Have We Found Our Ideal Budget Antalya Hotel? Otel Twenty Could Be The One…

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Budget’s the name of the game when ever we go away anywhere – and recently, when we were in Antalya for Runatolia, we again went on an online hunt for budget accommodation for our 3-night stay.

We’ve learned the hard way with this, though, and past experience has taught us it’s a bit of a gamble booking budget accommodation when you’re running a half marathon.

Comfy bed and guaranteed hot water for Barry post-run (and me, too, of course if I’m not being lazy and taking part in the run), is a must. Sometimes, budget accommodation can mean not-very-comfortable bed and no hot water should the sun choose not to shine on the solar panels.

Otel Twenty, Kaleiçi, Antalya

Anyway, for this little stay, Barry did the hotel hunting on Booking.com and plumped for Otel Twenty (or Hotel Twenty, as it’s called on Booking.com). Private room, bed, shower, decent location, roof terrace, wi-fi internet access. All sounded good – those are the boxes we usually want to tick – so we’d see if the hotel lived up to its description when we got there.

Antalya’s old city, Kaleiçi, is just such a maze – and every time we go to the city, we never fail to get lost in there, looking for that great bar we found the night before or looking for a shop where we saw something we wanted to buy. It’s one of those places where people like me, who have absolutely no sense of direction, could do with unravelling a ball of wool as we journey around so that we can follow the wool back afterwards. We struggled to find Filika (one of our go to bars), for example, until Google maps came to the rescue!

This is no criticism of Kaleiçi. We love the narrow streets and hidden bars and restaurants, and we do amaze ourselves with our ability to get pathetically lost as we wander. And we like to book accommodation in Kaleiçi, too, so that we’re close to these bars. Otel Twenty was perfect because it’s in Kaleiçi…but it’s right at the top end near the Ottoman era Antalya clock tower. No climbing uphill to get to the rest of the city centre and no getting lost when you’re trying to find your temporary home again should you go off exploring. The clock tower is a perfect landmark.

And then there’s this. Here we are in our budget accommodation, looking through the window of our room. We’re right at the top end of Kaleiçi so we’re overlooking the rickety and restored clay-tiled rooftops (top photo), we’re overlooking the Mediterranean…and, on our last day there, the haze and cloud cleared to also reveal Antalya’s wonderfully shaped mountains over the opposite side of the bay.

We’ve been to this city so many times and, every time we’ve been, the weather has seen fit to hide the full glory of these mountains from us. Not this visit, though. Thank you weather gods – and how lucky are we to have a view like this from a window in a budget hotel!

We were so happy and chilled in our room. The bed was huge and comfortable, we had hot water, the wi-fi internet access (which can be flaky at best in lots of hotel rooms in Turkey) was super fast…and we had those views.

And we’ve included the stairway and the entrance hallway to Otel Twenty in this photo collage for a reason. That’s because facilities are all well and good in a hostel or hotel, but there also needs to be a friendly face – someone to say hello to, someone you can ask any questions to, someone to make you feel completely comfortable – when you stay somewhere. Otel Twenty is family run and there’s definitely no shortage of any of the above.

The building isn’t one of Kaleiçi’s historic konaks with wooden facades and stone walls. No, it’s a big white block (only a few decades old) with ‘Otel Twenty’ written on the side in bright red paint. It’s been tired in the past – but this family have filled it with life – and love. We’ve included the stairway and the entrance because it’s been a bland, lifeless corridor and stairway in the past, but a bit of refurbishment in the form of mosaic tiling, polished marble, photographic murals and paintings…well, you can just see that someone cares, here.

It feels like they’re working with what they’ve got to make a home; a home for any guest who cares to stay there.

Mum, dad – and son, Yünus – care about this place. Otel Twenty is currently the second floor of the building, with the roof terrace above that, and the reception desk on the first floor. The family are currently working on renovating the first floor to have rooms there, too. If you want breakfast (we didn’t but we did see people having it and it all looked perfectly good), you can ask for it for a small extra charge and it’s served on the roof terrace.

Views from the roof terrace? Well we went up there each morning just to try and capture the mountains. The photo above is zoomed in but it’s a view of Konyaaltı beach and the mountains (look at that snow on the higher mountains in the background) from the roof terrace. I took it in the morning as we were setting off for the start line for Barry’s half marathon – always a benefit to an early morning wake-up; the clouds engulfed the mountains a short time later. One other couple were eating breakfast…in their running gear. Guess some people like to run on food fuel and others don’t.

“I’ll grab an apple at the stops on the way round,” said Barry…

Otel Twenty, Antalya – Useful Info

• Otel Twenty is on Imaret Sokak in Kaleiçi, right at the top close to the clock tower.
• It’s close to the tram stop and bus stops for those of you using public transport.
• If you’re in a car, there is no designated parking but there is a school car park where you can park overnight (we did this for one of the nights) for free – or you can find a side street nearby (we did this for the rest of our stay).
• All rooms have a wi-fi connection (ours was very fast), air-conditioning, satellite TV and a hairdryer in the bathroom, and towels are provided, too.
• And last but not least…and most importantly, in fact…we felt so chilled here, not just because of our comfortable room, but also because of the family who own Otel Twenty; Yünus and his parents. So, many thanks to them. We’ll definitely stay here next time we’re in Antalya…and have breakfast, too.
• We booked Hotel Twenty via Booking.com at a very reasonable price.

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