Choose a luxury hotel in Istanbul with Small Luxury Hotels of the World. You’ll be dazzled by Byzantine architecture, labyrinthine bazaars, Ottoman glamour and the contemporary cool.
Luxury things to do in Istanbul
Sail to the idyllic Princes Islands where horse-driven carriages are the only form of transport. Shop for saffron in the Egyptian Market. Galleries in fashionable Galatasaray are the place to discover the city’s up-and-coming artists. To prepare for an evening of chilled beats at an exclusive Ortaköy nightclub by the Bosphorus, soak in a boutique hammam beneath a dome lined with Ottoman tiles.
Luxury cultural experiences in Istanbul
Classical music fills the floodlit caverns of the Byzantine Cistern. You can watch the mesmerising Sufi ‘dance of the whirling dervishes’ in a Beyoğlu monastery. Your stroll through the Pera district takes you past Art Nouveau buildings on the elegant Istiklal Caddesi. At the Hagia Sophia Museum, follow your private guide along a winding pathway to its upper level to see glittering mosaics. The treasury at Topkapi Palace houses jewels bigger than crystal balls. Explore the harem to discover tiled fountains.
Gourmet Istanbul
Begin your meal with a parade of meze dishes at Beyoğlu’s outdoor meyhane tavern restaurants followed by grilled kebabs or köfte with fragrant pilaf rice. Luxury Istanbul hotels along the Bosphorus serve grilled fish and crispy calamari from the Black Sea. Sip cloudy glasses of aniseed raki on rooftop terraces overlooking the Golden Horn or puff on an apple-scented nargileh hookah amid the Byzantine columns of a leafy tea garden.
Choose a luxury hotel in Istanbul with Small Luxury Hotels of the World to experience a city redolent of spice and glittering with gemstones. Stay in an 18th-century pasha’s mansion turned boutique hotel and enjoy the use of a private yacht.