Introduction - Surf & Turf From the Aegean Coast to the Saharan Desert
June is a big month for me, as my birthday and wedding anniversary are both in this month. There’s nothing I want more for these special occasions than flying first (business) class somewhere far, far away and stay at a luxury resort. In addition to actual, tangible gifts like a Dior book tote or a Loro cashmere coat, that is😉.
For my birthday this year, I wanted to go to Bodrum. I’ve always wanted to go to Bodrum but haven’t been able to due to Covid. Like most rivieras in Europe, Bodrum is seasonal, meaning you can’t go for Christmas or New Years when most people have time off.
From the beginning of the year, my job has turned into something more than I signed up for. In the interest of preserving my mental health, I sent out my PTO email before the PTO request was approved. To my surprise, after I submitted time-off, my firm decided to give everybody the week off for the 4th of July, probably because the attrition was through the roof. Oops. This put me in an awkward pickle. I had originally planned for this trip to be 9 days, but now all of a sudden, I had another full week. There was no way on God’s green Earth would I come back to New York and just sit in my apartment all week. So where should I go next? The world was my oyster.
I wasn’t keen to go anywhere in Western Europe, as you all have heard by now, even your neighbor’s veterinarian’s granddaughter’s ex-boyfriend whom she only dated for 5 five weeks is drinking an aperol spritz at the Mandarin Lago di Como this exact moment. I narrowed down on the idea of Africa, as I’ve yet to set foot on this continent, and Turkey is not that far from Northern Africa. I didn’t want to go to Zimbabwe or South Africa as it would be winter over there, and they deserve a trip of their own. The first country that came to mind was Egypt. Cairo is only 2 hours away from Istanbul. I developed this new obsession with a Nile river cruise, after watching Death on the Nile. Speaking of, I’m aware of all that weird stuff about Armie Hammer, but good lord isn’t he handsome🤤🤪.
I wanted a cruise that’s every bit as glamorous as in the movie, which means I could not find one on such short notice. Apparently cruise people like to plan their cruises years in advance? Meanwhile we didn’t have a plane ticket back to the US until three days before our return date. Alas, on second thought, Egypt is also one of those destinations that warrant a separate trip. After all that deliberation, I was left with Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. It dawned on me that Morocco has an Aman. Although I’ve stayed at many hotels before, I’ve yet to visit an Aman property. As luck would have it, Amanjena had a fourth night free promotion. Ah, it’s all coming together.
For our time in Bodrum, I knew I wanted to stay at the Bodrum Edition. It’s arguably the most popular hotel in all of Turkey, and it’s definitely a great place to see and be seen. For our time in Istanbul, it didn’t matter to me where we stayed, since I knew we’d be spending more time exploring the city. I picked the Ritz Istanbul as it had a central location and good use of my Marriott free night certificates.
To get to Turkey, I found award availability on Air Serbia, which worked out perfectly as I intended to visit Serbia anyways. We booked the Metropol Palace Belgrade, which is regarded as one of the best hotels in the city. Keep in mind Belgrade isn’t a market with a Four Seasons or anything. The Metropol is quite a storied property as it hosted celebs and dignitaries back in the day such as Alfred Hitchcock, Elizabeth Taylor and so on.
Turkish Airlines flies to more destinations than any other airline in the world, so I was pleased to see there was a direct flight between Istanbul and Marrakech. To return to the US, our obvious choice was Royal Air Maroc, which even recently joined the oneworld alliance.
So in short, our itinerary looked something like this:
Review - Air Serbia Business Class A330-200 New York JFK to Belgrade
Review - Metropol Palace Belgrade, A Luxury Collection Hotel
Review - The Ritz-Carlton Istanbul
Review - Turkish Airlines Business Class B737-8 Max Istanbul to Marrakech
Review - Royal Air Maroc Business Class B787-8 Casablanca to New York JFK
I will not be reviewing the short-haul flights in between, as there isn’t a whole lot to say about an hour-long flight. With such a strong pipeline, stay tuned for the next few weeks as I work to crank out these reviews. See you at the front of the plane!