We created the Lazy Olive (Tembel Zeytin) as our special getaway from living in the heart of Istanbul’s concrete jungle. It’s a spacious four-bedroom private family retreat in its own large garden with no ugly villa developments anywhere near. Now available for rent on AirBNB or Vrbo, it’s a perfect place for lovers of nature, silence and the rugged beauty of Turkey’s Toros mountains and Mediterranean coast. Our natural pool was the first ever built in Turkey. Spring and autumn are gorgeous for climbing or trekking the Lycian Way, summer is of course sunny and hot. Within easy reach are three stunning beaches – Çıralı/Olympos, Adrasan and Phaselis – fine classical ruins and local towns with vibrant markets.
All four bedrooms have beautiful views and comfortable beds. There is a high-ceilinged, 8m x 8m (25′ x 25′) central space that houses the kitchen, sitting room and dining room to eat inside. A wide front terrace and outdoor dining table overlook the valley. Steps lead down to the natural pool. The Lazy Olive is ideal for a group of up to eight people or two families with older children. The approach road is 2km of village road, guaranteeing seclusion.
You have the property and pool to yourselves. The house is in the heart of a sloping two-acre / 8000 sq m garden of olive, orange, apple and stone oak trees. Cars can park 30m from the house. There are terraces, patios, a pool pavilion with cushions and bowers with seating areas under the trees.
Nature is everywhere with wild flowers and orange blossom in spring and grand thunderstorms in winter. Like everywhere on the south coast, there are all the animals you’d expect to meet on the edge of a national park: butterflies, chameleons, tortoises, geckos, little lizards, land crabs, sheep, turtles, bats, cicadas, field mice, dragonflies, outsize grasshoppers, spiders, hawks, flocks of chickens, swallows over the pool and even the odd cat or dog. You may even spot the tracks from the night-time wanderings of wild boar on the canal road below.
You will learn to pace your evenings by the long arc of the moon’s transit overhead. Instead of traffic you’ll hear cocks crow in the morning, cicadas chirp by day, frogs croak from the pool in the evening and owls hoot at night. If this kind of getaway is what you crave, the seclusion, fresh air and tranquillity will soon chase away your big city stress.
You can book The Lazy Olive through AirBNB or Vrbo, with the peace of mind that your superhosts have received overwhelmingly positive reviews.
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