leaf you could probably plaster all the walls of your home with it and more. There are some 10,000 square metres of gold leaf, aided and abetted by 500,000 crystals and 23,000 square metres of Italian marble.
Musicians will entertain the distinguished guests and no expense has been spared when the hotel was built. Just take the pool itself, a full five acres of sparkling blue waters with bridges inspired by Leonardo da Vinci. Guest can enjoy gondola rides to be ferried across the pool and a trip from one end to the other of the pool takes 30 minutes.
In the middle of the pool sits a sunken aquarium with some 2,400 fish.
The waterside Italian restaurant is stocked with Hermès crockery worth £1.35m.
Telman Ismailov, president of the Russian group AST, is the owner of the Mardan Palace. A first time hotelier he has spared no expense to build the best hotel that has ever been seen anywhere in Europe.
The hotel features some 560 rooms and the whole “show” is certainly not for the faint-hearted or low budget minded hotel guest.
There are certainly plenty of “tacky” aspects as the TO called them and also offensive ones like the man made beach that needed sand dredged from Egypt to provide guests with the silkiest beach ever. In sight of the global recession this certainly is a sore eye for many, especially those who can barely feed their children.
What do you think? If you had the money, would you stay at a hotel like the Mardan Palace or do you feel it is not necessary to use luxury in such measures?
