Bar
360 Istanbul
A long-running bar, restaurant and late-night club on the top floor of the historic Mısır Apartment on İstiklal Avenue, with panoramic city views.
The intimate concert hall in the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts building in Şişhane, staging around twenty concerts and performances a month in season.
Good to know
Salon is the performance space inside the headquarters of İKSV, the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, in the Nejat Eczacıbaşı Building in Şişhane. Holding around 150 seated or 400 standing, it is small enough to feel personal, and its programme takes in classical, jazz, rock, alternative and world music, along with theatre, dance, talks and conferences.
The season runs from October to the end of May, with about twenty events a month, so it is a reliable bet for a night out in the cooler months. Tickets are sold through the venue and İKSV's box office in the same building. Şişhane metro station is a few minutes' walk away, and the bars of Asmalımescit are close by.
Its season runs from October until the end of May, with around 20 events a month.
It holds 150 people seated or 400 standing.
Hotel
A five-star Kempinski hotel built around a restored 19th-century Ottoman palace on the Bosphorus shore, with an infinity pool and 317 rooms.
Tour operator
The neighbourhood food-tour company that began in Istanbul in 2009 as Istanbul Eats, known for its day-long Two Markets, Two Continents walk.
Thing to do
One of the world's oldest covered markets, begun in the 1450s, with 61 vaulted streets of carpet, jewellery, ceramics and textile shops.
Attraction
Justinian's sixth-century domed basilica, now the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, with a separate visitor route through its upper galleries above the prayer hall.