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The NYT Wants You to Get Thee to a (Turkish) Nunnery
In this weekend’s travel section, the NYT checked in to Tomtom Suites in Istanbul, a newish 20-suite boutique hotel housed in a restored 1901 building that once was home to French nuns, and decided Hamlet’s infamous slam—“Get thee to a nunnery”—could be the hotel’s “fun-loving invitation” or slogan.
Highlights:“Tomtom Suites addresses the partier’s paradox: how to find a crash pad within striking distance of a night-life district that isn’t overrun by noisy lager louts,” the NYT writes, describing the location as a five-minute walk to nightlife-heavy Istiklal Caddesi. Spacious suites have contemporary touches (wooden floors, “high-tech gadgetry”) injected with “Turkish touches” (hand-painted ceramics, tubular harem-style tasseled cushions). The bathroom has a Philippe Starck-designed bathtub with underwater jets as well as Molton Brown spa toiletries. The top-floor breakfast terrace serves a tasty morning spread.
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NYT Pops Into W Istanbul for Some Turkish Delight
Until the W Barcelona officially pops its cork this fall, the W Istanbul remains Europe’s only W Hotel. The NYT’s Fred Bernstein checked the place out recently, so we thought we’d compare his observations to those of HotelChatter’s Shira Levine, who just last month filed her own review of the “crazy sexy cool” spot. Overall, the two agreed on much.
Highlights: “There is no perfect spot in Istanbul — the city is too vast and complicated — but the W’s comes close,” Bernstein says. (Er, Levine put it differently: “W Istanbul is located on an attractive but weird corner where there is a complicated traffic pattern.”)
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The Ceylan Intercontinental Is a Decent Hotel with An Excellent Breakfast Buffet
Last week Shira Levine spent a few days getting her Turkish Delight on in Istanbul, Turkiye ("Turkey is a bird; Turkiye is the country") and checking out the transcontinental Eurasian city's hotel scene. Any questions about where to stay in Turkiye? Send 'em to us and we'll have Shira answer them for you.
First Impressions
It's nice when a medium hotel surprises us with doing things right we weren't even expecting. That way there is some balance to our disappointment when something isn't right. Istanbul's Ceylan Intercontinental Hotel is one of those hotels. While it's been awarded five stars, our feeling is that it has a five star quality in a very 1992 kind of way. Nevertheless, the lobby is classic. It's wide open and bright with shiny and gilded decor and dramatic stairs that lead to some good early morning dining.
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Turkish Delight: A Former Prison is Now a Four Seasons Hotel
Last week Shira Levine spent a few days getting her Turkish Delight on in Istanbul, Turkiye ("Turkey is a bird; Turkiye is the country") and checking out the transcontinental Eurasian city's hotel scene. Any questions about where to stay in Turkiye? Send 'em to us and we'll have Shira answer them for you.
By director Oliver Stone's "Midnight Express" film portrayal, if there is one notable Turkish site to skip over it's the inside of a Turkish prison. But if it's the inside of a Neoclassical jail conversion and that jail conversion happens to now be a Four Seasons, we learned that staying a few night doesn't compromise sanity, just bank accounts.
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Turkish Delight: The W Istanbul Brings The Crazy Sexy Cool
Last week Shira Levine spent a few days getting her Turkish Delight on in Istanbul, Turkiye ("Turkey is a bird; Turkiye is the country") and checking out the transcontinental Eurasian city's hotel scene. Any questions about where to stay in Turkiye? Send 'em to us and we'll have Shira answer them for you.
With Istanbul the first European country to bag a W Hotel, we knew there wasn't a chance in Turkish prison hell that Starwood would mince on the fabulosity for W Istanbul. Especially when the location is in the renovated Akaretler Row Houses of the exclusive Besiktas district. Back in the 1870s those row houses served as the housing for Sultan Abdülaziz's staff of the nearby Dolmabahçe Palace).
So at just over a year old things are looking pretty trendy as expected. 50 Cent recently stayed in the Exteme WOW Suite. In June NIN will arrive and they have apparently booked a few of the MEGA suites.
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Top That! Edition Hotel Will Open in Istanbul in December
UPDATE: A rendering of the building is now pictured after the jump.
