Istanbul Hotels
 

Has anyone stayed at the Faros Hotel/Sultanahmet? I have reserved a family suite. If you stayed there, would you recommend it?

Thanks

Someone on here did recommend it to me. We almost chose it, but in the end, selected a place with more modern furnishings (rather than "Ottoman style")

Ottoman style probably refers to the building not the furnishings. Our hotel, Tash Konak, was described as ottoman sryle and it was, an old mansion renov. into a very comfortable hotel with all funishings of the today genre except the lounge..hassocks, lounges and a charcoal burner..Charming but the rooms were very comfortable, clean and quiet.Did you look on Trip Adv. for any comments??

Thanks. We're booked there for 3 nights later this month, then switching to another hotel for an additional 3 nights. (couldn't get full week in one place by the time I made reservations) Will include a review of it when I post a trip report.
SF7307- Assuming your "handle" means you're in SF Bay area. So am I. Hope you have a great trip.

I am from SF - we're going in early June. (P.S. I looked at TA pictures of all the hotels we were considering. That always helps us narrow it down).

We just returned from Istanbul. We stayed in the highly-recommended Sari Konak, which we pre-paid. Very clean, well-located (if you don't mind being accosted by carpet salesmen the minute you walk out the door), etc., but the staff was not trustworthy. They pulled a "we have an upgrade for you but you'll have to move rooms your second 2 nights". Turned out that the first 2 nights were in a less-expensive room than what we had paid for, but we didn't like the "upgraded" room, so we ended up staying in the less-expensive room -- yet were given no compensation. The way it was handled was less than straightforward.

Also, when I asked for help making a phone call, the desk clerk was anything but accommodating...you'd have thought I was asking for a trip to the moon.

I would not stay there again.

Were I to return to Istanbul, I would stay at Hotel Yesil Ev, where we ate 3 of our meals (in their beautiful courtyard restaurant) and looked at the rooms. It was one of the few places in Istanbul where I felt the service was neither obsequious nor mercenary. Perfectly located near the Blue Mosque, right across from the Sultanahmet Ritz Carlton (which looked weird to me, I don't care how vaunted it may be.)

Tell me about the restaurants at Yesil Ev (you must have liked them to have eaten there 3 times). We're staying nearby.

sf7307:

Are you referring to the Four Seasons Sultanahmet? It really is a great place to stay with a beautiful interior courtyard. Formerly a prison.

I have been recommending Yesil EV here for years, also the garden restaurant, but no one listens to me.


Thin

No, we are not staying at the Four Seasons :-), just a small boutique hotel in Sultanahmet.

sf7307, what I liked about the YE restaurant is (1) you can eat outside when it's warm; (2) you can eat in the orangerie when it's not so warm, and still feel like you're outside; (3) the service is unpretentious but still formal (I can't stand restaurants where the waiters try to be "cute" and/or to "charm" you with their personality, which is usually obnoxious -- and there are many of these in Sultanahmet, or at least there were when we were there); (4) the food is simple and fresh, not over-spiced and "dense" like a lot of tourist food. E.g., I had the best chopped tomato salad that I've ever had anywhere. Excellent grilled fish, too.

YE is also an oasis -- a very welcome oasis -- in the middle of what I found to be a very hyped-up, overcrowded, rather Disneyland-ish, exploit-the-tourist-however-you-can city. (My very biased opinion only, obviously!)

Weekender, the formerly-a-prison aspect of Four Seasons is what I found weird about it. Maybe I've just watched Midnight Express too many times, but it's all I could see when I saw those walls...

Lucie, I'm grabbing the back of my neck, as I do whenever Midnight Express is mentioned!

Do the outdoor restaurant and the Orangerie share a menu/kitchen?

Yes, they do, sf. I think you'll like it, if I know you at all!