Turkish delight beyond Istanbul

THE surprising thing about the Museum Hotel is not what it is — a museum and a hotel — but where it is, in Cappadocia, in eastern Turkey.

For anyone who has travelled outside of Istanbul, there is the surprising slide in the quality of accommodation that occurs as soon as one leaves the city. Staffers rarely speak English, so when you ask for a salad they bring you a pillow. Water in the shower suddenly turns brown. While Turkey’s rapid economic growth (averaging 9% a year until recently) has received a great deal of attention, the fact that the wealth has led to the possibility of luxury travel throughout the country has been much discussed.

“The Museum Hotel is a property that has been expanding luxury in Turkey to areas beyond Istanbul,” Christos Stergiou tells me. Stergiou is the founder of True Greece (truegreece.com), one of Greece’s leading luxury-tour operators, a company that has received acclaim in Condé Nast Traveler, the Financial Times, Travel and Leisure, and many other outlets. He has recently expanded his brand to Turkey with True Turkey (trueturkey.com). “Until the last few years,” he says, “international-level luxury was largely restricted to Istanbul. Because our guests expect a certain level of comfort, it was hard for us to take them out of the city.”