Marmara Island accommodation from NZ$138

Hotel Mola is a sweet, small family run hotel with a private beach and nice views over the water on the west side of Marmara. Why we liked it: (1) Comfortable rooms. While not lavish, rooms have comfortable beds, decent storage space, and excellent air conditioning. Ours were also very clean. (2) Great location. Easy walk into town for meals, shopping, etc. Even better: private beach with loungers and umbrellas. Beach is sandy and water relatively shallow. You can’t reserve loungers, so walk down early to put your towels etc on the ones you want and you’re set. (3) Nice amenities. This is not a luxe hotel, but the breakfast is next level. So.much.delicious.food, served on a terrace overlooking the water. We could not believe the generosity of the spread. Beach bar has drinks, food, etc to keep one hydrated and fed while sunning; very reasonable prices. We needed to do laundry so my husband asked the front desk and they did it for us at (again) very reasonable prices. (4) Friendly staff. While many of the staff were not proficient in English (and our Turkish is rudimentary), they were unstintingly helpful. Google Translate was very useful.