Looking for a hotel in Istanbul connected to airport!
 

We are flying a young lady over from Moldova and some family friends are paying for her to go to college here!! Pretty amazing, huh?? She has never been on an airplane and has never lived in a house with indoor plumbing. We are so excited to give her this opportunity!
Anyway, when she departs Moldova, she will have an overnight layover in Istanbul. She speaks several languages, so that will not be a problem. However, this will all be very new to her! I have heard there is a hotel connected to the airport- name? I also heard this hotel is very $$$$.. is there another one that would be very easy for her to get to? She arrives IST around 3pm and leaves the next morning.
Thanks for your thoughts. She has been mailed a credit card in her name, so that is one less thing we have to worry about. If you have any other ideas, bring them on!

TTT- anyone? There was someone a months ago that posted tons of great info for me. Sadly, Fodors deleted the post (bc of personal info, maybe????)

We stayed (ever so briefly) at the hotel connected to the airport. I believe the name is Airport Hotel or something similar. We had planned to stay there one night when we flew in from Kayseri and were flying to London in the AM. A friend had made the arrangements for us and we did not know the price.

They did send a bellboy to meet our plane (which would certainly be nice for the young lady). I had thought the hotel's airport connection would make it easy to go back to the airport as I needed to contact British Air directly. this proved incorrect. Because of security the hotel is actually blocked from direct airport access (ther is a shuttle bus.) So that was problem one. Then we discovered that the price was about $250 US which was far more than we had planned on. Then we got to our room and discovered it (and I would bet all the others) had no real window-----the window area was filled in with those glass blocks. I assume this may also be a security feature. But at that point we decided this was not for us, not even for one night. We called a hotel we had stayed in previously in the Sultanahmet, went to the lobby, told them we were leaving and asked them to call a cab. They were pretty taken aback but did as we asked.

Long way of saying I wouldn't recommend the airport hotel. I am wracking my brain trying to think of alternatives. I do recall that as we left the airport and were on the main road to Istanbul I know I saw at least one major chain but I'm sorry to say I can't recall which although for some reason Holiday Inn or Marriott is in my head. Hopefully someone will jump in with clearer info.

Good luck to you and the young lady on her great adventure.

Found this which may be the one I saw. They offer shuttle service to the airport so that might be good.

Still hope others with more direct info will jump in but at least this may be a start.

You can go to the website and check this one out www.priorityclub.com


Holiday Inn
ISTANBUL AIRPORT-NORTH
MAHMUTBEY MAHALLESI
ISTANBUL, 34217 TURKEY
Hotel Front Desk: 90-212-4466464
Hotel Fax: 90-212-4450173

Hey there TXgal - here is a whole page of airport hotel info from Turkey Travel Planner - I shortened the link with Tiny URL.

http://tinyurl.com/34omv5

Thanks for your thoughts!!! Anyone else have a direct rec... as long as it's close to the airport w/ a shuttle, I think she'll be fine.
However, she is only 18 and this will be her 1st time traveling, ever.

Hi TXgalinGA--
Welcome back! We did delete the post after receiving complaints from several users who were worried about the girl's privacy since the post contained her travel dates, possible flights, and potential hotels. I think coupled with this being her first big trip there was just some worry as to who would see the post.

You should get great information here again--I just wouldn't post her travel dates.

Thanks for coming back---it sounds like an exciting trip for everyone involved.