Turkey Travel Guide
Tags: Istanbul Hotel Reviews / → All Tags
A'Jia Mansion Hotel: Hot or Not
A'jia is Istanbul's "serenity now" spot. Not much to do, in the traditional tourist sense, however, a 16 room waterfront Ottoman mansion hotel called A'jia is justification enough to consider staying in A'jia.
A Mediterranean Italian terrace restaurant, teak balconies, and panoramic views of the Bosphorous sure look pretty on websites and brochures, but does this hotel provide the type of experience that its views and price tag deserve?
Reports are mixed. European travelers tend to rave about this place, while American folks, at least this one from Chicago, tend to disagree:
Loud music plays all night preventing you from sleeping; room service delivers delicious food, but certainly not what you ordered; preparations for evening concerts begin early in the morning, by banging around wrought iron chairs, once again waking you up. The kind hearted fools at the front desk, try but are completely helpless and unable to help you out. They offer you coffee for compensation.
Maybe European travelers aren't as cranky when they don't get much sleep. We are still looking for more info on the A'jia experience, a hotel this beautiful is a terrible thing to sully with bad service, so if you have been there, let us know in the hotel review section here.
Related Stories:
· A'Jia [TripAdvisor]
Tags: Hotels in Istanbul / → All Tags
For $20,000 a Night You Too Can Feel like Sting, George W., or Just a Sultan
If you're paying $15,000 a night for a hotel room, you'd better hope it's called something like the Sultan Suite. Well that is what it's called at the Ciragan Palace Kempinski in Istanbul.
If you've actually got the dough to throw down for a room like this, expect the works. Overlooking both Asia and Europe due to its locale, this isn't even the top. Throw down an extra $5,000 grand more and you can be the grand sultan like many celebs to have come before you:
Sting moved out the day before I arrived and other illustrious guests have included Luciano Pavarotti, Ray Charles, Gloria Estefan, Warren Beatty, Uma Thurman, Prince Charles, Bill Clinton and assorted Bushes
With a celeb list like that and a bill over 20 grand don't worry you'll be seeing plenty of crystal chandeliers, Turksih marble, and the high-tech stuff too like plasma TVs, automatic sound systems and WiFi. You can even rally up your butler to arrange the mattress's softness to your liking, something we imagine George W. having done.
As for us, we don't need a bed butler. We'll probably just demand a silver platter of Turkish Delights and work on feeling like a sultan...without the sex slaves.
Related Stories:
· Room with a View-of two Continents [The Star]
· Ciragan Palace Reviews [TripAdvisor]
Tags: Killer View / → All Tags
Room with a Killer View: Hotel Topkapi
We are suckers for a room with a killer view. We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.
Staying in Istanbul can be a hit or miss. Here out the window we've got a real hit from the three star Hotel Topkapi. Unfortunately, past reviews of the hotel are a bit more miss. So it's a case of deciding how much a killer view is worth. In this case it will be a lot cheaper than in most other places of the globe.
To the hotel's credit however, complaints consisted of limited English. The staff had limited English, the hotel room television had limited English speaking channels, and we'll confirm that although there is an English language icon on their website; it doesn't work. But hell, what are you going to Istanbul for? A view or an English gabfest?
Related Stories:
· Vue de la fenetre de ma chambre [Flickr]
· Hotel Topkapi Reviews [TripAdvisor]
Tags: Tips / Hotel Websites / Killer View / Istanbul Hotels / → All Tags
Istanbul Hotel's Caste System
Not sure where to stay in Istanbul? According to Princess Vladka (a blog not a real princess), the place to go is Hotel Uyan. From the looks of it, she's right; the views from this hotel, which overlooks the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Marmara Sea, are killer and give Istanbul a few bonus points.
The hotel's construction was started in 1928, to be an Ottoman house, but it has been updated for today with conveniences we expect like free WiFi and breakfast. According to the Princess, rooms are clean and service is great.
