Raffles Istanbul

Raffles Istanbul

Check-in at Raffles Istanbul is set for three in the afternoon, giving guests time to settle into a 21-storey tower that opened in 2014, eight kilometers from Istanbul's city center in Gayrettepe, within walking distance of the Bosphorus Bridge and Dolmabahce Palace. The building holds 180 rooms, and what happens inside it splits along two lines. Guests here for work use the conference hall and business center, then head to the gym and fitness room, or move between the indoor and outdoor pools before a sauna, a steam room, and a massage booked ahead in the spa. Guests traveling with children get a playroom, a kids club, and babysitting arranged through the concierge, alongside family rooms and a bridal suite for the one stay that calls for it. Few hotels keep a doctor on call for guests, and Raffles Istanbul does, a detail that matters more on a longer trip than any view. Rooms range from the 775-square-foot Premier King and Deluxe King, both with a full double bed, up to the 1,970-square-foot Standard King Suite; allergy-free and soundproof rooms are available on request. Staff speak English, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish, and an airport transfer can be arranged at 240 euros one way. What this is not: a walk-everywhere hotel. It sits well outside downtown, so the palace and the bridge read as a view more than a stroll, and getting into the center means a car or the hotel's own transfer. For a traveler who wants a full-service tower with a doctor on call and a spa that does not require leaving the building, over proximity to the sights, that trade works. Raffles Istanbul is a 180-room tower eight kilometers from downtown, built around a full spa, indoor and outdoor pools, and a doctor on call, not a walk to the city center. It suits business and family trips more than anyone wanting to step straight into Istanbul.