The World's Most Ill-Concieved Resort?

Awaza, Turkmenistan

UK Telegraph: I was wondering whether I might be the only guest staying at the new hotel in Awaza, Turkmenistan's shining resort city on the Caspian Sea, when in walked a group of 14 tourists, most of them British

It's a bit like Dubai," mused Paul Morgan, the oldest of the group. "And some of the bridges look like bridges in London, with Victorian-type lanterns."

The group had just spent the afternoon drifting on a boat up the five-mile-long ornamental canal that cuts the resort off from the desert scrub behind. The eight high-rise, marble-clad hotels were built at a cost of £884 million (($1.4 billion) on the orders of Turkmenistan's eccentric and all-controlling president, Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov – otherwise known as "The Protector". And they are just the first to go up in what may be the most ill-conceived resort ever built.

While you rarely actually taste the petroleum tang from the nearby refinery, it surely offsets the health benefits of the iodine-enriched seawater. Though the sea is something that the hotel staff, ever loyal to the schemes of their president, continually extol, swimming is tricky: even in June, the Caspian waters are cold

Other drawbacks? Awaza's spanking new "international" airport only takes domestic flights; getting a visa is a feat; taps deliver rust-colored water – and then there's the small matter that this former Soviet republic is run by one of the world's most closed and repressive regimes

So what on Earth would bring people here? Simon Cockerell, the organiser of the tour taken by the Britons I ran into, said visitors are drawn by the sheer weirdness of the place. "It's ornate to the point of kitsch," Morgan said, pointing to the gold leaf and marble that is the dominant decorative style.

Other oddities include empty Paris-style bateau-mouche cruisers, a concrete yacht, spas offering treatments with powerful magnets and a riverside restaurant reserved solely for the president.

"There are a lot of similarities between the dictatorships of Kim Jong-il in North Korea and the one here – the marble, the long avenues," said Martin Gordon, another tour member. Despite the low occupancy rates at existing hotels, there are plans to build a further 15, plus an aqua park and two Dubai-style artificial islands. But even at a bargain $25 (£15.20) a night, sun seekers from Britain, or even from nearby Russia or Ukraine, will probably pass.

They have this grand vision, but there's a bit of a gap," said Gordon. "They need to make a bit more of an effort with the beach if they're going to get anywhere. "I was about to dive in and saw this great big submerged metal thing just below the surface."