LUX anything but lax

It’s maybe not the best time to open a luxury hotel in Turkey. But set all preconceptions aside, says Sarah Marshall, as the new LUX Bodrum is the perfect sunshine escape

Sitting cross-legged in front of a vertical loom, 60-year-old Ummahan plucks at woollen threads with the same care and concentration as a virtuoso harpist. She’s copying a pattern passed down through generations of her family and recorded to memory, but the selection of colours is usually determined by her mood.

Whether she chooses a calm rose, dyed by boiling pale onion skins, or an angry red generated by ladybird husks, the design palette will be an expression of how she’s feeling today.

Turkish people are generally positive but the political climate and wars of the last couple of years have been trying.

Stupefied by the raging 46C heat of Bodrum’s hottest day in 30 years, I’m unable to decipher the code buried in this gentle woman’s carpet – but I imagine it might send a message of concern and trepidation.

As a member of the Etrim Hali village co-operative, Ummahan, who’s wrapped in a flowing headscarf and billowing silk pantaloons, derives much of her income from tourism. And lately, foreign visitors have been staying away.

A series of terrorist attacks coupled with unrest caused by last year’s failed coup and President Erdogan’s increasingly strict governance have sent the tourist industry into a slump.

The ultra-exclusive Amanruya Hotel, which provides Engin, Ummahan’s son, with many customers, has also decided not to open this season.

It’s hardly an environment conducive to launching a new business, yet – somewhat surprisingly – several bigname hotel brands are opening along Turkey’s most sought-after Turquoise Coast. A safe distance from major cities, with direct flights operating from the UK, Bodrum’s twisting olive groves and translucent sea are – after all – hard to resist.

The latest to open is LUX Bodrum Resort and Residences, a 72-room cliffside property from the hip, tonguein-cheek resort group with outposts in the Indian Ocean. Championing a sense of low-key luxury, it’s the sort of place where women in designer kaftans waft through pearly-white corridors, and Champagne drinkers dance to a Cafe del Mar soundtrack in sand-encrusted flip flops.

A 35-minute drive from the foam parties of Bodrum and a 25-minute water taxi from A-list favourite Golturkbuku, the sheltered bay is far removed enough to justify idle days.

Gazing down from my glass-fronted balcony, I study a horseshoe of muslindressed cabanas and sunbeds a sandy stumble from the water.

“All coastline in Turkey is public,” explains Sedra Demirkol, director of sales and marketing. “But our little area is difficult to access, so we have it to ourselves.”

Like worshippers before a marine deity, rooms on the landscaped scrubland genuflect to the beach. Golf buggies make steep hills bearable, although when peak season hits, I imagine traffic could be fierce.

Visitors to any of the other LUX properties will recognise signature features; there’s a wish tree for tying handwritten hopes, a red phone box for making free international calls, and homemade ice cream served from a cart in cones and scoops.

But food is where LUX Bodrum makes its own mark. At Beach Rouge, the waterside bar and restaurant where a DJ slides his crossfader from day to night, I delve into a menu showcasing all that’s great from the region.

Pomegranate kernels gleam like rubies in a rainbow salad bowl, plump, grilled octopus tendrils spiral around a plate in Escher patterns, and a baked sea bass (farmed just outside the bay) snuggles in a pastry lattice so wonderfully salty I could almost think I’d swallowing the sea.

Head honchos at LUX were so impressed by the menu, there are plans

Our little area is difficult to access, so we have it to ourselves

to roll out Turkish restaurants in the company’s other resorts. The hotel’s Scrucap wines, produced from vineyards in the region, will also be making an appearance elsewhere.

A spa and gym offering bespoke programmes are intended to keep guests occupied during scorching hours of the day.

LUX can also arrange activities in the local area, such as my visit to Etrim. Many come to buy elaborate, handwoven carpets, but I’m amazed simply by the history of a pastime practised in this crossroads of cultures for hundreds

Pictures: PA. Clockwise from main picture: Engin showcases his carpets; Ummahan; the lobby of LUX Bodrum and the beauty of Bodrum.