Good value Istanbul hotel

Hi,

We are loking for a good value Istanbul hotel for a weeks stay in October.
I have found the Hotel Carlton and the Yigitalp but some of the reviews are
rather mixed. Does anyone have any experience of either of these or any
better recommendations ?

Thanks
Mike

In article , Michael Day
wrote:

Hi,

We are loking for a good value Istanbul hotel for a weeks stay in October.
I have found the Hotel Carlton and the Yigitalp but some of the reviews are
rather mixed. Does anyone have any experience of either of these or any
better recommendations ?

Thanks
Mike

Hi Mike, I stayed at the Hotel Ambassador and thought it was great.
This is a link to its web page: http://www.hotelambassador.com/

I went there without planning -- I was on the bus back across Thrace
from Troy and met some Canadians. I asked were they were staying in
Istanbul (I was in pure "wing-it" mode by this point in my long tour):
the Hotel Ambassador. They didn't have a room that first night so they
arranged for another place.

The rooms are nice and plush, and were a good value back in 2002 as
compared to western Europe. The staff was friendly, and helpful (e.g.
"when asked were you are from, say 'Toronto'"). There is a great
breakfast, included, on the terrace on the very top of the hotel, and
it has one of the most incredible views I have ever seen, from Aya
Sofia to the Blue Mosque, off into the Marmara Sea. The hotel's
location is also great, right near the end of the old hippodrome in
Sultanahmet. There is a good cafeteria around the corner where a lot
of the locals eat, and is a good value. There call for prayers at
night is a bother, but I think it must be unavoidable anywhere. To get
there I'd just take a taxi if I were you.

--
Dan Stephenson
Photos and movies from US Parks and all over Europe:
http://homepage.mac.com/stepheda

In article , Dan Stephenson
wrote:

To get
there I'd just take a taxi if I were you.

Check that - I think they'll pick you up. They did from the bus
station, and drove me to the airport when my visit finished.

Later,

--
Dan Stephenson
Photos and movies from US Parks and all over Europe:
http://homepage.mac.com/stepheda

To get there I'd just take a taxi if I were you.
Check that - I think they'll pick you up. They did from the bus
station, and drove me to the airport when my visit finished.

We used one of those services this spring. Never again. It looked
like a really neat idea to be picked up directly from our hotel
without having to carry luggage on public transport, but the minibus
stopped at three other hotels on the way, threading through
Sultanahmet rush-hour traffic before getting on to the coast road.
It took so long buggering around that first kilometre and waiting
for dithery passengers that we got to the checkin just after it
closed - fortunately the woman on duty reopened it for us.

The metro goes out to the airport. That's what we're using next
time. Or if we're really pushed, a taxi. The Havas airport bus
has only two stops in town (Aksaray and Taksim) but at least it's
quick once you've got on it.

As I've posted here before, I prefer Sirkeci to Sultanahmet. There
are hotels there in all price bands and it's more convenient for
public transport if you want to see anything outside Sultanahmet
itself. It is noisy, but Sultanahmet isn't exactly the countryside
either.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

In article , Jack
Campin - bogus address wrote:

To get there I'd just take a taxi if I were you.
Check that - I think they'll pick you up. They did from the bus
station, and drove me to the airport when my visit finished.

We used one of those services this spring. Never again. It looked
like a really neat idea to be picked up directly from our hotel
without having to carry luggage on public transport, but the minibus
stopped at three other hotels on the way, threading through
Sultanahmet rush-hour traffic before getting on to the coast road.
It took so long buggering around that first kilometre and waiting
for dithery passengers that we got to the checkin just after it
closed - fortunately the woman on duty reopened it for us.

In this case though they have a minibus of their own, and they have one
of the staff do the driving. They don't hire this out.

[...]

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

--
Dan Stephenson
Photos and movies from US Parks and all over Europe:
http://homepage.mac.com/stepheda

To get there I'd just take a taxi if I were you.
Check that - I think they'll pick you up. They did from the bus
station, and drove me to the airport when my visit finished.
We used one of those services this spring. Never again. It looked
like a really neat idea to be picked up directly from our hotel
without having to carry luggage on public transport, but the minibus
stopped at three other hotels on the way, threading through
Sultanahmet rush-hour traffic before getting on to the coast road.
It took so long buggering around that first kilometre and waiting
for dithery passengers that we got to the checkin just after it
closed - fortunately the woman on duty reopened it for us.
In this case though they have a minibus of their own, and they have
one of the staff do the driving. They don't hire this out.

That was the situiation with ours. The extra passengers weren't just
picked off the street, these were prearranged stops they hadn't told
us about. I'm not sure if the hotel was part of a small chain or if
the bus was subcontracting to several independent ones.

It used to be the case that you would just never believe anything a
Turkish bus or train operator told you about how long a journey would
take. Those days are past for intercity buses but seemingly not for
everything.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/ for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557