Europe · Türkiye
Istanbul
Bosphorus palace hotels, the old city at dawn and the best breakfast on earth.
Our notes
Istanbul rewards three or four nights with a hotel on the Bosphorus and a guide for the old city. Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and Topkapı are best at opening time, before the tour groups, and the Grand Bazaar is better with someone who knows which shops to enter. The Asian side is a ferry ride and a different pace. We arrange a private boat up the Bosphorus at sunset, a hammam in a sixteenth century building, and the tables at the restaurants along the water in Bebek and Arnavutköy.
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