Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

4 Sleeping Every accommodation style is available in İstanbul. You can live like a sultan in a world-class luxury hotel, bunk down in a dorm bed or settle into a stylish boutique establishment. The secret is to choose the neighbourhood that best suits your interests and then look for accommodation that will suit your style and budget – there are loads of options to choose from. Accommodation Trends Despite what certain members of the EU may think, İstanbul is a European city and accommodation styles and prices here are similar to those in most major European capitals. Recent trends have seen customers moving from small midrange and budget hotels that dominate Sultanahmet towards the apartments and boutique hotels that have been opening in Beyoğlu. Some of these hotels offer chic bars, spas, gyms and other trappings of the international designer lifestyle. Accommodation Styles The boutique hotels in Beyoğlu and along the Bosphorus are hip rather than historic, even though many of them occupy handsome 19th-century apartment blocks. Most have been fitted out by architects versed in international modernism, and have interiors that would suit Stockholm or Sydney as much as they do İstanbul. In most of Sultanahmet’s hotels, the decor is different. These places are often owned and run by locals who are originally from the east of the country and have a resolutely Anatolian aesthetic – you’ll see lots of carpets and kilims (pileless woven rugs), silk bedspreads and nazar boncuks (blue glass beads that Turks believe protect against the evil eye). That said, there are a number of Sultanahmet hotels that have melded the best of both worlds, delivering quietly elegant interiors with Anatolian or Ottoman flourishes.