Annually toggling between the sixth and seventh most visited country in the world, Turkey clearly sits at the top of many luxury travelers’ wish lists. Even with its steady stream of visitors though, there’s one area of the nation, the Cesme Peninsula, that Turkey’s elite have managed to keep a secret. That will all change once the just-announced Four Seasons Resort Cesme opens in the historic region in 2016.
The hotel brand can already boast two triumphs in the country — Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet opened in 1996 and Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at the Bosphorus came along in 2008 — but when it was time to reintroduce itself to Turkey, the answer was Cesme, along the coast of the Izmir province, an area with splendid architecture, world-class windsurfing and historical significance.
As you’d expect, the hotel will fully embrace the past in its future plans. An agora, the central meeting place of ancient Aegean city-states, will house restaurants, lounges and mingling areas just as it once did in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The 130 palatial suites and 16 hilltop villas will offer sensational views of the fabled Aegean Sea. The resort’s spa will incorporate hammam and thermal springs, two therapeutic methods with extensive histories in the region.
But while the thought of the town’s rich past melding with Four Seasons’ legacy of opulence and service sounds promising to the rest of the world, we do feel a little sorry for astute locals who’ve kept the Turkish treasure to themselves for so long.
