Hotel Review: The Bodrum Edition

The Bodrum Edition is one of those properties I have had my eyes on for a while. The hotel opened in 2018 in the luxury beach town of Bodrum, Turkey, and is a seasonal property that only operates for 7 months of the year.

I’ve stayed at Edition hotels in London, New York, and Barcelona but from looking at pictures the Bodrum Edition looked different. The hotel is built directly into a mountain offering 108 rooms, 4 restaurants, and a beach club.

The Edition hotels are part of Marriott Bonvoy making them more accessible with points and miles. Note, there are restrictions such as not participating in the Suite Upgrade program similar to The Ritz Carlton brand but there are still some status benefits you can receive.

I knew I had to make it to this property and the perfect opportunity arose when I had my wedding in Istanbul in August. I wanted to do a short honeymoon after the trip and Bodrum was located only a quick 45 minute flight from Istanbul.

Booking Process

I immediately looked at rates and was shocked to find out the base level rooms start at €‎1,400 a night!

Naturally next up was to check the Marriott points rate that was a modest 70,000 / night for a total of 280,000 points for 5 nights (1 night free)!

A steal in comparison to the regularly nightly rate. Note, Marriott redemption rates are increasing as of this post so we expect the Bodrum Edition to go up in price.

Now that I was booked it was time to figure out flights, naturally I would be flying Turkish Airlines.

I have flown Turkish a lot recently and it is one of the airlines I recommend every award traveler should use. While it has its issues such as creating a password or buying more than one ticket, it still provides an offering where most airlines skimp on these days.

Bodrum is only a 55 minute flight from Istanbul and one of the most popular resort destinations in the world. At the time of booking the miles rate was 30,000 miles or $350 cash for a round trip business class ticket.

Given that we flew from New York to Istanbul for 90,000 miles in business class, it didn’t makes sense to use miles here when the cash rate was so low. We decided to spend $350 each on round trip business class with Turkish Airlines.

Hotel Grounds

The Bodrum Edition is located about a 45 minute drive from Milas–Bodrum Airport (BJV). The airport is very small and we had no problem finding a taxi that drove us to the hotel.

We arrived in the mid afternoon to a fairly quiet lobby and a friendly receptionist to check us in. We were also greeted with a glass of champagne and an incredible Turkish coffee flavored ice cream.

Upon exiting the main lobby you can immediately noticed the gorgeous view from the hotel being based on the side of a hill. This hotel is not for those that struggle with stairs as you will do a lot of walking to explore the property.

We noticed this lounge to be pretty quiet during our stay given how hot it was outside. But the closer you get to the edge you will have one of the best views of the property.

Your eyes are immediately drawn to the water and mountains in the distance and as you pan back you get an incredible view of everything this hotel has to offer.

The infinity pool is setup towards the lower deck and offers beach views as well as the various water activities peoples are taking part in. The smaller pooler right before you get to the main pool is actually the splash pool from the spa. An added benefit is you can enter this pool at any time even without a spa appointment.

As you get closer to the pool deck you start to appreciate all the greenery surrounding the areas providing bits of nature before revealing the elevated modern design of the hotel facilities.

The hotel was actually at full capacity when we visited but you can hardly notice it by walking around. The hotel has plenty of space for all guests whether you want a chair at the pool, beach, or a reservation at the restaurant last minute.

After a long week of wedding festivities this is the exact type of place I wanted to park up for the week and do absolutely nothing.

From the pool deck you have views of the beach, which is a secluded area surrounded by a few other high end hotels and restaurants.

We spent a lot of time on the beach and in the pool and this picture captures the most full it got during the mid week while we were tehre.

From the pool deck looking up you realize just how well designed and positioned the hotel is into the mountain. The rows of rooms include an array of villas and standard rooms located closer to the top. The benefit of the base rooms are an elevated view as I felt some of the villas aren’t the most private with walkways of people passing by from time to time.

Did I mention a lot of stairs and paths? This hotel is full of them and is the only way to navigate the mountain. The hotel has about 4 of these stairs sections that bring you all the way from the lobby to the beach. However, if walking is not for you there is another option.

The hotel offers a 24/7 golf cart service that can bring you anywhere in the hotel. We utilized these many times and always found someone happily willing to take us up, down, or to any of the restaurants.

As you pass through the hotel grounds you will notice the cart paths that connected each room section to the staircases.

The hotel also has no shortage of activities with a ping pong table, full gym, water activities, and even a painting area. Given the closest town center is about a 10 minute drive you can easily spend a number of days just in the hotel without leaving.

The gym is actually much larger than most hotels and is located just off the beach. I didn’t spend much time in here but liked that it was empty for most of the stay incase I wanted a quick workout.

There were a few days where we noticed it a bit cloudy and this was very welcome. Bodrum tends to get much hotter than Istanbul with temperatures reaching the high 90’s. However, the shade didn’t last long and it was right back out to sun in no time.

A better look at the villas where you can notice the various pathways that pass by it. We didn’t notice these to be too crowded but if you are expecting full privacy on our outdoor space you won’t have it entirely.

The entrances to the villas were incredibly well designed and felt like you were in a different world, which is exactly what you want in a hotel.

Hotel Food

Now came one of the highlights of the hotel, complimentary breakfast. The breakfast was served daily in the hotel restaurant that was located just one level above the beach and pool.

When you are in Turkey you have to experience a Turkish breakfast, which is a variety of cheese, vegetables, jams, breads, and more. The hotel offered breakfast until 12:00 PM but we had no problem ordering a full breakfast spread even a bit after which really showed their hospitality.

The Turkish Breakfast is not something you can skip but they also had a number of made to order dishes on the menu.

I ordered Eggs Royale that was incredibly fresh and tasty. The breakfast dishes are available as much as you want so we helped ourselves to multiple some days.

I couldn’t go to a hotel and not order room service, which most of the times is a club sandwich.

The club sandwich at The Edition was large and had a number of different ingredients. A grilled chicken club came with lettuce, tomato, cheese, coleslaw, turkey bacon, and fried egg. This was a beast of a sandwich and a bit too many ingredients for me but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Lastly, we tried one of the hotel restaurants and the night time vibe was even better than in the day.

I expect this area gets very lively on the weekends but on a weeknight it was quiet but still had a number of people enjoying dinner.

Summary & Takeaways

It wouldn’t be fair to call the Bodrum Edition a hotel since it is designed more like a resort. Easily one of the best places to stay in Bodrum, strategically located on the northern side of Bodrum giving easier access to the higher end restaurants around.

Since it was my honeymoon I tried not to capture too many photos but still had to share a bit about the experience. Given Marriott Bonvoy points rates are going up this is definitely a property you will want to check out soon and would even be worth the higher points rate I’m sure it will be asking.