Hotel Lifehacks

The hotel’s staff hospitality and valuable information. Spend ten minutes with them on your arrival to discuss it. They are honest folks and would give you the best advice on when to hit the sights so that you do not get stuck in those long lines, or the best joints to eat at that are not the usual overpriced tourist traps, and how to go about booking a Bosphorus cruise or hamam. All this personal service makes your travel booking more convenient in saving time and money. Hence, it saves you just so much hassle on non-virtual ‘adventures’

Breakfast at Seven Dreams is in itself an activity more than a meal. Try and allot an hour to appreciate the spectacle in the lovely rooftop terrace (weather permitting). It is a mammoth traditional Turkish ‘kahvaltı’ (breakfast) including a diverse spread of local cheeses, olives, fruits, house-made jams, pastries, eggs a la minute and much more. So generous, in fact, that it is breakfast and early lunch for heaving you spend hours exploring without pausing or stopping for a midday meal. That saves you time as well as money.

To really take advantage of the great location of the hotel, you have to use it to beat the crowds. Set your alarm and be at the entrance of the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, or Topkapi Palace as soon as they open (usually around 9:00 AM). You will be among the few to have a “wonder-full” experience. By 10:30, when these huge tour groups arrive, you will already have done your visiting-for-photos-without-people-in-them at your very relaxed pace and returned to your hotel for your (late) breakfast, while everybody else is out and about amidst enormous ticket lines.

While the area of Sultanahmet may hold a magically historical perspective, it could become pretty dead and tourist oriented at night. A great tip would be to use the T1 tram line (just five minutes on foot from your hotel) to explore other neighborhoods for dinner and partying. It doesn’t take more than 10-15 minutes to get to Eminönü and have a balık ekmek by the water, listening to the mosques lighting up the night. Or, continue across the Galata Bridge to Karaköy, it’s a very hip, modern neighborhood with cool bars, art galleries and great local restaurants. Here you can have your day filled with ancient historic sightseeing and the perfect balance at night in a lively modern city.

Last, to have a unique cultural experience, and make the trip more memorable, ask the hotel staff for a recommendation for a good, authentic hamam. There are some very touristy options, but they can direct you to a more historic and authentic bath, perhaps the nearby Çemberlitaş Hamamı, which is dated to the 16th century. It’s really intense and refreshing; you’ll never forget how you were totally scrubbed clean and a fabulous way to soak up ‘Ottoman’ culture.