Exactly! Once I realized how important it was to you, I knew I had to say something.... ;-)

Since Brasil has started exporting parrots again to pay for the horrendous cost of the World football (soccer to you) Championships, it is possible that someone will start a "Istanbul Hotels With best parrot" thread on one of the travel advice sites, and then you will have multiple choices.

On the other hand Cold is also known to have seen elephants of various hues in some hotel lobbies before.

Here is my update on this serendipitous stopover. Unfortunately, it is also a cautionary tale.

I had said last Feb: "Now, the hard part for me is pulling the trigger on purchasing plane tickets this far in advance.
I must retreat and meditate on it..."

Well, it seems that it is possible to retreat and meditate too long. Turkish Airlines' promotional fare from Boston, which once made this option extremely attractive, while not completely disappearing, has inflated. To the point that it can be matched by much shorter flights. The return flight duration in particular was a problem in that we wouldn't be able to use our FF return connection to get back home from Boston on the same day. It boiled down to logistics as much as cost.

All of that being said, I sincerely appreciated your knowledgeable, interesting, and generous advice and suggestions. I will look forward to following them when we do make our way to Turkey. Thank you!

[imagine parrot emoticon here]

Polly sends his regrets:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationP...-Istanbul.html

Go ahead, cold, rub it in!!

It's too bad your scheduling is off, otherwise I'd definitely recommend you check out http://www.istanbulinhours.com/

Turkish provides free tours for people with layovers. Most people who have taken them seem to like them.

astein12: Thanks for the link. The free tours from Turkish Airlines were indeed something that piqued my interest when I first saw the choice of layovers in Istanbul. Unfortunately, none of the tours would have worked with our arrival time. Turkish will also provide free lodging for passengers transiting through Istanbul who find themselves with unavoidably long overnight layovers. That didn't apply to us either, since we had layover options of three, sixteen, or twenty hours.

If I were you, I would drop all the main attractions, and just stroll in Pera. This is the most enchanting neighborhood in The City, reminding you of its glorious multicultural past. A former high class European district, spotted with Churches and Synagogues. A thriving Greek community once lived in Pera, the predominant "minority" of The City, you can still see their mansions, churches, and shops, but all abandoned, since the Istanbul Pogrom. The 6 September 1955, in which 300.000 Turks attacked to all the Greek neighborhoods in The City, burning down the shops, vandalizing the churches, entering and destroying their houses, smashing the graves in the Greek graveyards. The Greeks were heavily wounded, but the Progrom has affected in a smaller scale all the Christians of The City, Armenians, Catholics etc. The 100.000 Greeks of Istanbul were either expelled or left on their own, with a heavy heart, leaving thousand years of Greek Constantinopolitan History behind. As the years passed, almost all the minorities of Istanbul have faded away, and in their mansions were placed Gypsies, Kurds, and Turkish Settlers from the deeps of Asia Minor.
Istanbul is a really nostalgic city, it's a part of her atmosphere, Istanbul is under a process of brutal Turkification and Modernisation, demolishing whole historic neighborhoods to build Malls, building new mosques next to churches, trying to hide its non Turkish parts, and there is no better place than Pera to taste it, yet it retains its past glory Atmosphere. Most tourists don't care about these facts, but they -must- know.
When in Pera, visit the Istiklal street, the most popular boulevard of Istanbul, ideal for people watching. Buy some of the best lokum (turkish delight) from Haci Bekir, or if you are a baklava fan, buy some from Güllüoglu Karaköy for back home., or in the spot. Eat some profiterol in Inci Pastanesi, an old Greek Pastry Shop, which recently moved as the block in which it was situated is to be demolished to build a Mall, yet the century old recipe remains the same. Visit the Cicek Pasaji, one of the many historic "passages" of Pera, and ofcourse don't forget to climb the Galata Tower for the views. Choose a restaurant from the "Culinary Backstreets Istanbul" website in which a local Greek named Angelis shows you all the gastronomic treasures of The City.