We quite liked the rooms and the hotel common areas, don't miss out on the roof bar as it has some Amazing views. The staff could speak better English, but they're always willing to help.
The room was nice but quite small.
Maybe the hotel is not 5-star quality, but a good 4-star.
The only drawback is the location: while the area is ok and you can find good places to eat, if you're visiting Istanbul you'll have to travel quite a bit to get to the old city or even to Beyoglu. Nothing terrible, but keep it in mind if you're looking for a place to pop in mid-day for some rest. We also found ourselves being scammed by taxi drivers when we were trying to get back to the hotel at night: from the Blue Mosque they asked for a fixed price of 120 Turkish Lira, which is at least 4 times what it would have been with a taximeter! We got off the taxi and approached other cars, but in the end we had to settle for 70 LT... Still cheap by our standards, but it left a bad taste in our mouth knowing we would have paid 25-30 LT if we found a honest driver. Other people in our group had similar experiences, as the drivers claim that crossing the bridge is a problem with traffic, and they all know a "secret" shortcut for which they...We quite liked the rooms and the hotel common areas, don't miss out on the roof bar as it has some Amazing views. The staff could speak better English, but they're always willing to help.
The room was nice but quite small.
Maybe the hotel is not 5-star quality, but a good 4-star.
The only drawback is the location: while the area is ok and you can find good places to eat, if you're visiting Istanbul you'll have to travel quite a bit to get to the old city or even to Beyoglu. Nothing terrible, but keep it in mind if you're looking for a place to pop in mid-day for some rest. We also found ourselves being scammed by taxi drivers when we were trying to get back to the hotel at night: from the Blue Mosque they asked for a fixed price of 120 Turkish Lira, which is at least 4 times what it would have been with a taximeter! We got off the taxi and approached other cars, but in the end we had to settle for 70 LT... Still cheap by our standards, but it left a bad taste in our mouth knowing we would have paid 25-30 LT if we found a honest driver. Other people in our group had similar experiences, as the drivers claim that crossing the bridge is a problem with traffic, and they all know a "secret" shortcut for which they ask you the fixed price - so either you over-pay and they take you back quickly, or they agree on the taximeter and get stuck in traffic on the bridge. Again, this is not a big issue and definitely not the hotel's fault (every time we took taxis from the stand in front of the Dedeman, we had absolutely no issues!), but it's something to consider when settling on this location.
Overall however, we had a pleasant experience at this hotel, and the breakfast buffet was one of the best we found in Turkey.More
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