There's just one small catch: never have we seen such a difference in rooms within the same hotel. If you book the small double room you are basically in a closet room that looks like it would have been created for the hired help in some old world, high-class mansion. Book the deluxe suite and you are in a room fit for a king. This creates a sort of caste system within the small boutique hotel. We have to wonder if people will be eyeing your key to see what room you are staying in and judging you accordingly. (But props to the hotel website for accurately depicting the rooms. Notice the TV squeezed next to the corner of the bed.)
We'll only have to assume that the Princess herself, stayed in a deluxe room rather than one of these closet spaces so our advice is this: stay in the standard only if you are looking for a hostel in Istanbul. If it's more you are after then book the damn suite.
Related Stories:
· Istanbul [PrincessVladkaBlog]
· Hotel Uyan Reviews [TripAdvisor]
Tags: Hotel Deals / → All Tags
Cheap Trip To Turkey
For the geographically challenged, the capitol of Turkey is not Istanbul, but Euro-infused Ankara.
Although it has the reputation as a university town and business center, tourism is growing. There might not be a lot to see and do in the city itself, but it's a great base to explore other areas like Anatolia, Cappadocia or the Black Sea coast.
Check into the new Swissotel Ankara, which officially opens on May 1. The 150-room hotel is located near the embassies and the Presidential Palace in Cankaya. No room will be without the basics: an espresso machine, DVD player, printer, and jacuzzi. If it's space you desire, the Swissotel now has the largest suite in the city.
Now, the hotel is offering introductory rates of $99 a night until August 31.
Related Stories:
· What's The Deal [Washington Post]
· Ankara [Hit It]
Tags: Treehouse Hotels / → All Tags
Tree House Hotel Trends
This summer we uncovered an unusal new "hotel" in the wilds of Germany, called the Zentendorf Tree House.
We just chalked it up to a wacky German thing.
But oh no, Turkey is now taking over the Tree House Domain. Wait, is this like in '45 when Turkey declared war on Germany? Doubt it.
Budget Travel reports that along the southern coast of Turkey, a backpacking haven near the port town of Olympos, tree house hostels are going up.
Here's the skinny:
There is Kadir's Tree Houses which go for $11 a night, Turkmen Tree Houses , Saban Pansion and Bayram's .
Kadir's is apparently the most "social" because of a nightly bonfire but also because you don't have to stay in a tree house--they offer on-ground cabins and bungalows with bathrooms too.
Turkmen is where you go when you can't get into Kadir's but this might be a good thing because you can sleep in an actual bed.
Saban Pension is the more mellow place with room for only 100 guests (versus 450 at Turkmen's) and Bayram's is where you go to get hammered at the Blotto Bar and listen to the Turkish DJ spin his jams.
The only problem with tree houses? They're kind of hard to climb up into when you're drunk. But for under $20 a night, it's a chance most backpackers are willing to take.
Related Stories:
· Tree Houses for Adults [HotelChatter]
Tags: Hotels / → All Tags
Just Opened: All White Ev On The Med
What is up with Turkey? Did the tourism board decide on "Turkey is for virgins" as their new summer tourist season slogan?
First there was the all white Hillside Su in Konyaalt, and now, Ev, which means "home" in Turkish, has opened a pure white hotel in Bodrum, Turkey.
The new 48-room Turkish boutique is set atop the stunning Türkbükü Bay, comes equipped with Smeg kitchens in each unit, and boasts a total of eight pools.
This sounds like the perfect low-profile hotel, but how 'bout this recent Turkish run on pure white hotel decor? Is there a message in the palette? You decide.
Related Stories:
· You Like To Watch, Don't You? [HotelChatter]
Tags: Miscellaneous / → All Tags
Amazing Race 7 Hotel Report: What Is A Gnome?
Does anyone else find watching Meredith and Gretchen like watching a typical Hollywood horror movie?
You know they are going to get the axe, it is just a matter of when, but you shout at the TV trying to keep them alive.
