Another kind of tourism is possible

Dionysus, the son of Zeus, is the god of viticulture, fertility, wine and ecstasy in ancient Greek myth. Music, songs, dance and wine would always be in abundance in the places where he set foot.

For this reason, the rooms of the Dionysos Hotel, located in Alıç, in the Marmaris district of southern Turkey, were labelled with the names of various kinds of wine.

I went to the hotel this summer after a friend of mine recommended it. I had never heard anything about it before. Indeed, until two years ago it was closed to domestic tourism and only hosted foreigners. However, when the flow of foreign tourists to Turkey slowed down, Dionysos Hotel's proprietor Ahmet Şenol decided to open it up to domestic tourists.

The hotel is comprised of a number of small houses and is located on a steep hill just beyond the ancient city of Amos.

If you are wondering how a hotel can be in total harmony with nature, you should check out the Dionysos Hotel.

First of all, you drive to the hotel through winding roads that encircle a gigantic canyon. It is difficult to even make out the hotel from the other side of the canyon, as its small houses are disguised by the surrounding nature. It is also hard to tell the stone houses from the rocks.

After working in his family business of metal production in the 1980s, Şenol came to Marmaris in 1989 with the dream of tourism. Back then there was not even a road to the area of his hotel, and visitors had to come in boats.

Şenol first entered hotel management in İçmeler, then moved on to Turunç when the former got too crowded. After a while of thinking, he imagined what he could do in the terrain where Dionysos stands today and realized his dreams: A hotel where they could engage in small...