Best Stylish Boutique Hotels in Istanbul
Introduction
The Turkish city formerly known as Byzantium and Constantinople has a funky modern personality, evidenced by hip bars, restaurants, and cool neighborhoods such as Karaköy and Galata. 19th-century Ottoman mansions and old guest houses have recently re-emerged as boutique hotels for history-hungry visitors. Trendy or old-school, they flaunt design features from gilded plasterwork and opulent velvet sofas to pared-down wood floors and chic industrialism, all boosted by contemporary comforts. Here are some of Eskapas’ favorite boutique-style places to relax after a day spent exploring Istanbul.
Tomtom Suites
A chic hotel fashioned from a former Franciscan nunnery. Like the city, Tomtom Suites is full of surprises – not least because it offers excellent value for such stylish accommodation. There are 20 rooms, spread over three floors linked by a glass lift, and split into six categories ranging from Standard through to Luxury suites. Whichever category of room you choose, you can expect high ceilings, large, well-proportioned sash windows, natural wood floors, contemporary prints on the plain painted walls, and a comfortable sitting area. Don’t miss the rooftop terrace where guests enjoy sundowners looking over the confluence of the Golden Horn and Bosphorus Strait.
Hotel Ibrahim Pasha
From the wicker chairs on the hotel’s tiled roof terrace, you get views over the spired Blue Mosque, a few steps from the door to the maritime expanses beyond. Below, contemporary elegance with a historical frisson permeates these two knocked-through early 20th-century Ottoman mansions. Next door to the Islamic Arts museum, the hotel is named after Suleiman, the Magnificent friend Ibrahim Pasha, who built the 16th-century palace that now houses the museum. The lobby, with its leather sofas, log fires, and library of guidebooks is as appealing as the magnificent terrace. The spacious, tasteful bedrooms are full of thoughtful details, from the fruit bowl to the individual décor.
W Hotel
The W Istanbul delivers on all the hallmarks of the W brand: Trendy décor, excellent dining, and happening nightlife. The standard Wonderful Rooms are large and hip, with an open bathroom concept, modern technology, amazing beds, and neon pink lighting accents.
Hagia Sofia Mansions
Hagia Sofia Mansions is a prime location a stone’s throw from Sultanahmet Square, Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, and the Basilica Cistern. This was perfect for us as first-time visitors to Istanbul. The hotel recently joined the Curio Collection by Hilton portfolio in November 2019. The hotel does not consist of one complex but instead of two main areas.
Luce Di Pera Boutique Hotel
Luce Di Pera is a boutique hotel in the heart of Istanbul—Taksim, Beyoglu of the historical Pera region—right in the center of Beyoglu’s most popular attractions. The boutique hotel has nine large, designed, and elegant rooms that provide a refreshing night’s rest in the city that never sleeps.
Vault Karakoy, The House Hotel
An impeccably stylish hotel from the renowned House group, built in a former bank in the now-hip waterfront Karaköy district. The Vault is small enough for staff to get to know the guests quickly and has a friendly atmosphere. The 19th-century building’s original, delicately inlaid granite flooring has been preserved throughout, as have the elegant Neoclassical columns and the beautiful arched windows. High ceilings, paneled wooden doors, parquet floors, and tall windows give a characterful period feel to most rooms, as do the Carrera marble bathrooms. Head up to the rooftop bar and restaurant, which is particularly impressive at sunset.
Georges Hotel Galata
Georges is the epitome of the new wave of hip boutique hotels to open in the city’s old European quarter and makes the most of the beautiful, 19th-century apartment building from which it is fashioned. Yet, it knows precisely what its discerning clientele want from their accommodation in this vibrant city. The 20 rooms here have decent-sized balconies with stunning Bosphorus Strait views, and plenty of light floods through the floor-to-ceiling French windows. The generously proportioned bathrooms gleam with chrome and plate glass softened by antique distressed tile floors and grey, marble-clad walls. Georges’ rooftop restaurant, Le Fumoir, serves traditional French dishes and is locally and internationally well-known.
10 Karaköy
Originally a quarantine hospital, then for much longer a significant fish market, this beautifully restrained 19th-century Neoclassical building has been given a new lease of life following its conversion into 10 Karaköy. The chic ring lights of the modern chandelier dominating the elegant atrium represent air bubbles exhaled by the fish once sold here. In contrast, the waters of the stylish fountain on the back wall of the atrium trickle down over sculpted leaping salmon. The mid-tone décor of the rooms is muted yet warm, enhanced by arty photographs of Istanbul and its inhabitants. The real treasure, however, is the Bahane 10 rooftop bar cum restaurant, which serves a tremendous mezze-based menu.
Bankerhan Hotel
Bankerhan is perhaps the most arty hotel in Istanbul, with many works by leading contemporary Turkish artists adorning the walls of a hotel expertly fashioned from a 19th-century, Parisienne-style apartment building. The hotel is on a quiet side street just above the Art Nouveau Kamondo Steps, famously photographed by Henri Cartier Bresson in the 1960s. Standard doubles come with stripped-wood floors, plain pale walls, and exposed brick ceilings. Sea-view rooms carry a premium, and for the most sensational views, you’ll have to book the Executive Room, which has its terrace.
Sub Karaköy
A hip hotel wrought from an anonymous 1980s office block a few streets from the Bosphorus shoreline. There’s no designer minimalism here; instead, it is a quirky, eclectic, but somehow cohesive blend of the contemporary. A mirrored feature wall, bold color schemes, and individual paintings by prominent local artists (Sub is hooked up with several prestigious galleries) set the scene in the rooms. The fantastic roof terrace has great views across the Bosphorus and Golden Horn confluence. Breakfast is a treat, a natural spread of homemade and organic foodstuff, each labeled with a map of Turkey showing its place of origin.
Sumahan on the Water
The hotel is in Çengelköy, a pretty village once home to a mixed population of Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and other non-Muslim minority groups. It’s renowned for its fish restaurants, some with fabulous views down the Bosphorus to the first suspension bridge and beyond, and Ottoman period, wood-built waterfront mansions known as yalı. Indeed, there’s nothing to do near the Sumahan bar to watch the ships and flights of shearwaters glide up and down the strait – and that, of course, is a significant plus in this often noisy, frantic city. The hotel launch will take you across to the European side of the Bosphorus at Kabataş – a wonderfully scenic ride in its own right – from where it is easy to pick up a tram into the old city, a ferry out to the Princes’ Islands, or ride the funicular to buzzing Beyoğlu.
Raffles Istanbul
Raffles Istanbul has bucked the trend of where to locate a luxury hotel in the city: it is neither in the historic heart of the old city nor in the entertainment quarter of Beyoğlu. It doesn’t even nuzzle up to the blue ribbon of the Bosporus. Instead, it rises above a vibrant business district that offers a genuine slice of contemporary Turkey. Yet the historic old quarter, its skyline of domes and minarets visible from the hotel, is only a few stops away on the M2 metro.
