Recently Black Tree Cottages has been featured in an article on Sunday Times Travel Section - on 16 March 2008 issue - written by Jeremy Seal

KARAAGAC

It used to take hours to reach the village of Karaagac, on its 3,600ft-high plateau in the Babadag range, but a new road has cut the journey time from Oludeniz to 30 minutes. Even so, there’s no danger of Black Tree Cottages losing its pioneering, high-plains personality. An 18th-century farmhouse lodges walking groups, but most visitors stay in the Alpine-style self-catering cabins scattered among the fruit trees. Facilities include a pool and a tennis court, a potter’s wheel and a library. With horses, mountain bikes or donkeys to ride, a children’s video room, rabbits and geese, the place appeals particularly to families. Kitchen gardens supply the bar and restaurant (open all day) with organic vegetables, and the menu is child-friendly. Gurbuz and Anthea, veterans of the Turkish tourism scene, run the place with a distinctive mix of charm, eccentricity and environmental idealism. (by Jeremy Seal)

Unspoilt Turkey

Only a few miles from resorts heaving with huge hotels and apartment blocks, there are sleepy coves, tranquil forests and untouched hamlets. Here Annabelle Thorpe picks the low-key highlights ( Sunday June 4 2006)

For those of us who fell in love with Turkey's rough-edged exoticism years ago, the creeping urbanisation of the country's gorgeous coastline can be depressing. Traditional fishing villages are increasingly being swallowed up by identikit hotels and apartment blocks but, if you know where to look, there are still unspoilt beaches and sleepy hamlets to be discovered. Best of all, just a few minutes' drive inland from the coast, Turkish life continues pretty much unchanged: a hazily sunlit world of ramshackle farms and disarmingly shabby villages.

The Black Tree Cottages, a clutch of stone-built houses with restaurant and pool, are set 1,000 metres above the Lycian coastline in the agricultural hamlet of Karaagac. At Black Tree it's all about getting back to nature; exploring the countryside on horseback, following walking trails around the plateau, or helping the kids collect eggs and get to know the resident geese and goats. Patara beach is 40 minutes' drive.

'But does it have flushing loos?"My wife cut straight to the point when I suggested an eco-holiday in south-west Turkey as an alternative to the traditional family summer break.

Instead of sunning ourselves on a Mediterranean beach, we would stay in a tiny hamlet accessible only along an unmade road that zigzagged for miles up a mountain. We would collect water from wells, recycle and help to sustain the local community.

My children pitched in. Does it have a pool? Will there be other families? Are there any shops? Can't we just have a holiday?

Their reservations were justified. Despite its spectacular setting high in the verdant mountains above the dramatic Turquoise Coast, the Black Tree Cottages project will never appeal to those seeking the trappings of mass tourism.
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We were happy, too - reading by the pool, drinking wine on the veranda or strolling through goat-filled fields to a hill with fantastic views of the Aegean Sea and the island of Rhodes. Eco warriors we may have been, but we did not feel we had denied ourselves any of the usual pleasures of family holidays. Small and simple was indeed beautiful.

The kids' legs are bouncing up and down as long hot summer days are already wearing on you. The city, the neighborhood and the neighbor are messing with your head. It's time to plan an escape route – one the kids will love enough to let you recline.When fleeing the noise and stress of city living, more and more people are considering ways to give back to the land and local economy as a natural extension of the relaxation they seek. Eco-tourism has quickly become a fundamental element of the travel industry, growing by 20 to 30 per cent every year since the 1990s, according to the International Eco-tourism Society. In the last few years, it has grown three times as fast as regular tourism. This is Turkey, a garden of holiday choices. Where to turn for a place that isn't more of the same: crowds, heat, buildings and asphalt? Finding alternative seaside villages and hillside hideaways calls for a little common sense and research. Below are some that please both locals and guests. 

Local comfort, the Lycian way

With a pioneering attitude, Gürbüz and Anthea host guests of the Black Tree Farm Cottages with charm and environmental savvy. Set high in a village 12 km south of the Ölüdeniz resort in the foothills of Babadağ, a restored 18th century farmhouse and charming cottages make the most of Lycia's breathtaking Mediterranean beauty. Beneath these limestone heights crouch deserted coves, once anchorage for pilgrims en route to the Holy Land. The nine cottages sleep from 2-7 people and have fully equipped open-plan kitchens. Individual patios give way to fields and horizons that meet the sea. The communal farmhouse is used by passing hikers and kids who prefer some freedom from their parents – or vice versa. With horses, mountain bikes or ponies to ride, children's video room, rabbits and geese, the place appeals to families especially. Kitchen gardens supply the bar and restaurant (open all day) with organic vegetables, and the menu is child-friendly. Local Lycian sites of Xanthos, Pinara, Letoon and Tlos are all within easy reach. Several isolated beaches are below and a 2-hour walk winds down to Butterfly Valley by way of Ölüdeniz.

It's always offered fine scenery, great value and a warm welcome. Now a new generation of hotels means Turkey is cool, too, says Jeremy Seal (July 10 2005)

With its unrivalled slew of historical sites, great scenery and underrated cuisine, not to mention an instinct for hospitality that makes rival destinations seem positively surly, Turkey has bags to offer. For that very reason, it’s been expanding fast, and some travellers have been put off by the crass overdevelopment around Oludeniz, Marmaris and Kalkan. They’re missing out: the country extends far beyond these occasional blights. On unspoilt Mediterranean headlands, little-visited coves and remote hillsides, a new generation of imaginative and free-thinking Turkish and expat hoteliers is providing a range of holiday accommodation that could not be more different from the concrete hulks of the past.
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An arduous 10-mile hike from Faralya, along the Lycian Way, Turkey’s first long-distance trekking trail, brings you to Black Tree Cottages (00 90-252 617 0045, www.blacktree.net; £12), in Karaagac; arriving by road entails a 70-mile diversion around Mount Baba Dag. At more than 3,000ft, it has a pioneer feel, with nine typical stone cottages arranged among village smallholdings. Lounge by the pool, go horse-riding or try your hand at the potter’s wheel. It’s a wild, beautiful, congenial (and mosquito-free) spot within reach of the beach and the hauntingly beautiful ancient ruins at Patara, 45 minutes’ drive away

Europe (without the euro)

If your wallet can't handle a holiday in the eurozone, don't despair. There are still loads of fantastic destinations for travellers who don't want to go long haul. Here, five writers offer their suggestions (Monday 20 April 2009)