Istanbul

Istanbul straddles Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus Strait. Its Old City reflects the cultural influences of the many empires that once ruled here. In the Sultanahmet district, Egyptian obelisks rise through the air and the Roman-era Hippodrome was the site of chariot races for centuries. The soaring dome of the 6th-century Byzantine masterpiece, the Hagia Sophia grand mosque, features rare Christian mosaics.

STAY

ÇIRAĞAN PALACE KEMPINSKI In a previous life, this grandiose property on the European side of the Bosphorus was a residence for sultans. In fact, it is set on Yıldız Par, the former royal hunting grounds. Today, it hosts heads of state and guests in the regal Palace suites whose vaulted ceilings whose elegant antiques and textiles evoke the opulence of the Ottoman Era. Restaurant Tug˘ra offers classic Turkish cuisine from the terrace.

THE GRAND TARABYA Set along Tarabya Bay, with breathtaking views from the terraces all the way to the entrance of the Black Sea. The unique neighborhood is situated on a picturesque harbor with lively seafood restaurants, colorful scenery, and a new marina.

FOUR SEASONS HOTEL ISTANBUL AT THE BOSPHORUS Set on the Bosphorus waterfront, this grand hotel is set in a 19th-century Ottoman palace. The property includes restaurants, bars, an indoor pool, and a spa. We especially love the outdoor bar come sundown.

SHANGRI-LA BOSPHORUS This romantic hotel overlooks the Bosphorus Strait, and includes an elegant Mediterranean and Chinese restaurant, a spa with a heated indoor pool, and a hammam.

THE RITZ-CARLTON In a sleek glass skyscraper overlooking the Bosphorus Strait, this classic choice also offers a restaurant and rooftop cocktail bar, a spa with a hammam, and an indoor pool.

HOTEL RAFFLES Set in an upmarket shopping and residential complex, this hotel has views of the Bosphorus Strait, as well as restaurants, bars, indoor and outdoor pools, a spa, and a helipad.

SOHO HOUSE Perhaps our favorite Soho House location, this members club and hotel is set in a charming 1873 neoclassical property with a terrace garden and multiple restaurants.

FAIRMONT QUASAR Overlooking the Bosphorus strait, some of the rooms at this hotel come with marble Turkish baths.

EMPRESS ZOE A charming boutique hotel next to the Blue Mosque on a private archeological garden that borders the ruins of an ancient Turkish Bath House from 1483.

A'JIA HOTEL  A traditional Ottoman mansion on the shores of the Bosphorus.

HAZZ A private home turned hotel by Asli Tunca. The five-bedroom gem is hidden in the heart of Istanbul and filled with picture-perfect moments.

DINE | DRINK

LEB-I DERYA Sample traditional Turkish mezes paired with raki— a popular anise-flavored alcohol, called ‘lion’s milk.’

360 ISTANBUL Located on the top floor of a historic building in Taksim, offering stunning views of the city.

KALE CAFÉ Order the full traditional kahvalti at the Rumelihisari— complete with feta cheese, simit bread, tapenade, jam, eggs, and Turkish coffee, of course.

KARAKOY GULLUOGLU One of the oldest and best spots for baklava in Istanbul.

CASITA CAFE  Try Turkish manti (lamb stuffed dumplings) at this cafe in Bebek. 

GIRITLI Listen to live bands as you gaze downstream into the shimmering Sea of Marmara at this wood-clad, 19th-century restaurant.

REINA A restaurant and club on the banks of the Bosphorus in Ortakoy.

ISMET BABA RESTAURANT A wood-paneled restaurant in Kuzguncuk. Order the turbot if it’s season or the sea bass in lemon sauce.

MIDYELERIN EFENDISI A popular spot for mussels in Beşiktaş.

NARDIS JAZZ CLUB Listen to live music from local and international acts at this atmospheric spot in Cihangir, led by Ankara-born jazz vocalist and Fulbright scholar, Ece Göksu.

MIMAR SINAN TERAS CAFE Try Turkey’s unofficial national dish, kuru fasülye— white beans stewed in olive oil and tomato sauce, served with rice.

ÇUKURCUMA KÖFTECISI A mom-and-pop meatball shop with just six tables.

NUSR-ET A chain of steakhouses by Nusret Gökç, perhaps better known by “Salt Bae”- a moniker given to him after his technique for salting steak became a viral meme.

