Hotel
Çırağan Palace Kempinski Istanbul
A five-star Kempinski hotel built around a restored 19th-century Ottoman palace on the Bosphorus shore, with an infinity pool and 317 rooms.
A friendly Sultanahmet hostel a minute's walk from Hagia Sophia, with mixed and female dorms, private rooms and a year-round rooftop terrace bar.
Good to know
Cheers Hostel offers budget travellers a location most hotels would envy, about a minute's walk from Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern and Topkapı Palace. Accommodation ranges from 6-, 8- and 10-bed mixed dorms and female-only dorms with lockers to private doubles, triples and family rooms with their own bathrooms.
A Turkish buffet breakfast is included, and the Wintergarden Panoramic Terrace Bar on the roof stays open all year, with a fireplace and views towards Hagia Sophia and Topkapı. Check-in runs 24 hours a day and luggage can be stored, which helps with late flights. Airport pick-ups can be arranged, and the on-site restaurant serves food from late morning until 23:00.
Reviewed by Lifestylemetro · Details checked October 23, 2026
Yes — a Turkish buffet breakfast is included in the rate.
Yes — there are 6-bed and 8-bed female dorms alongside mixed dorms and private rooms.
Bar
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.
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.