What area to book hotel in Istanbul!

FLOOPER

Hi all,

Am heading over in Sept for 5 days with a friend and will be doing all the touristy sights during teh day but would will be socialising probably everynight.

Just wanted to know would it be better to get a hotel in Beyoglu area or to base ourselves in Sultanahmet where a lot of the the sights seem to be based. But was reading that the restaurants were catering for teh tourists so quality wouldn't be the best and I'm not sure about the night life there.

Are taxis cheap to go from Beyoglu to Sultanahmet?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

faigs

If you can get a decent hotel in Taksim, thats a pretty good area for nightlife, probably the most popular. But there are loads of different areas you can try out, all different. Taxi's a a bit cheaper than here, but there are so many of them that traffic tends to be bad all night/early morning!

Bars with rooftop terraces are popular in the summer. If you get sick of Kebabs I highly recommend a Japanese restaurant called Zuma, the food really is something special. I haven't had beef ribs as tender in my life!

The Davestator

I'd go with Taksim area too if I were you. Taxis are very cheap, but they are brutal at ripping you off. Agree a fare, or make sure they use the metre.
Drink is very expensive from when I was there (2002) about 7 euro a pint. It misght have come down or gone up since then!

faigs

The Davestator wrote: »

It misght have come down or gone up since then!

It's definately gone down since then, not near that expensive, unless you go to an Irish bar, they think they're 'exclusive' for some reason. Drink the local Efes or Tuborg (Danish) is popular. Yea ask the taxis to use the meter as soon as you get in, we got ripped off once, was only there a few weeks ago.

undo

faigs wrote: »

If you get sick of Kebabs I highly recommend a Japanese restaurant called Zuma, the food really is something special. I haven't had beef ribs as tender in my life!

Wow, why would you think Turkish cuisine has only kebabs to offer? Turkish food is amazing. There are so many great dishes. When in Turkey, try the Turkish stuff... going to a Japanese restaurant strikes me as one of the oddest things to do in Istanbul.

The Davestator

undo wrote: »

Wow, why would you think Turkish cuisine has only kebabs to offer? Turkish food is amazing. There are so many great dishes. When in Turkey, try the Turkish stuff... going to a Japanese restaurant strikes me as one of the oddest things to do in Istanbul.

In fairness to the previous poster, they said 'if you get sick of kebabs' I'm sure they meant Turkish food in general.

faigs

undo wrote: »

Wow, why would you think Turkish cuisine has only kebabs to offer? Turkish food is amazing. There are so many great dishes. When in Turkey, try the Turkish stuff... going to a Japanese restaurant strikes me as one of the oddest things to do in Istanbul.

Turkish food is great, I know they have a lot to offer and I really love to eat local cuisine when I travel, in fact it usually is a major factor in deciding where to travel to. There are a lot of kebabs on menus though, not that it's a bad thing, they're really varied and good.

But after a week we wanted to try something different, and it's good to know that the Turks do foreign cuisine really well too. The Japanese restaurant was recommended to us and it had amazing food and a beautiful setting beside the sea, so I don't see a problem in recommending it to a fellow traveler, obviously they'll be eating Turkish food for most of their stay, you'd be mad not to!

undo

The Turks do a lot of excellent vegetarian dishes as well. I highly recommend those (and that despite me not being a vegetarian at all). Of course there is nothing wrong with trying other stuff as well... it was just the summary of all Turkish food as "kebabs" that seemed a bit odd to me .

blorg

@FLOOPER- probably best give an idea of your price range and your expectations regarding comfort. I cycled there in June and stayed in Kumkapı, just south of Sultanahmet (1km distance) in the cheapest place I could find, €15, could have got it for €10 if I had negotiated. At point A here, the Blue Mosque is at point B for reference. Where I was staying seemed quite "local," a little run down in places but certainly seemed very safe. The area is well known for its seafood restaurants although I am not a fan of fish so can't say I partook! It was called the Hotel Emek but isn't the one that appears on Google searches, they weren't exactly internet savvy in there They also speak basically no English and I speak no Turkish but I didn't find this a major issue. Basic place, friendly people. The whole city for that matter seemed very safe, far more than any other large city I have been to. No hassling of tourists and a lot of genuine kindness.

There were some lovely looking more upscale places in Sultanahmet in particular between the Blue Mosque and the Bosphorous, although prices topped out at €90 where I was asking. Traditional wooden Ottoman architecture.

Beyoglu and Taksim are a fair bit further away across the Golden Horn although they are more the modern end of the city where you will find more cool modern restaurants, bars, etc. Good nightlife up there and very European feeling. The restaurants in Sultanahmet were well overpriced and touristy but if you went down a side street you would find something more genuine at a normal price. Where I was staying was out of the centre enough and the nightlife seemed sort of "local". Beyoglu would certainly be the place to stay for the more modern nightlife. I would not expect great nightlife in Sultanahmet to be honest by comparison. If you walk down to the Bosphorous (or take the funicular) there is a regular tram that runs all the way in to Sultanahmet, which would be another option. I didn't take any taxis.