Welcome to Ankara. Meyra Palace Hotel

There were many reasons to visit Ankara. I was wondering  about everything: quality of life, style of buildings, traffic on the roads, behavior and culture people, who lived there.

Today I will describe Meyra Palace Hotel, which is located in Cankaya region, and has 5 stars in the pocket.

About location. This hotel is located in the modern part of Ankara, very close to hotel's area. Just opposite from Meyra Palace there was a Holiday Inn Hotel, where I planned to stay, but there were no places. In 5 minutes by the car I found a Taurus shopping mall, which includes about 140 stores, cinema, restaurants.

Hotel's visitors, who want to see buildings, where Turkish highest authorities work, will spend maximum 15 minutes on the road. I saw those places in the evening, while searching good restaurant for dinner. I spent in Ankara 4 night, but I couldn't find a free time to discover such important Turkish constructions...

In general, I can tell that Meyra Palace is located in quiet, calm region, far away from night clubs and night attractions.

About rooms. Meyra Palace Hotel was built in classic Turkish style. From outside - this is a tall building with white openwork facades. From inside - it looks like a real Palace, with big chandeliers, sparkling floors, high ceilings... When I entered this Hotel I was really impressed from the interior of the main hall. Many mirrors on the walls, luxury furniture, attractive stairs took my attention.

Registration didn't take much time: in 10 minutes I already moved in elevator to our floor.

My standard room was marvelous. It was divided on three sections:

·     Corridor. There were spacious cupboard, mini-bar, small table with kettle and some dishes. Every day for free I got 2 tea bags, 2 sticks of coffee, 2 bottles of water. Very soon I learnt first negative thing about the hotel. They should have given one tiny bottle (0,33, even not 0,5 liters!) per one person every day. For 5 days, which I spent in the hotel, room service brought water for me just 1 time! Receptionists didn't react on that complaint, because of their own politics in the hotel.

·    Bathroom. There was all complex: bathtub, shower, big mirror and small mirror. Among the bath accessories there were not any deficit: soap, shampoo, hair conditioner, gel for the shower, lotion for the body, sponge, shaving gel, one-time razor, tooth paste, tooth brush, cotton buds, shower cap... Although those bath accessories were provided for two persons, there was just one bathrobe, and one set of slippers. I reminded housekeeper two times to bring one more set of those things, but she all time forgot. I solved that moment by calling on the reception.

·                    Bedroom. When I just arrived to my room I asked porter about Russian or Ukrainian channels (there wasn't menu of TV-channels). He didn't understand what I meant, since he didn't know English. He called to the reception and offered me to ask receptionist all my questions. Unfortunately, receptionist also didn't know English well, but he told that they don't have any Russian and Ukrainian channels. He didn't tell me the truth: after long searching I found few needful channels. However, that was not a disaster. I didn't like another moment. Meyra Palace is a 5 stars hotel, which is located in the capital of Turkey, not so far from the city center. As I know there are many foreigners coming in Ankara for business. If any foreigner decides to stay in this place I cannot imagine how he/she will communicate with a staff: receptionists, porters, barmen, hostesses of restaurants, staff in SPA-salon - all of them didn't know English! There were room service menu in English and Turkish, menu of SPA in both language... I don't know, who wrote those menus, but that human definitely hid from me!

My room I remembered because of perfect air-conditioning system (I had smoking room, but there never wasn't any smell), good insulation. Every day my room was cleaned, bedclothes was changed, and I had a rest in fresh and cozy place.

About food. While reserving a room (80$ per 1 night) I ordered also breakfasts. It coasted plus 10$. Morning meal was held on the zero floor, in the restaurant. Food every day was the same, but from fresh products. I didn't like waiters behavior: every time when I called them, they never minded. While serving me tea or coffee their faces were, like I stole their husbands! However, I didn't care and just enjoyed a view from the window.

In the evening I visited Meyra restaurant, which was in the last floor.  There service was really good: cheerful and communicative hostess, polite barman, smiling waiters. Smokers should have gone to smoke on the spacious terrace, which offered beautiful panorama on the night city. In that restaurant  I left about 800$, but dont regret.

Additional options. Meyra Palace offers for visitors sauna, steam room, Turkish bath (hamam), fitness centre, swimming pool, few kinds of massage. People, who don't have swimming costumes can buy it in the hotel. One day I decided to visit a massage. I opened a big catalog, and choose stones massage. After calling to the SPA I learnt that they had equipment, but they didn't have a specialist, who could do such kind of massage. For two person in the same time they offered usual massage with aroma oil. That procedure took more than 1 hour, and I got cold! After massage was finished I wanted to jump in Jacuzzi, but it didn't work. So, after quick shower I ran to the sauna to get warm. The most interesting thing about SPA happened, when I was leaving the hotel. I was wonder how much SPA required for their service. They put some incomprehensible extra (about 80$) in the bill. After long conversation with manager of SPA I revealed, it was a mistake. I don't think it was like that: just workers wanted to make a tip for themselves. When I tried to take money back receptionist told me that in 3 weeks operation will be done. Instead of sincere excuses what I got?! Of course, I was not in that mood to wait 3 weeks, so I asked for the manager. Instead of manager Chief Accountant came, and she helped me to solve a problem.

View from the terrace of Meyra restaurant was excellent

Although Meyra Palace has too much positive sides, but attitude, unprofessionalism of its staff made my total impression bad. Since I prefer to stay in hotel for rest, not for stress, I will never come back there again.