Hotel Review: Hotel Ugur in Sanliurfa (Urfa)

This is the hotel we stayed at in Urfa (or Şanlıurfa): Hotel Ugur. We’d stay there again.

The price was cheap, the rooms were adequate, maybe a bit small. Understand the place is a bit old. It’s not dirty, but some may see it that way with the wear and tear. This is more a hostel though it does have private rooms — some with private baths, others using the shared bathrooms. Rooms have air-conditioning and there is WiFi and a TV in the room. No breakfast is included but there is a water cooler in the hallway and many restaurants just steps away. Towels and linens are provided.

The hotel is located on the second floor and you will go up some outdoor stairs to a concrete rooftop terrace before you reach the door. The staff are nice and the owner Mustafa is very nice, honest, and speaks decent English. They can arrange tours for you at reasonable prices, including trips as far away as Nemrut (that’s a long, full-day trip). Restaurant recommendations from Mustafa were very good. One often worries in Turkey that all referrals are to cousins or uncles. If this is the case (I don’t think so), then Mustafa has some good chefs in the family 😉

The hotel is walking distance from Gölbası (the legendary site where Nimrod attempted to burn Abraham in the Bible – now a nice park under the city’s fortress), the old bazaar, the mosques of Dergah, and the city museum. Local restaurants are also nearby. If you stay here, definitely check out Zahter for breakfast nearby. Excellent.

The taxi from the Urfa bus station to the hotel was 22 TL (just around $11 USD) and took less than 15 minutes. We booked the hotel online here. Be aware that the g in the name Ugur is a silent g as in Uğur (so “oo-oor” is the pronunciation).