A'jia Hotel

A'jia Hotel

A'jia Hotel occupies a nineteenth-century Ottoman yalı on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, in Kanlıca, where terrace rooms look straight across the water toward the ferries and minarets of the old city, thirteen kilometres away. The property keeps to fourteen rooms across three floors, and its restaurant, known for a Sunday brunch on the Bosphorus, sits inside the same 1870s building as the guest rooms. A complimentary shuttle carries residents to the European side, which matters: nothing about this address is walkable to Sultanahmet, and anyone who wants to step out the door into the historic peninsula should look elsewhere. What sets it apart from the newer Bosphorus hotels is the building, a restored 1870s mansion whose original architecture the 2009 Condé Nast Johansens singled out for excellence, and it shows in details a hotel built from scratch cannot fake: fireplaces in some rooms, bathtubs, a garden terrace, and a spa with massage and a doctor on call. Business travellers get a conference hall and event space if needed, though this is not a meetings hotel. Parking costs eight euros a day, an extra bed runs a hundred, and pets are not accepted, details worth knowing before booking a family suite with a child added on. Wi-Fi is free throughout, English is spoken at the desk, and airport transfer is available for either of Istanbul's two airports, useful given the distance from the centre. This suits travellers who want the Bosphorus itself as the view rather than a base for sightseeing, and who would rather stay somewhere with a history of its own. It will frustrate anyone counting on being minutes from Topkapi Palace. A fourteen-room Ottoman mansion on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, thirteen kilometres from Sultanahmet, with a complimentary shuttle across the water and a restaurant known for its Sunday brunch. It suits travellers drawn to the view and the history rather than walking distance to the old city's sights.