Well the shouting worked this week as Meredith & Gretchen kicked ass, old people style.
Unfortunately, Boston Rob, who recently beat out Todd English as Boston's #3 "Most Loathsome Bostonian," (Yes, as soon as the folks in New York do something, the folks in Boston feel the need to do the exact same thing.) was not eliminated from the race. However, at least the man that needed a definition for the word 'gnome' didn't get his hands on the $20,000 cash prize offered by Travleocity.
The Amazing Race Hotel Report Continues Post Break
Tags: Hotel Heaven / → All Tags
Saying Yes To Hotel Yesil Ev
The best kind of hotel recommendation? The kind the recommender is willing to actually put his or her money where his or her mouth is.
Gridskipper guest editor Erik D'Amato recently dropped plastic on a room at Yesil Ev in Istanbul's central Beyazit-Sultanahmet district for an upcoming family vacation.
The 19 room Hotel Yesil Ev is on of the only decent options in old Istanbul, and according to Erik, it is well ahead of decent. Past hotel guests include François Mitterand, the Crown Prince of Belgium, and Larry King.
D'Amato says:
We can't wait to go back and enjoy a glass of raki in the backyard garden, with its pink porphyry pool. Then again, we'll be on vacation.
Related Stories:
· Turkish Delight [Gridskipper]
· Yesil Ev Hotel Reviews [TripAdvisor]
Tags: Hotels / → All Tags
Istanbul's Answer To The Hudson
Last fall, before the Marmara Perea opened in Istanbul near the Taksim/Beyoglu area, Wallpaper* Navigator called the property "Istanbul's answer to the Hudson."
In actuality, if early reports are to be believed, we would add that MP Istanbul has a leg up on the Hudson--service with a smile!
According to a recent guest:
I was a solo traveller and the staff went out of their way to welcome me. The room service was prompt and courteous. Really, I found it difficult to fault the place, and when I go back to Istanbul the MP is where I'll be staying.
So it looks like if you want a funky, sleek design hotel with a killer lobby and great service you will have to hop a plane to Istanbul.
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople.
Related Stories:
· Marmara Pera Hotel Reviews [TripAdvisor]
Tags: Hotels / → All Tags
Turkish Prison Hotel
Would you pay ~$100 a night to sleep in a luxury ancient cave monastery, which doubled as a Turkish prison back in the day?
We know, we know, it is hard to get Midnight Run out of your mind. However, it sounds like you should consider this former prison lodge when visiting Turkey.
Gamirasu Cave Hotel is an eighteen-room cave house, in Ayvali Village near Urgup, right in the middle of Cappadocia, Turkey.
So what is cave luxury? Well some rooms come with their own fireplace and balcony--along with the other usual amenity suspects.
This is, without a doubt, the closest you will ever come to a real life Uncle Owen-Aunt Beru experience.
Enjoy.
Related Stories:
· Gamirasu Cave Hotel Reviews [TripAdvisor]
Tags: Hotels / Karim Rashid / Turkey Hotel Reviews / → All Tags
You Like To Watch Don't You?
When Karim Rashid, self proclaimed world changer, wearer of all white all the time, and now, hotelier, goes hotel shopping, we are guessing the Hillside Su is near the top of his list.
Hillside Su is an all-white design hotel on Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast. The hotel boasts cordless phones, a balcony with a sofa, a bar with "a range of booze", and mood lighting. Yup, that's right, when you check-in to Hillside Su you will be asked to choose between pink, white, or red mood lighting for your room. Oh, and each room is equipped with big giant mirrors on the wall. Whaa, Chicka, Whaa, Whaa.
Furthermore, the television in your room comes with a 24 hour channel showing the lobby, swimming pool, and deck areas. Hmmm. You don't think those hotel cameras are also behind those big in-room mirrors do you?
Wait, haven't we seen this set up before? Anyone remember Sliver? That terrible movie with Sharon Stone and the Baldwin who recently found religion.
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