If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR425.93), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Gargantuan garage-style doors open onto a hangar-like lobby at adults-only The Stay Warehouse, home to a lounge, library and rotating collections of art. Off this central space, 24 modern, muted suites are spread across two floors. Yet it’s the sprawling garden and vast, oblong pool that steal the show. Curl up with a book in the shade of an ancient olive tree, or take the shuttle to the hotel’s private beach deck. And when you can tear yourself away from the hypnotic hangout, vibrant Alaçatı is conveniently close by.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A welcome drink, plus early check-in and late check-out (subject to availability)
Noon. Earliest check-in, 3pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £404.95 (€460), including tax at 8 per cent.
More details
Rates include buffet breakfast.
Also
As well as an impressive library of books on art and architecture, the hotel hosts temporary exhibitions of art and sculpture in its lobby and grounds. A free bus shuttle and bicycles you can borrow make getting around simple. In summer, the hotel shuttle is a vintage American school bus.
At the hotel
Library, private beachfront deck, bicycles to borrow. In rooms: free WiFi, Bluetooth speaker, record player, minibar, free bottled water, tea- and coffee-making kit, Cowshed bath products, Marvis toothpaste and bamboo toothbrushes.
Our favourite rooms
All suites come with thoughtful extras such as a turntable, Bluetooth speaker and well-stocked minibar that mean you’re sure to feel looked after, but it’s the ground-floor options – the Secret Garden and Sunshine Suites – (and their private patios) that most appeal.
Poolside
Surrounded by black and red broad, cushioned sunloungers, the heated oblong pool is ideal for leisurely lengths.
Packing tips
Suitcase ratios should fall in favour of beachwear, togs and flip-flops. Go easy on the formalwear – this is not a destination that calls for it.
Also
The layout of this brewery conversion means its doorways and corridors are not wheelchair-friendly.
Children
This an adults-only hotel for ages 18 and up.
Sustainability efforts
Not a single tree was felled in building the property, which was made entirely from recycled wood, bricks and glass, all sourced locally. The hotel recycles where possible, and provides bamboo the Humble Co toothbrushes.
Under the stars, by candlelight, in lantern-lit gardens, no table is a poor choice.
Dress Code
As you like it: beach threads are entirely acceptable, though should you wish to dress up for dinner, go crazy.
Hotel restaurant
Rustic wooden tables with either bench or director’s-chair seating are set behind the pool to give superlative views of the grounds. Breakfast revolves around freshly baked breads, platters of fruit, olives and cheese, and fruit juices, granola pots, freshly brewed coffee and more. On the lunch and dinner menu are modern European and Turkish dishes, with meat grilled over the garden fire-pit, accompanied by a buffet of salads and sides that are hard to resist.
Hotel bar
Indoors, the former factory has a soaringly ceilinged bar space, often doubling as an art gallery. Here or around the pool, sip on home-made kombucha, browse the cocktail list or cool down with a cold beer.
Last orders
Breakfast is served 9am–noon; lunch from 1pm–4pm, and dinner between 7pm and 11pm.
Alaçatı village is on the Çeşme Peninsula’s Aegean coastline, near İzmir in western Turkey.
Planes
İzmir is the closest airport, an hour’s drive away. The hotel can arrange transfers from €60 each way.
Trains
İzmir is on the main line, from Ankara or Istanbul, reachable by a mix of high-speed and sleeper trains (tcddtasimaclik.gov.tr).
Automobiles
Away from its city centres, driving is relatively straightforward in Turkey, and there’s free parking on-site at the Stay Warehouse.
Other
Erturk runs high-speed ferry crossings between Çeşme and Chios in Greece that take 15 minutes.
Worth getting out of bed for
On the shores of the Aegean, edged by beautiful beaches and home to quaint, flower-pot-lined streets, Alaçatı has year-round appeal, but some of its bars and restaurants are seasonal, making this a destination you can enjoy in full swing from June until October. There’s no shortage of bars and restaurants bringing the old town to life by night. Art galleries, gift shops and delightful delis are worth browsing by day. Shoreside, unwind on the hotel’s private beachfront deck.
Back towards İzmir, a half-hour’s drive away, the Urla Wine Route brings together a number of vineyards helping to make a name for Turkish Wines. Bypass newcomers Limantepe and Urla Bağevi for the established vines of Urlice Vineyards, where the on-site café serves crunchy pizzas and delectable grilled meats alongside glasses of the local vintage. Ask the hotel for a recommendation for windsurfing or kiteboarding: most teaching outfits are based by the sheltered waters around the marina in Alaçatı. For gull’s-eye views of the beautiful coastline, take a day trip by boat, either from Alaçatı or Çeşme – the hotel can advise on current, reliable operators. For days at the beach, Ilıca Plajı is the main strip, but can get very busy, so you’re best off on your private pier at Plage Isolée. You’ll need to commit to a day trip, but 90 minutes in the car in exchange for witnessing one of the world’s seven ancient wonders at the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus seems a fair trade. Relics and reconstructions bring this millennia-old city to life.
Local restaurants
At loveliest of lunch spots Asma Yapraği, a modestly curtained doorway opens onto a sprawling rustic restaurant, all wooden tables and blue-painted, rattan chairs. Chef-owner Mıhçı Ayşe Nur and her son Kerem serve enamel platters of generously piled Aegean favourites. Enjoy a laid-back seafood supper with the waves lapping (literally) beneath your feet on the pier-like deck at Balikçi Niyazi at Plage Isolée. Sultry lighting on the tree-lined terrace at Kapha creates a dreamy setting for artily finessed plates of internationally influenced Aegean food, including dishes such as slow-roasted veal ribs and sautéed fillet of grouper.
Local bars
After 10.30pm, Kapha has live music and the extensive cocktail menu by master mixologist Kutay Özoktay comes into its own.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this coastal hotel in Turkey and unpacked their kilims and hand-painted ceramics, a full account of their beach break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Stay Warehouse in Alaçati…
A former brewery may not seem an obvious choice for conversion to a hotel, yet even before its Bond-worthy lobby and 24 industrial-chic rooms were transformed, there was already a lot going for this project. The grounds, for starters: the grassy garden, dotted with olive trees and now creating a first impression sure to impress. A heated, languidly long pool draws the eye, as do barbecue-ready outdoor fire-pits, and day-beds and reading nooks upholstered in black and red. Then there’s the come-hither call of the coast: from the Stay Warehouse, the peninsula’s pale-sand beaches are within easy reach – take the retro school-bus shuttle to the hotel’s private sunlounger-topped pier on Plage Isolée. And the well-judged distance to town is neither too peace-disturbingly near, nor far – although the evening barbecues, chilled soundtrack and drinks under the stars make staying put at the Stay Warehouse a nightly delight.
