D-Hotel Maris

As you maybe know I am real foodie and also a big fan of all the “new-fashioned” asian-fusion style restaurants like Nobu, Hakkasan etc. And I’m a fan of Zuma especially. And because of my food passion the D-Hotel Maris got my attention. I’ve heard that Zuma lately opened a restaurant at this fantastic hotel. And because it was time to make a new trip, I decided to spend a few days at the D-Hotel Maris. I spent only five nights there but the five nights were outstanding !!

D-Hotel Maris is located in the beautiful Datca Peninsula and is just 30 minutes away from Marmaris City. The closest located airport is Dalaman International Airport which is 130km away. D-Hotel Maris organized the transfer for me by car (but if you like you can also book a helicopter transfer which takes only 25min ;-)). The hotel is located high up on the hillside of a beautiful nature reserve. There is “only” the D-Hotel and nothing else. “Only” means: An outstanding and luxury hotel with five private beaches which you can reach by water taxis, a fantastic gym, a tennis court, different bars, a breathtaking ESPA Spa and six different restaurants. This was a little overview about the hotel.

But first of all lets take a look of my room. The rooms at the D-Hotel are all very spacious. But I received a little room upgrade which means that I had a whole terrace for myself. And who can say no to a complimentary upgrade 😉

I love to travel and to explore everything what the country has to offer. But this time I was a bit exhausted from work and I just wanted to relax and only move from my room to the pool, then on the beach, and back to the bar and the restaurants. No excursions, no club hobbing, no traveling around. I wanted that everything I need and like should be in a radius of max. 30 meters – and guess where I found this. D-Hotel Maris and his surroundings have a lot to offer but I stayed at the hotel the whole time and I don’t regret it. As mentioned above the hotel is high up on a hillside and has five breathtaking beaches. But in order to get to the beaches you have to get down. If you are sporty (what I am of course not) you can take the approx. 3000 steps down, but if you are a relaxed person like myself, you will take the elevator 🙂 And I have to tell you that when you are inside the elevator and look outside on your way down, you will realize how beautiful this place is and you will ask yourself why it took you so long to get there.

Once you get down you will be rewarded by this beautiful beach

But this is only one of the five private beaches. You can reach the other beaches by a very cool transportation: The water taxi which is a experience itself.

I had 2 favorite beaches. One is the silence beach. As you can conclude from the name, the beach is a very quiet place. No one is talking, no one is screaming and especially no cell phones 😉 Only white cabanas and sunbeds where you can relax, listen to the waves and just looking at the outstanding turquoise water – for me this is Heaven !!

The other very cool beach was the Coliseum beach. At afternoon there is also a DJ performance for a relaxed atmosphere. A great beach, a live DJ performance and some drinks – Count me in 😉 

If you want you can also do some water sports at the Coliseum beach like conoeing, sailing, etc. ( only if you want ;-))

Apropos sport: The hotel has such an amazing variety of all kind of sports which are not easy to find anywhere else. You can do waterskiing, wake boarding, diving, tennis (there is a tennis school by Goran Ivanisevic) and much more. And this impress also such not sporty bunnies as myself  – and that has something to say. 

The secret of the beautiful beaches and especially the soft sand is maybe that the hotel has imported more than 250.000 tons of white sand form Egypt – and this you can see and feel. But the hotel has also a very nice pool with a great view which is definitely worth a visit.

So now let me tell you something about the food at D-Hotel Maris. As mentioned before I didn’t leave the hotel. But the food choices at the hotel are amazing. You have a turkish restaurant (which I tried at my first night and finished of course with a traditional Raki), then you have a Steak House (which is very popular in Istanbul), a fantastic italian seafood restaurant called Il Riccio which is a institution on Capri and of course my lovely Zuma restaurant (there is also a restaurant/brasserie called Bellariva which I didn’t tried). Unfortunately I didn’t make photos of all my dishes/evenings. But you can trust me, It doesn’t matter which restaurant you choose – you will be not disappointed. The quality of the food and the finesse are top of the world. But I would like to tell you something about my 2 favorite restaurants: The Il Riccio and the Zuma.

The Il Riccio restaurant has just a romantic setting. The tables are directly at the beach with candles and you have a peaceful view over the sea. You can reach the restaurant by water taxi or golf cart. But let me tell you, that the water taxi is so much cooler –  you will feel a bit like James Bond arriving at a special secret location 😉

And beside the amazing setting the food is just mind-blowing. I visited the Il Riccio twice during my stay and everything I tried was phenomenal. But especially the red gambas carpaccio was delicious.

It doesn’t matter what you will eat, just make sure you will leave enough space for the dessert. Because at the Il Riccio you will not get a “normal” dessert menu. You will get a whole dessert room. There is a special room at the restaurant filled with all kind of delicious homemade sweets. You have to try it !!!

photo by Il Riccio@Capri

The other night I went to the Zuma restaurant which is located above the swimming pool so you will have a fantastic view over the sea and the volcanic mountain ranges. The cool thing about this Zuma restaurant is that they have a huge outside area where in the middle you will find the robata grill which is typically for Zuma.

At the Zuma restaurant I could eat everything up and down from the menu. Everything is so good, so fresh and so tasty. When it’s so warm outside like in Datca, I like to eat something light. It doesn’t matter if you eat the Tuna Tataki or the Fried Softshell Crab or the Thinly Sliced Seabass with Yuzu – everything is mouth-watering. But you have to try the cocktails as well. They are soooo good. My favorite was the Lychee Martini.

I am pretty sure that I forgot something to mention about my stay at this hotel but to be honest even if its “just” one hotel it is so overwhelming because you can do so many things there, you can eat so much there or just do nothing – and even this will be amazing at the hotel. I thought that the hotel will be great but I never thought that it will be so outstanding. If you want guaranteed good weather, mind-blowing beaches (and not only one beach), a variety of tasty food and just luxury perfection itself, than you are right at the D-Hotel Maris. I was lucky enough to meet some very special people during my stay at the D-Hotel. So apart from the beautiful and stunning hotel itself this trip was more than a Jackpot for me and I wish the same to you. I am sure that this was not my last visit at the D-Hotel Maris. Be aware – I’ll be back 😉