On rainy Sunday afternoons, you will more than likely find me sitting on my sofa with a glass of red wine, some vaguely interesting film playing in the background and doing some major travel research. I have had to confine myself to this period only to indulge in this activity, as I can find my weeks can become somewhat unproductive otherwise! A big chunk of this time is spent looking at travel deals and matching them up against “The List”, which is basically my spreadsheet of notes and links to hotels, tours, places etc. of travel experiences I would one day like to have. There is no better feeling than when I find a banging deal that incorporates somewhere on my list and more often than not, it’s booked rather promptly!

It was one of these afternoons on a bleak day in March that I spotted a brilliant deal for Six Senses Kaplankaya hotel near Bodrum, somewhere that had intrigued me for a while. The only reservation I had was the somewhat remote location, so I decided to reduce our stay to five days and spend the rest of the week balancing the quietness and serenity of Kaplankaya with the opposite and tag on two days in Istanbul.