Where We Stayed

This post concludes our travel series on Germany and Istanbul. When they hear that I am traveling somewhere, people ask me how we can afford to travel so much.  One trick is to ensure you take advantage of airline or hotel rewards points.  We are partnered with Marriott, which has a generous reward program, so I was able to cash in our points for our stay in Istanbul. In Istanbul, we stayed in the Orientbank Hotel, a lovely hotel centrally located to all the attractions.  The rooms are designed with a luxurious attention to detail.  The staff is terrific.  I couldn't say a bad thing about this hotel.  We stayed three nights. The hotel was built originally in the 1920s by a German financier as a bank.  It sat empty for many years and was eventually turned into a hotel.  Another cool hotel feature is its rooftop bar, which provides a fantastic city view. If you are a fan of 007 movies, this hotel will be familiar to you, as it was featured in one of them.  Since there were no Marriott properties in Cappadocia, I booked a hotel through Booking.com.  I like their cancellation policy and have always had good luck using their website to find hotels.  We stayed at the Lunar Hotel.  Hotels are not cheap in Cappadocia, as they have capitalized on the destination's popularity, driven by social media.  We stayed at the Lunar Hotel.  It was a lovely hotel with unique rooms.  The rooms were clean, and the staff was friendly and helpful. The only thing missing was a pool. Our final hotel stay in Germany on the Tegernsee was a splurge, as we had just celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary. We stayed at the newly completed Caro and Selig, a Marriott-affiliated hotel. The hotel was stunning, and the view was spectacular. I wish we had more time to enjoy the beautiful lake and the nearby village. Part of this was due to the wedding event timetable, and the rest was due to bad weather. We would love to go back someday.