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L’ECHO DU BOSPHORE

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(%716 0353; www.incirliev.com; Mahmut Hoca Sokak 3; r incl afternoon tea from €130; a) This rebuilt 100-year-old Greek house is named after the fig tree in its garden – under which guests feast on the legendary breakfasts, featuring jams made by the charming Osman (with some help from the Aegean sun). The eight rooms, including one in the former stable and a white room with a French bed, artfully mix mod cons, rugs and antiques.

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Holiday hotspots: where to go in 2014 Start planning your 2014 travels with the help of our top 40 destination round-up. Some are hosting major events, others are under-the-radar places only just starting to attract tourists, but all of them are inspiring or exciting right now

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INCIRLIEV Alaçati, In the summer this beautiful stone house takes on a distictly Balearic feel, when the owner’s son Can a music producer and DJ tends to take ove proceedings. The eight comfortable rooms have exposed walls and muslin drapes, but there are no televisions (to maintained chilled-out vibe) Breakfasts are fabolous! but there is no evening restaurant.

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Our hosts Sabahat Hanım and Osman Bey welcomed us at Alaçatı İncirliev, where we spent a holiday won as a prize in a photo-rally competition. As we listened to the story of how the property was built, in the hotel’s large lounge, we felt that the owners had also mixed their love into the mortar of the construction. In this tastefully arranged romantic atmosphere you can sip your wine in the garden in spring and summer, and by the fireplace in winter. The place was created faithfully to the original, keeping its old Greek house and garden layout. Preserving the plane tree in the middle, this boutique hotel of two stone-and-wood buildings has 8 rooms. Open 12 months a year, it offers internet, air conditioning, central heating, a safe, a hairdryer, a minibar and a billiard table. The lounge blends antique furnishings, authentic texture and modern style very pleasantly. Railway sleepers were used in the beams above the doors and windows. On the walls, old blue-painted stones are picked out among the new ones. As the thin curtains sway harmoniously in the gentle breeze, our eyes catch the old keys, iron rings and hinges displayed in a wall niche. The windows have shutters both inside and out; the blue outer shutters, stone walls and white windows and doors achieve a pastel harmony. In the spacious rooms — some with fireplaces — there are comfortable divans, wicker chat corners, tulle over the double beds, elegant curtains, linen bed covers matching the decor, lights in the niches, antique wardrobes and snow-white bedding. In the large bathroom, whose window even opens onto the garden, everything from the basin to the towels is first class. In the morning I woke happily from the fluffy, satin-soft bed in this beautiful room, to a patch of sun on the opposite roof and birdsong.

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They welcomed us so warmly you’d think we had known each other for 40 years. The feeling they left with us: we were not holidaymakers in a house, but part of the home. The moment we stepped in, we were filled with the positive energy of Osman and Sabahat Poshor that spreads to every corner of the house. They named this place İncirliev after the majestic fig tree standing in the middle of its lush green garden — the house is built around it, as tall and as alive as it. Just as this old Greek house came to life in the Poshor family’s hands, we too found a whole new life at İncirliev: peaceful, calm, sincere and full of life. It has eight rooms, large and small, where comfort is constant. We stayed in Fig Room Three, a sunny ground-floor room. Every morning we woke with a big smile as daylight seeped in through the old wooden shutters. We didn’t have to get up at dawn — breakfast lasted until noon. They serve breakfast as an open buffet in their kitchen. Everything is fresh: jams, cheeses, tomatoes, cucumbers, breads… a mesmerising sight. The Aegean olives and olive oil are first-class. The jams are homemade with pure ingredients — or rather “Poshor”-made. We tried lemon, lemon-tangerine and raspberry jams on walnut-cinnamon, poppy-seed and plain breads. Each was delicious in its own way. During our three-day stay we enjoyed spinach and curd pastries and curd pancakes. At the end of breakfast, if you’re lucky, you may witness Osman Bey dancing the sirtaki with his Greek guests, outdoing the Greeks themselves.

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Sleep in peaceful surrounds in individually designed rooms, breakfast on scrumptious home-made jam and wonder through the cobbled streets of the town stumbling upon fantastic bijouxeateries. Breakfast at the Incirliev Hotel is a homely affair. Soak up the peaceful sounds of the nature in the courtyard while enjoying a home-made breakfast, complete with Papa Poshor’s speciality jams. With the busy town center packed with chi chi restaurants and bars, only a few streets away, guest rooms at the İncirliev are designed to invite pure relaxation.

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