About Us

Direct contact with your hosts.

Mimas Garden is not a large accommodation business; we share two independent apartments in our Karaburun home with our guests.

Mimas Garden

One home, one garden, two independent apartments.

We live in the same building and welcome our guests personally. Our aim is not to imitate a hotel, but to offer a clean, peaceful, well-kept and independent place to stay.

The story began in 1998, when the internet was still new. People from different countries found the simple website I had created and, after a few emails, boarded a plane and came to İzmir.

I would pick them up at the airport and, depending on their arrival time, they might join us for dinner or breakfast. We shared Karaburun, its coves and everyday life here with them.

Welcoming guests since 1998

Staying at Mimas Garden

Long before digital reviews, our guests left their thoughts in this book in their own handwriting. This section offers a brief look at the tradition of hospitality at Mimas Garden. For the documented stories from 1998–2015, visit our separate Guest Archive.

Mimas Garden Guest Archive · 1998–2015 →

16 Haziran 1998 tarihli ziyaretçi defterinin açık sayfası
16 June 1998A page from the early years: Karaburun discovered through the internet, and a story of hospitality that began here.
11 Ağustos 1998 tarihli ziyaretçi defteri
11 August 1998
16 Temmuz 1999 tarihli ziyaretçi defteri
16 July 1999
10 Ağustos 2002 tarihli ziyaretçi defteri
10 August 2002
Temmuz 2015 tarihli ziyaretçi defteri
July 2015
Some of our earlier guests
Mimas Garden konuğu Alison
Alison
Mimas Garden konuğu Bob
Bob
Mimas Garden konuğu Gerhard
Gerhard
Mimas Garden konukları Theo ve Jos
Theo & Jos

These are not advertising photographs; they are traces left in our family album and guestbook by people who stayed here over the years.

The story continues

From the guestbook to today’s guest stories.

The years changed and the way people book changed, but the traces our guests leave behind did not. The short excerpts below are selected from the words of recent Airbnb and Booking guests. We prefer to highlight the experience rather than platform scores.

Ruth · United Kingdom · 2024

“A clean and spacious home, with beautiful photographs taken by the host on the walls. Great view, great people and a great host.”

Booking guest
Svetlana · Germany · 2024

“Aydın and his wife were incredibly warm and friendly. A hidden gem for those seeking peace and a chance to experience the real country.”

Booking guest
Anna · Denmark · 2026

“I had never seen such a clean apartment. The kitchen was equipped down to every detail, and being able to use the garden was another pleasure.”

Booking guest
Talha · Türkiye · 2023

“The grapes grown in the garden were wonderful. Discovering that Aydın is a documentary photographer was another lovely detail.”

Airbnb guest
Martina · Italy · July 2025

“The apartment was really clean and large with a nice terrace and a large living room. The kitchen was very well stocked and when we needed other things Aydin got us what we needed. The added value of this apartment is Aydin and his family, always ready and available to help us and give us information about the place. An experience we recommend”

Airbnb guest review · translated from Italian
Samantha · Italy · 2024

“A spacious and beautiful home in a quiet place, with very easy access to the beaches. Aydın is a very warm host.”

Airbnb guest
A shared dinner with Martina and her family at Mimas Garden
Moments We Share

Sometimes a stay leaves a shared memory.

Sometimes we share memories with our guests. To celebrate one we shared with Martina and her family, we brought Turkish and Italian cooking together and prepared a dinner side by side.

12 July 2025 · Photo shared with Martina’s permission.

The Photographer Behind Mimas Garden

Karaburun, seen through a documentary photographer’s eyes.

Mimas Garden is also the home of documentary photographer Aydın Çetinbostanoğlu. For decades, his camera has followed people, traditions and everyday life in Türkiye and beyond. Karaburun has always held a special place in his work: its villages, fishermen, farmers, seasonal traditions and changing landscape form an extensive photographic archive built over many years.

Some of these photographs live on the walls of Mimas Garden, and others appear throughout this website. For guests interested in photography, staying here can also be a way of discovering Karaburun through the eyes of someone who has photographed it for decades.

Explore Aydın Çetinbostanoğlu’s documentary photography ↗

Photography and Mimas Garden

The photography outing offered to guests who book directly for 7 nights or longer grows naturally from this long documentary relationship with Karaburun. It is not a formal photography course, but an optional opportunity to share the place through light, composition and observation.