Six Senses Kaplankaya began as a Canyon Ranch project, the American wellness brand’s first resort outside the United States, built on a peninsula across the bay from Bodrum, and it reopened under the Six Senses name in May 2018. A wedding here takes place inside a resort with a large spa, and Six Senses lists group fitness and wellness classes for family and friends among the extras a wedding party can add, so the days around the ceremony can double as a short stay.
A peninsula drawn by Barcelona architects
Canyon Ranch announced the project in 2015, with Capital Partners developing the wider Kaplankaya estate. The architecture was by OAB of Barcelona, led by Carlos Ferrater, with guest quarters set into the terrain in geometric forms and sustainable materials, according to the announcement. Six Senses brought in Clodagh Design of New York for the interiors, working with kilim and flat-weave rugs, woven leather and tables cut from large pieces of local olive wood. Hotel Designs, reporting the opening in May 2018, describes buildings with green roofs stepping down towards the shore, and a gold-leaf wooden table in the lobby.
From the beach to Anhinga Bay
Six Senses places a wedding on the beach, around the infinity pool or in one of its restaurants, and gives Anhinga Bay as the space for the largest gatherings, at up to 1,000 guests. A buyout of the whole resort is available. The standard wedding services run in the order of the day: a welcome cocktail before the dinner, the dinner itself, the cake and after party services. Before that, a couple’s site visit includes a menu tasting with the executive chef, and on the wedding night the couple are upgraded to a suite, subject to availability.
The restaurants shape the dinner. Sage & Sea, the main restaurant on the first level, has a bar and large windows onto the water, and Ortakoy Beach Bar & Barbeque Grill is an open bar on the sand. The Library Café, with armchairs and low tables, serves coffee and cocktails. Two settings suit small groups: the Alchemy Bar, with an indoor vertical garden and an experiment table for up to 12 guests, and Destination Dining, the resort’s name for sunset dinners on wooden decks by the sea or in a bay reserved for the party. The cellar, Sip & Senses, holds 350 wines, and Six Senses reports a Wine Spectator award for it.
Where guests stay
Six Senses describes the guest rooms as stepped into the landscape like a Mediterranean village. The Superior and Deluxe Sea View rooms in the main building measure 54 square metres, each with a private balcony facing the Aegean. The Ridge Terrace rooms, at 41 to 46 square metres, sit apart from the main building with a private terrace and a garden or sea view, and some have their own pool. The Junior Suite Sea View, at 74 square metres, opens its living area onto a private terrace. Families can take three-, four- or five-bedroom residences with kitchens, gardens and pools, and children are looked after in a kids’ club run by trained staff, for those accompanied by a parent or guardian.
The spa and the days around the wedding
Six Senses calls the spa its flagship in Turkey and gives it 38 treatment rooms, open from 9 am to 9 pm. The hydrothermal areas include heated loungers, a crystal steam room, a Finnish sauna, an igloo, a salt grotto and a cold plunge, and there is a private sauna and steam room for couples. The Turkish hammam begins with the kese ritual, a scrub, followed by a foam wash, and Watsu is given in a warm pool. A sleep programme combines data from the guest’s own tracker with a consultation, yoga nidra and meditation. The Alchemist’s Body Scrub is a workshop rather than a treatment: a therapist guides each guest through local ingredients, textures and aromas to blend a scrub that is used in the treatment that follows. Dream Catcher, a light massage of the head, shoulders and feet, is meant to end the day.
The programmes run beyond treatments. Detox, yoga, weight management, longevity, immunity and brain health each have a named programme, and the consultation rooms handle wellness screening and assessments by an exercise physiologist or a medical doctor. Guests who prefer to move have a yoga studio, a Pilates studio, a cycling studio, a squash court and a waterfront venue for yoga and meditation.
Local produce and the Earth Lab
A Regenerative Impact Fund takes 0.5 percent of hotel revenue for environmental, educational and community projects, Six Senses reports, and cites GSTC certification for its practice. Local farmers supply organic produce, and Six Senses is working to have it certified so that growers and artisans earn more for it. The restaurants follow an approach called Eat With Six Senses, buying vegetables, seafood and specialty ingredients from artisan producers nearby and growing others in the organic garden, which is worth asking about when a menu is planned. The Earth Lab gives guests hands-on activities inspired by nature and culture.
Across the bay from Bodrum
Kaplankaya lies near Bodrum, in the Bozbük district of Milas in Muğla province. Six Senses gives the season as May to October, with June to August at the peak and an average summer high of 34 degrees Celsius. The resort has sandy beaches, two outdoor pools and an indoor pool for any weather.
Bodrum Castle, begun by the Knights of St John in the early fifteenth century, was built partly from stone taken from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Since the early 1960s the castle has housed the Museum of Underwater Archaeology, whose headline exhibit is the Bronze Age Uluburun shipwreck. The resort suggests day excursions to Iasos, Mindos, Didyma, Miletus and Herakleia, to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, where the ancient city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and to the Mausoleum site in Bodrum, and it lists private boat tours to the Greek islands of Patmos, Leros, Lipsi, Kos and Kalymnos. Boat service to Bodrum and Türkbükü is a chargeable wedding extra. On the property itself, guests can hike, cycle, e-bike, kayak, paddle board or play tennis, and Family Beach grills meat for a casual lunch.
Planning your wedding
Milas-Bodrum airport is 50 minutes away by road, or 10 minutes by helicopter, which lands at the resort’s own helipad. Six Senses does not publish wedding prices.
That 1,000 guest figure is Six Senses’ maximum for Anhinga Bay and not a seated dining capacity, so ask for the seated number for whichever space you prefer. Couples who want a legally recognised ceremony should ask the resort how it is arranged.
The resort suits couples who want to marry on the Aegean and give their guests several days of spa, sea and sunset dinners in one place. See the Six Senses Kaplankaya profile for the inclusions and the gallery, or browse weddings in Turkey and the Turkey Wedding Atlas. Ready to plan? Check your date.