UNTER Listen to international DJ acts in Indigo in Beyoğlu, the city's clubbing district.

HAMDI A restaurant near the Spice Bazaar by Hamdi Arpacı who started out as a street-food vendor in the 1960s.

ASITANE An airy, refined restaurant with art-lined walls & patio tables serving traditional Turkish cuisine.

SUR BALIK With four locations, Sur Balık is a popular seafood restaurant in the city. It also has branches in Ankara and Nevşehir.

SEVEN HILLS Next to the tourist-populated Hagia Sofia, duck into this nondescript hotel and restaurant for 360-degree views from the rooftop restaurant.

MANGERIE Have breakfast with a Bosphorus view from this eatery in Bebek.

ARTS | CULTURE | ACTIVITIES

HAGIA SOPHIA The Aya Sofya Holy Grand Mosque was designed by the Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles in 537 as a cathedral in Constantinople— at the time the largest Christian church of the Byzantine Empire. In 1453, after the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, it was converted into a mosque.

BLUE MOSQUE The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is an Ottoman-era functioning mosque constructed between 1609 and 1616 during the rule of Ahmed I. Visitors are provided with a pale blue headscarf and invited to enter and view the exquisite tilework.

TOPKAPI PALACE Also known as the Seraglio, a 15th-century Ottoman palace and municipal complex that served as the heart of the empire for 380 years. Royal gardens, peeling frescoes, and tiled mosaics are breathtaking in their beauty, but the zenith of any visit is a wander through the sultan’s harem, once home to hundreds of concubines and their eunuch guards.

DOLMABAHÇE PALACE Built by Sultan Abdulmecid in the late mid-nineteenth century, it is 45,000 square meters with 44 reception rooms, and sumptuous design details taken from eastern and western cultures ranging from Egyptian marble hammams to French day beds. Not surprisingly— the Palace’s construction lead to the bankruptcy of the Ottoman Empire.

BASILICA CISTERN The largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city. We also love its starring role in the James Bond film, From Russia With Love.

ISTANBUL CARPET MUSEUM Located in the original Alm House for the Hagia Sofia, the museum is home to some of the greatest textile masterpieces from the 14th through 19th centuries.

GALATA TOWER Also called the Christea Turris by the Genoese, the tower is a medieval stone tower in the Karaköy quarter.

SOGUKÇESME STREET A cobblestone street lined with 19th-century Ottoman row houses between the Hagia Sophia and the exterior courtyard walls of Topkapi Palace.

SÜLEYMANIYE MOSQUE Not as ornate (or populated with tourists) as the Blue Mosque, but still impressive. It’s the second-largest imperial mosque in the city, built atop the third hill of Old Istanbul in the 16th century, by the great Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan at the behest of Suleiman the Magnificent. On your way out, visit the cemetery where the carvings atop each tombstone indicate that person’s station in life (a fez headdress was reserved for government officials, a turban for someone of the religious order, and an anchor for a seaman).

GALATA BRIDGE  An important symbol of Istanbul spanning the Golden Horn with restaurants, cafes, and hookah lounges underneath. We recommend having a fresh fish snack at the end of the bridge, cooked in front of you.

ORTAKOY MOSQUE The Grand Imperial Mosque in Ortakoy was the first baroque-designed mosque in the world.

RUMELI HISARI The Rumelian Castle Fortress was built in Ottoman Padishah Fatih Sultan Mehmed’s reign in 1452 in order to control the Bosphorus.

PRINCES' ISLANDS Dotted with Victorian-era houses and free of motor vehicles— walk, bike, or take a horse-drawn carriage tour.

TAKSIM   Istiklal Caddesi is a very long street in a vivid neighborhood with historic buildings. Stroll along French Street, filled with restaurants and wine bars. Continue on to Tunel and Asmalimescit and visit restaurants including Babylon, Vida Pera, Nu Teras.

ISTANBUL MODERN AT TOPHANE and SABANCI MUSEUM AT EMIRGAN Also in Taksim close to the Rumeli Hisari, these museums have spectacular views— especially from the cafes.

BOSPHORUS CRUISE TO THE BLACK SEA Whether you choose the Southern or Northern route, you’ll see unbelievable views of the city from the water including most of the attractions listed above and many more. It generally takes an hour and a half and starts either on Sirkeci (close to Sultanahmet) or Ortakoy.

