The Westist Hotel & Spa
For many travelers the historic district of Beyoğlu is the very heart of Istanbul; it’s among the most picturesque and richly varied parts of town, and is home to more than a few of the city’s finest hotels. To that number you can add the Westist, as purely design-focused a boutique hotel as this city has seen in a long time.
Witt Istanbul Suites
While other Istanbul hotels emphasize the city’s ties to antiquity, Witt Istanbul Suites is every inch the ultra-modern contemporary-design boutique hotel. Formerly an ad agency HQ, it’s close by to the central business district, as well as some of the best shopping, dining and nightlife in this modern quarter.
Gezi Hotel Bosphorus
To call it the Istanbul equivalent of Times Square isn’t quite right, but it gets the general idea across — this is the city’s main crossroads, the heart of the city’s transit network, and both a commercial and a cultural center. More to the point, it’s adjacent to the famous Gezi Park, and a (pretty athletic) stone’s throw from the shores of the Bosphorus itself. A reasonable spot, we think, for a place that calls itself Gezi Hotel Bosphorus.
AJWA Sultanahmet
What’s new is old again at Ajwa Sultanahmet. Though it’s a brand new hotel, Ajwa strives to blend effortlessly into this most historic of Istanbul’s neighborhoods. To that end, it steers well clear of the modern boutique minimalism that’s on display elsewhere in town. This is pure Ottoman style, albeit a contemporary vision thereof — alongside the finely wrought woodwork and the meticulous traditional crafts you’ll find all the services and amenities of a contemporary five-star luxury hotel.
Six Senses Kocataş Mansions
Far up the Bosphorus strait from the rest of Istanbul’s luxury hotels, Six Senses Kocataş Mansions is set in upscale Sariyer, and spans a pair of Ottoman-era mansions, divided into just 45 large rooms and suites. In classic Six Senses style they’re unfailingly luxurious, and stylish as well, blending contemporary design with historical influences. The spa is the centerpiece of the hotel; guests also benefit from a fine Turkish restaurant, a Latin/Asian gastro bar, and an all-day lounge. The city is an hour away on the hotel’s private boat.
Georges Hotel Galata
To a first-timer, the great surprise about Istanbul is how urbane, how sophisticated, how cosmopolitan a city it is. For every potentially exotic ancient landmark or Ottoman flourish there’s something like the Georges Hotel to balance it out. This stylishly refurbished guest house in the bustling Galata district, with its views of the Bosphorus from its roof terrace, is the sort of effortlessly stylish boutique hotel any of the world’s great cities would be only too happy to have.
Tomtom Suites
In this enormous city the prevailing trend in hospitality seems, oddly enough, to be something along the lines of “smaller is better.” And who are we to argue? We’ve got nothing against the big boys, but when you can provide top-shelf service and world-class style in a smaller, more intimate hotel, you’re on to something good. Here, in the upscale residential and diplomatic district around Galata and Pera, is a perfect example, in the form of Tomtom Suites.
10 Karaköy
For many, many years the Morgans hotel group was perfectly content to own a significant cross-section of the New York, London, Miami and Los Angeles boutique-hotel trade. In 2014, however, their ambitions took on a rather more global character, and the first step into uncharted territory was taken by 10 Karaköy — a hotel that’s at the same time recognizably a member of the Morgans family and possessed of a contemporary Turkish character all its own.
Hotel Ibrahim Pasha
It’s deep in the Sultanahmet, surrounded by all of Istanbul’s major sights, as well as all the usual tourist traps you expect from this heavily traveled district; but the Hotel Ibrahim Pasha is a breath of contemporary fresh air. And though it’s named for the neighborhood’s most famous resident, the Grand Vizier to Sultan Suleyman in the 1500s, it wears its historical influence lightly.
SuB Hotel Karakoy
SuB Hotel, quirky capitalization and all, looks more like a place you’d find in Greenpoint (Brooklyn) or Neukölnn (Berlin) than in the oldest part of one of history’s great crossroads of civilizations. But there it is, in the middle of the action and a short ride (or scenic thirty-minute walk) across Galata Bridge to the famous sites of Sultanahmet.
