Hotel Review: Izmir Marriott Hotel

Dan and I stayed at the Izmir, Turkey Marriott hotel for four nights in July 2023. We choose the Izmir Marriott over some other properties because the hotel looked nice online, was reasonably priced, and offered a rooftop pool and lounge, plus our trip was concentrated more on sightseeing than beach/pooling so the beaches surrounding Izmir did not appeal to us on this trip. This post reviews our stay in the Izmir Marriott, which we really enjoyed!

View from the Izmir Marriott’s Executive Lounge patio, which is just above the hotel’s main entrance.

THE IZMIR MARRIOTT & ITS LOCALE

Opened in 2021, the Izmir Marriott is a modern property located on the waterfront in central Izmir. Hotel guests can walk to numerous restaurants, shops and sites of interest, including the Kemeraltı Bazaar (that we toured) and Konak pier, from the hotel. The Marriott in Izmir is comprised of 8 floors, in addition to a usable rooftop and basement Turkish bath and spa.  During our stay, the clientele was mostly foreigners, including many Americans. The majority of the staff spoke good English, and we received a very warm welcome on arrival.

View of the surrounding area from the Marriott entrance.

The first floor and entrance of the Izmir Marriott is smartly decorated and holds the checkin area, as well as a coffee bar and the waterfront Lima restaurant, where a large breakfast is served daily, in addition to lunch and dinner. Guest rooms largely comprise the remaining seven floors. The Marriott’s fabulous spa is located in the basement level, and the main hotel pool and a late night bar and restaurant occupy the rooftop.

OUR ROOM AT THE IZMIR MARRIOTT

We booked a standard King room with a City View with cash at the Izmir Marriott, which only cost about $145 USD in July 2023. We also requested a  Suite Night Award (“SNA”) upgrade for all four nights that we had available due to our Marriott Platinum status, which we actually received (yay!).  In light of the SNA upgrade, we stayed in a Corner King City View suite, which offered both city and (partial) sea views.  As you can see in the below pictures, our the room is located on front left corner of the hotel and opened into a small hallway, with the bathroom on the left and a closet area on the right. At the end of the small hallway, the room expanded to include a very comfortable, and American style, King size bed, a  work desk, a small kitchenette area, including a fully stocked mini bar (for pay) and a coffee and tea maker, safe, hairdryer, a very chic chair overlooking the partial sea view, and a couch and small table on the opposite side of the room. The main selling point of this suite were the curved floor to ceiling windows on each corner, which was really very cool. We loved opening the curtains and watching the city go about its day, especially in the early morning and at sunset.

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Four July Days In Izmir, Turkey!

We began our Turkish summer vacation in Izmir, spending four nights and day tripping to the coast and Ephesus. We opted for Izmir over the more popular Bodrum area due to flight schedule and cost (Izmir was much less expensive) after going back and forth regarding whether to stay in Izmir city, Alacati (an hour away on the coast) or further south (around Bodrum). We ended up thrilled with our decision and really enjoyed Izmir. We have already decided that we need to come back and spend a few weeks in Izmir during early retirement!

The flowers in Izmir are beautiful.

THE TURKISH CITY OF IZMIR

Contrary to what we thought prior to this trip, Izmir is a large historic city (the third largest in Turkey!) in Western Turkey on the Aegean cost. Izmir is about an hour flight from Istanbul or a few hours’ drive, which drive seemed quite popular with locals. Izmir is also only one hour from the beach and one hour from historical Ephesus (both on modern highways).

Sunset in Izmir.

Aside from having a good location, Izmir is not super touristy and feels very much like a real Turkish city. Locals abound and you will be hard pressed to find too many foreign tourists out and about on a normal evening. The locals were also nice and seemed to really be enjoying their life on the sea. In fact, we met more than one person who left their busy life in Istanbul and moved to Izmir for a better quality of life. And I think that’s part of what we liked about Izmir, it was chill, there was no pressure to do anything, Izmir is safe and not expensive, and we felt like we were really in Turkey (not dropped into a foreign country with 100s of other Americans).

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