AQUEDUCT OF VALENS The surviving ruins of a Roman aqueduct system built in the late 4th century AD, to supply Constantinople – the capital of the eastern Roman empire.

CAFER AGA MADRASA The Caferağa Medrese or Cafer Ağa Madrasa is a former medrese next to the Hagia Sophia with workshops teaching traditional Turkish handicrafts.

HIPPODROME The Hippodrome of Constantinople was a circus that was the sporting and social center of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet Meydanı with a few fragments of the original structure surviving.

SHOP

GRAND BAZAAR The Grand Bazaar used to be the center of Ottoman commerce, and purportedly the world’s first shopping mall. It lays on 80 streets and houses over 4,000 merchants selling silk, Turkish carpets, jewelry, colorful fabrics, lights, and trinkets. Pick up pastel striped peştemals at Dervis, copper cookware at Soy Türkiye, çini traditional Turkish pottery at Iznik Art, and ikat textiles at Yazzma.

ORIENT HANDMADE CARPETS A spectacular showroom run by a fifth-generation Anatolian family. More than 14,000 carpets are spread across 27 rooms here.

SALT GALATA An Ottoman bank turned multi-use space. Under one architecturally pleasing roof, you’ll find a tightly edited bookstore Robinson Crusoe 389, a communal café and research library stuffed with books about art, graphic design, and Turkish culture. The shopping continues along design-forward Serdar-ı Ekrem street. Look for kilim throw pillows and olive-wood serving trays at housewares shop Çiçek Işleri, and shearling-trimmed denim jackets and rose-tinted sunglasses at Baston Vint. Bey Karaköy for minimalist menswear, and the concept shop Mae Zae for handmade ceramics.

LEVAN This small jewelry boutique is full of precious handmade objects that the owner sources from all over Turkey.

MISIR ÇARSISI The sweet smell precedes the Egyptian Bazaar or Spice Market, filled with rows of Turkish delight vendors. Pick up potent vials of amber and rose oil at 72-year-old perfumery Istanbuli, and don’t forget to buy a bag of freshly ground Turkish coffee from Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi, one of the oldest coffee shops in Istanbul.

A LA TURCA An antiques store in Çukurcuma in Beyoǧlu.

THE WORKS OBJECTS OF DESIRE  “For the slightly deranged collector seeking identifiable memories.” The cluttered bric-a-brac shop provides artifacts for the conceptual vignettes displayed in the nearby Museum of Innocence, based on the namesake novel by Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk who lived in the house before it was converted into a museum.

SOUQ DÜKKAN An exquisitely curated shop in a former ice-cream cone factory in Karaköy founded by Yaprak Aras, a former features editor at Vogue Turkey.

SPA

TURKISH BATHS You can’t visit Turkey without spending an afternoon at a traditional hammam. We suggest Çemberlitas, Süleymaniye, Haseki Hürrem Sultan, the 300-year-old white marble temple Cağaloğlu or Kiliç Ali Paşa Hamam—an architectural delight with its spectacular domed entrance, the result of a commission by an Ottoman admiral.

DAY & WEEKEND TRIPS

BODRUM Proclaimed by Homer as “the land of eternal blue,” this chic resort town in Southern Turkey is just an hour’s flight from Istanbul and has had a recent resurgence with a new breed of luxury hotels and restaurants. Stay at the recently opened Edition Hotel by Ian Schrager on picturesque Yalikavak Bay, complete with pool villas, Turkish hammams, and a private beach club. The Maçakizi Hotel is also a classic option, it occupies a prized spot in the inlet of Göltürkbükü, and offers a dockside restaurant and beach bar, which look out onto the stunning bay. Shop at Husna Sandals, the leather gladiators have been the sartorial emblem of Bodrum since 1966. Sail the Turkish Riviera with Zephyria Yachting on a legendary wooden Gulet boat, which travels the Aegean on what’s known as the blue voyage. Visit the remains of one of the original 7 wonders of the ancient world, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, as well as St. Peter’s Castle, which holds ancient treasures uncovered from shipwrecks from the surrounding seas.

CAPPADOCIA An hour’s flight from Istanbul, the World Heritage Site is known for its distinctive “fairy chimneys,” tall, cone-shaped rock formations clustered in Monks Valley and Göreme— best seen from above in a colorful hot air balloon.

Text: Veronica H. Speck Photo: Suleymaniye Mosque, © Visit Istanbul.