On a pine-clad finger of land where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean, D Maris Bay throws open its doors for summer, and sets the standard for a summer well spent.
Give yourself over entirely to the Datça Peninsula, a sixty-odd-mile headland that unwinds west from Marmaris in a series of plummeting ravines and hairpin bends, threading through a protected nature reserve filled with pine and almond, and find yourself at D Maris Bay. The sea on one side is Aegean, the sea on the other is Mediterranean. This hotel re-opening for the season means the summer season has kicked off meaning off, and the bottles of flowing rosé has officially begun.
The Vibe
What D Maris Bay understands, and what so many grander resorts forget, is that luxury is mostly a question of mood. The property has six private beaches and lets you choose yours according to the day you’re having. Silence x Zuma Beach is exactly as the name explains – it gives you the stillness you desire affording you the peace and time to enjoy a book you might actually finish. La Guérite Beach is where the volume comes up with a DJ at the bar and the social churn for people watching and a more upbeat sort of mood, where you lounge (or dance) in cabanas with bells you ring when you’d like another drink.
D Maris Bay
What D Maris Bay understands, and what so many grander resorts forget, is that luxury is mostly a question of mood. The property has five private beaches and lets you choose yours according to the day you’re having. Silence x Zuma Beach is exactly as the name explains — it gives you the stillness you desire, affording you the peace and time to enjoy a book you might actually finish. La Guérite Beach is where the volume comes up, with a DJ at the bar and the social churn for people-watching, where you lounge (or dance) in cabanas with bells you ring when you’d like another drink. That range is the whole personality of the place: a member of The Leading Hotels of the World, awarded one Michelin Key, clean and contemporary rather than swagged in Ottoman cliché. The crowd is well-heeled and international, the yacht set who moor in the bay, a smattering of the fashion crowd drawn by the Dior residency, glossy families wanting luxury without leaving the children behind, glamorous without the edge of louder Greek islands.
The Rooms
Sleek dark wood, Italian marble, deep travertine bathrooms, walls of floor-to-ceiling glass that frame either the sea or the volcanic mountains. Every room has its own terrace or balcony, because the entire premise of this place is the view. New this summer, and a detail the cognoscenti will clock immediately: the bathrooms are now stocked with Byredo’s Gypsy Water, a cult blend of bergamot, pine and amber which is not only enjoyable to use, but wafts across the space as soon as you use it, oozing ‘holiday’. There is something almost too apt about washing the day off with a scent built around pine needles while the actual forest is visible right outside your window.
Should you want to disappear entirely, the choices scale beautifully, up through the suites to the duplex Presidential, spread over two floors with a jacuzzi on its roof terrace, and finally to The Villa, which comes with its own garden, its own pool, a butler and the freedom to never see another guest if you’d prefer not to.
The Food & Drink
This resort does sensational dining, and this is no understatement. D Maris Bay stops being a resort and starts being a small, self-contained capital of culinary magic. The roll-call of restaurants reads like a season’s worth of the best dinners you’ve had, compressed into a few adjacent coves.
La Guerité
Zuma needs no introduction to anyone who has eaten in London, Dubai or Mykonos; its precise, smoky izakaya cooking returns for another summer, and at lunch it decamps to the sand as the Silence x Zuma Beach concept – robata and rosé, sea air – no shoes required. La Guérite (one of my favourite beach bars, I hasten to add) brings its glossy Riviera-on-a-plate sensibility down from Cannes. Manos is the contemporary Greek answer to all that polish – plate-smashing is almost a civic duty here. Nusr-Et delivers its theatrical steaks for those who like a little performance with their protein, and D Maris Kitchen quietly makes the case for the house’s own Turkish cuisine and the local produce behind it. Anchoring it all is Aurora Capri, the Italian institution with more than 130 years of history behind it, transplanted from its native island without losing an ounce of its languid Tyrrhenian confidence. As the sun goes down, the serious business of the aperitivo begins: the cocktails at Lobby Terrace. Green Hill, on the other hand, is the work of Giancarlo Mancino, the Italian mixologist whose name is shorthand for getting a Negroni exactly right.
The Wellness
This deserves its own section, because it is entirely justified. The genius of the modern luxury traveller is that she wants many contradictory things, often on the same day. A killer cocktail or 2, a punishing knock out workout, and the option to be utterly soothed. D Maris Bay obliges on all fronts.
For the soothing, there is Mytha Spa, set among the pines with the Mediterranean below, scented with rose and lavender, offering traditional detoxifying and exfoliating hammam experiences for total relaxation. For the punishment, Los Angeles’ high-intensity cult, Barry’s, arrives for sunrise and sunset group classes, the famous Red Room repackaged as a thing you do at the edge of the Aegean before breakfast.
The sport option features Jamie Murray (who holds thirty-plus ATP doubles titles, a Grand Slam winner at both the Australian and US Opens) leading exclusive clinics on court from August 5 to 7 in partnership with Lux Tennis. And in the most of-the-moment booking of the lot, Fran Guerrero, the world No. 11 padel player known for his intensity and exceptional tactical awareness, hosts a run of padel sessions from August 18 to 21. If you don’t yet understand why everyone you know suddenly plays padel, this is the place to find out, taught by the man who shapes the players at the top of the sport.
The Extras
Dior deepens its long flirtation with the resort this season, draping its Riviera aesthetic across the pool area and its own boutique in a flurry of bespoke decorative flourishes – the pool, essentially, has been dressed by this leading couture house. In the lobby you’ll find master jeweller Sevan Bıçakçı alongside only the best beachwear: from Eres for the swimwear purist to Cult Gaia for the photograph.
D Maris Bay Dior Pool
Even the children are travelling first class. The reimagined Maris Kids Club has partnered with Worldwide Kids, making D Maris Bay the first flagship member of the Luxury Childcare Association in Türkiye – a phrase that tells you everything about where high-end family travel has landed, and which the under-tens will be entirely indifferent to as they discover creative play, art and the open-ended joy of a nature trail.
And then there is the music. International DJs – Roger Sanchez, Aaron Sevilla, Derun, Arkadyan – keep the peninsula moving after dark, while the resort’s gala concerts, which in years past have summoned the likes of Eros Ramazzotti, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Seal and Alan Parsons, return with a headline lineup, among them Grammy Award winning artist Gregory Porter.
Images by Martin Morell
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