Villa for rent in the Bursa/Iznik area?

[hockley]

I am looking for a house within a couple hours driving/ferry of Istanbul where my family (3 adults and 2 children) can spend two weeks on holiday, starting September 2/3 timeframe. At a minimum, we will need access to a pool, a well equipped kitchen, and a quite garden/porch for meals. My wife would like to visit thermal baths/spa. I enjoy visiting markets, ancient sites, artisan sites, and taking cooking classes. Bursa/Iznik seems to a good choice but I have not found much information on accommodations for rent. Any help would be appreciated.

[kworld]

I agree, there aren't a whole lot of options for renting a house in the bursa/iznik area on the internet. But I would recommend that you search for accommodation in the marmara sea are in general- you are bound to find something near that you like. For this there are a ton of sites you can look into. You said you were looking for a house, but it seems like there are more options for apartments. It looks like though you can find some pretty large apartments. Here is a site with a lot of listings:

http://www.vacations-abroad.com/turkey/marmara/default.aspx

Here is another site with apartments, but they also list interesting hotels if you want to at least consider that as well! If you look at the descriptions of the hotels some of them mention that they have spa and wellness facilities, which sounds like is what your wife is looking for. Some of the apartment options also have swimming pools :

http://www.casamundo.co.uk/turkey/marmara_sea/

And if you are definetely set on renting a house or villa, here is a site, although the villas might not exactly be in the region you were intially looking for:

http://www.turkeyholidayvillas.co.uk/

Hope this helps anyone else looking to go to the marmara sea region!

[hockley]

Kworld,
Excellent links. I don't think I have seen them before. We made our trip to Turkey in September. We stayed at the Maywood hotel in Istanbul and found the rooms to be small but nice. In Iznik we stayed at Kriska's house http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/Turkey ... p67876.htm. We had a lovely time. Our host, Tayfun was very hospitable and his property is fantastic. There are several acres of flowers, fruit trees, and vegetables. We were encouraged to pick any and all we wanted. My daughter was in heaven! The house was well equipped and very comfortable. We went swimming in the local hot springs every day. Day trips included Bursa and Iznik. Highly recommended.
Doug