Winter Weekends at Pera White

Van's winter is its most underrated season. The lake holds its colour under grey skies, snow catches on the old stonework, and the city slows to the pace the hotel was built for. From December through March, we are introducing three small additions to the weekend stay.

Tea hour. At five each afternoon through the cold months, the salon serves a small spread of regional pastries — kete, walnut-filled rolls, the dark molasses cookies locally called pekmezli kurabiye — alongside black tea and herbal infusions from the mountains above the lake. There is no charge for resident guests.

The sunrise walk. Saturday mornings, one of our team leads a slow, unhurried walk along the lakeshore path north of the hotel — roughly forty-five minutes, returning in time for breakfast. The walk departs at first light, which through winter falls between 7:15 and 7:45. Sign up the night before at the front desk; we provide warm tea at the turn-around point.

The reading room. Our smallest ground-floor parlour, previously used only for private functions, has been converted into a quiet reading space open through the day. The shelves hold a curated selection of Turkish and English writing on the region — history, natural history, poetry — alongside current magazines. It is a no-conversation room; a second lounge nearby continues to serve guests who prefer to talk.

All three additions begin the first weekend of December and run through the end of March. Reservations for the winter weekends are open now. Our concierge desk is available for questions at the numbers and email on the contact page.