The $1.65 billion Mardan Palace Hotel on Turkey’s Riviera has celebrated its opening with a lavish party and many celebrity guests.
Gossip is already swirling around the hotel, loudly whispering that Mariah Carey and Tom Jones were paid over $1.5 million each for a brief performance at the hotel’s opening bash. Other paid celebrities rode the resorts’ Gondolas and attend the party for reportedly $20,000 each (including Richard Gere, Seal, Paris Hilton, and Sharon Stone). But at a resort that proudly proclaims its opulence as a tribute to “golden age of the Ottoman empire,” one would expect nothing less.
The five-star resort boasts 560 rooms, suites with private pools, 17 bars and 10 restaurants, 5 giant aquariums, amphitheatre with seating for 900, a lavish spa, and architecture that reflects some of the greatest landmarks in Turkey. The hotel’s pool is also the largest on the Mediterranean as well as the setting for the 600-guest party that announced the hotel’s entrance into the world of luxury resorts.