South Beach, DC, Honolulu, Istanbul. What do all these destinations have in common? They have all, at one point or another, been designated the location for the very first Edition Hotel, the new luxury hotel collection spawned by Bill Marriott and Ian Schrager.
Last we checked, Edition Honolulu would open in sometime in 2010. The Edition DC project was starting to look rather unlikely and we've got no idea what happening with Edition South Beach.
But now there's been an announcement that Edition Istanbul will open before all these other jokers on Dec 15, 2009.
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Park Hyatt Istanbul Gets Delayed Again
Update: A rep just let us know that the hotel does not have a specific opening date. But they are holding a press conference on October 27 and the new opening date (probably mid-November) will be revealed.
Dear Park Hyatt Istanbul,
Remember when you said you were opening September 1? And then you said you were opening October 16? In fact, once you even claimed early 2008.
Well all those times have come.. and they have passed. We're guessing you're not open yet because now your site is telling us "end of 2008" instead of October. And also it won't let us make reservations. Even though we TOTALLY COULD before.
And while hotels do take a lot of work to open, this is a renovated building. It's been standing for almost 100 years! What is taking you so long?
We are able to make reservations starting November 17, but we don't know when you're really opening. We don't believe anything you say anymore. You've shattered our dreams too many times.
Call us (or not) when you're ready to commit.
Love,
HotelChatter
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Park Hyatt Istabul Opens With Armani and Gucci Inside
[Update: Despite what the online reservations system initially told us, this hotel is offically opening on October 16th. Online reservations are being taken for stays later than October 18th.]
There are at least two reasons to stay at the new Park Hyatt Istanbul Maçka Palas: Istanbul is the only city in the world located on two continents, and Emporio Armani and Gucci boutiques are in the same building.
Of course, there is also the limestone bathrooms, with 25 of the 90 deluxe-sized rooms featuring authentic Turkish baths with heated stone seats. And it's located smack in the middle of the ultra-trendy shopping district, Nişantaşi, home of some of the best shopping in the world.
Each guestroom is equipped with the latest technology including high-speed broadband Internet access, flat screen television, a DVD/CD player and iPod docking station. And a boutique hotel wouldn't be complete without an exclusive spa and special spa suites.
This renovated 1922 building has a unique blend of the old art deco and new modern architecture found in other Park Hyatts. Glass tile is found in much of the hotel with a "Bordeaux Wall" in The Prime, the first Istanbul steakhouse, made entirely out of wine bottle glass.
The hotel officially just opened September 1 but already appears to be sold out for much of September. Rates start at 230 euros ($336 US).
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The New W Hotel in Istanbul is Keeping Everyone Happy So Far
We were quite excited when we learned the W Hotel Istanbul was ready to open earlier this month and it sounds like we're not the only ones. UrbanDaddy just had a visit there and reported back in pretty glowing tones:
If you go with the Extreme Wow Suite (which we know you will, because you're extreme like that), you'll relax from within the bubbling-hot-water confines of a Jacuzzi on your private terrace, admiring the sun dipping under the Bosphorus Strait.
We agree that this sounds like a nice way to enjoy the chaos of Istanbul. The only hiccup seems to be that add-ons like internet access or the kind of necessary process of eating breakfast are all too expensive for most people's tastes, after paying at least $500 for a room. (Yes, people want free WiFi, especially after they pay a high price for a room. Anybody listening?)
Otherwise, all glowing reports so far about the W Istanbul--and apparently its presence has made the whole neighborhood turn funky. We're looking forward to trying out that Jacuzzi some time.
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The W Hotel To Open in Istanbul on May 6
The W Istanbul is going to open soon! From USA Today:
The Istanbul hotel will open May 6 with 134 guest rooms, including 26 suites, a spa and chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Spice Market restaurant.
The hotel is located in a historic building at the end of the Akaretler Row Houses in the Besiktas district, which date to the 1870s but have been newly redeveloped. The site is near the Bosphorus Strait and the trendy Nisantasi neighborhood.
The guest rooms will all have high ceilings and full-length windows along with 32-inch TVs, iPod docking stations and as the website promises, ottomans.
There's also a W-branded gym, Sweat. Interestingly, there's no Bliss spa but the hotel does have treatment rooms where estheticians use Estee Lauder products. However, Bliss products will be found in the room. You know, because god forbid you go to a different country and have to try something new.
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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]
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