Dalyan Hotels – Hotel Konak Melsa Did The Trick

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In our previous post for our little Dalyan mini series we told you how to get from Fethiye to Dalyan by bus. For this post, we’ll tell you about where we stayed: Hotel Konak Melsa.

Because all of this was just done on a whim. After doing a day trip to Dalyan from Fethiye on numerous occasions, we’d wanted to do an overnight stay in Dalyan for some time.

One day last week, we just did a quick search on availability in different Dalyan hotels for the following night, then we narrowed it down to the cheapest of those Dalyan hotels.

From our budget list, we plumped for Hotel Konak Melsa.

You know us; we only need a clean bed to put our heads down at night and a shower for the morning. Anything else after that is a bonus and Konak Melsa looked like it was going to more than fit the bill. It even bordered on the budget end of posh, for us.

Konaks are the traditional Ottoman dwellings that are set around an enclosed courtyard and we were pleasantly surprised to find the more modern Hotel Konak Melsa had stayed true to this style.

A shaded, leafy dining area, bougainvillea cascading floorwards with three levels of rooms set around three of the perimeter walls. Higher levels are reached by marble and wooden staircases, one of which you can you can see to the left. A good start to our choice of Dalyan hotels.

Hotel Konak Melsa is clean, basic accommodation that treats those who stay here to a feeling of being in a building from past Ottoman times.

The reception area is tiled in faux traditional blue and white ceramics famous of the 15th and 16th centuries, and the seating areas complement this. Balconies are framed in wood with lattice work separating adjoining balconies and the eaves of the roof are in decorated wood traditional to earlier times in southern Turkey, similar to the dwellings in Akyaka.

It’s all very pretty. Rooms are air-conditioned, small and basic – tiled floor, very comfortable bed, tv, fridge, wardrobe and shower room.

And, as for the pool and bar area; in relation to the size of Hotel Konak Melsa, the pool is really big, pristinely clean and there’s a smaller kids pool area, too. Wooden sun loungers with mattresses surround the edges…we sat at the bar and chatted with the barman.

One thing we noticed about Dalyan? You speak to Turkish to people and they reply in Turkish, most of the time. A bonus for us as we get very little opportunity to use the language of our adopted country. Think we did okay…

And breakfast the morning after? Very pleasant. A buffet-style affair with dried fruits, honey, jams, all the usual Turkish breakfast ingredients (cheeses, tomatoes, cucumbers, cold meats) and a couple of hot choices, too.

Fresh watermelon slices, fruit juices, tea and coffee rounded everything off. All of this was enjoyed in the courtyard area and at tables by an area of the pool in the shade at this time of day.

Verdict: As Dalyan hotels go, we wanted a comfortable budget overnight stay. We got that plus more.

Hotel Konak Melsa – Useful Information

• Konak Melsa is on Atatürk Caddesi, the main road that runs towards the river in the centre of Dalyan. It takes about 5 minutes to walk to the river and the main centre.
• Prices are for bed and breakfast.
• The hotel is advertised as having wifi. We could only get a signal in reception – but there are sofas etc in the reception area so if you do need to sit for a while, it should be comfortable enough.
• For lots more info about the town, read our article about things to do in Dalyan.
• There are around 200 other Dalyan hotels on Booking.com.

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