do you prefer the hyatt or the ritz and why? we are looking for a place for the 1st 2 nights of our trip after a 15 hour plane ride. which is easier to get to and more pleasurable?

Ummm. Lately I seem to get slammed for suggesting this as there seem to be an amazing number of mind readers here, but I still think it would be nice if you included the name of the city you're talking about for those of us not so pyschic.

That is a fair suggestion...guess I got carried away thinking everyone knew!!!....we are going to istanbul and deciding between the hyatt and ritz. The hyatt looks very nice and new. However, I wanted to get other peoples thoughts on where to stay...ritz or hyatt for the first two nights since we will be pretty exhausted after the 15 hour plane ride. We don't want to have to travel even more to get from place to place. Please let me know which one you prefer and why

I'm not a good one to ask, but if I wanted a luxury hotel in Istanbul, I'd prefer the Four Season which is inside an atmospheric old prison. I'm not that familiar with the ritz or the hyatt, but I suspect they're like the ritz's and hyatts all over the rest of the world. I'd prefer something with a little more local color. Forgive me if their Istanbul properties are something different.

Unfortunately, they don't have availability the first two nights so we have to come up with another option. How are the locations for each of these hotels?

A text search for "ritz and istanbul" (or "and hyatt&quot will pull up a number of threads, including your earlier one.

Here's a fairly recent one which comments on the Ritz's location:
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34791096

The Destinations section here describes the Hyatt as having views of the Bosporus.

I'd imagine there are plenty of reviews on both hotels at tripadvisor.com Which usually provides links to location maps.

If not, try typing the hotel addresses into mappy.com

I've not been to Istanbul. Suggest you use the city name in your post titles in future so that those with personal experience will open it.

Sorry; that link wasn't correct. Try this one (which is also pretty entertaining):

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34654270

Both are good hotels, good locations. Both have seaview as well. Having said that Ritz has more modern building.

Happy Travelling,
Murat