Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles - Decent Showers at IST

Hi,

I am taking THY in business class and have a 5 hour layover (RUH-IST-ORD) and was wondering if it is possible to shower in the CIP lounge, how decent they are, and is there a nice area for napping (like with LH)?

Many thanks,

Rafi

The answer to both: yes, but...

There is a rest area. I had trouble finding it because it’s “hidden” behind a sliding door that I mistook for a wall. When you enter the lounge take a left towards the toilets and showers. When you get the toilets, turn left again and open the wall in front of you... :p

There are also showers, but I do not think I will use them again. I was expecting something like the nice private shower cabins in ZRH or FRA. But instead you have a rather cramped locker room with some showers attached to it. I found it very difficult to get a decent shower and then change into a new set of clothes. And the “towel” they give you is something made out recycled textile or so... very difficult to get dry with that... (I have not found any alternatives in IST.)

Speaking of TK's CIP lounge closest to the Starbucks at IST, there are at least two showers (but not more than that for a given gender). They have decent water pressure but it's more like the locker room environment than a private shower suite if another passenger or two comes around or the cleaning person is hanging around waiting. Second to last time I was there this month, one of the two showers smelled like someone had used it as a urinal rather than as a shower but on the most recent visit it seemed normal.

The front desk of the lounge routinely hands out the disposal towels and slippers upon request but less routinely hands over a shower amenity kit in the PrimeClass silver pouch.

Note that the amenities in that Prima Class pouch are big enough for a week's worth of showers. After being offered a nearly family-sized can of shaving cream up front on a TK 77W, I am beginning to sense a theme here :)

As for the disposable towels, picture a giant dried-up wet wipe. The slippers are of similar quality. The front desk staff usually has no problems handing out a few of the 'towels' to make up for their shortcomings.

I also recall two shower stalls on the men's side. If the far one is available, it is possible to draw the shower curtains far enough to have a private space encompassing lockers and one stall. Drainage was poor enough to require cycling the water flow on my last visit there.

There is also the airport hotel right below the THY lounge, which has an air-side entrance. Has anyone used it?

On the web site, it doesn't seem like one can book rooms by the hour, or day rooms, which would be great for the OP's situation.

Hi,

I am taking THY in business class and have a 5 hour layover (RUH-IST-ORD) and was wondering if it is possible to shower in the CIP lounge, how decent they are, and is there a nice area for napping (like with LH)?

Many thanks,

Rafi

Hi Rafi- I too am taking the IST-ORD flight...just curious if you have already taken it what you thought- did you have the A330 or A340? Was it the new business class seats? How was the service on this ultra long haul. thanks so much!

I am actually taking that flight for the first time ever on the 24th. I'll report back on the experience. You wouldn't by chance be on the same flight as me?

I actually am not taking the IST-ORD flight until early Nov...have a great flight and thanks for any trip reports you can post! Eager to hear!

Koby, thanks for the tip about the rest area - I totally didn't see that when I was there!

If the OP is interested, I did a little write-up with a picture of the shower situation in the Turkish IST lounge. It's in a post where I wrote about the different lounge showers on my RTW trip a month ago. (I promise no one else was in the room when I took the picture!)

Click here to see. (http://www.pickledelisquare.com/2009/07/rtw-roundup-best-airline-shower-suites.html) It's the last of the bunch I reviewed, since as others have noted, it's unlike most other lounge showers in that it's not private. But when I went in May, the two towels I got were "normal" towels whereas the slippers were in fact quite thin (like a very thin sheet of foam). I did get the toiletries kit, but the bottles aren't that sturdy and spilled after a couple days, in case you are thinking about using them later.

For the others, here are a couple trip reports, not for the ORD-IST route, but for two other long haul routes which I posted earlier in another thread. One flight was on the A330, the other on the A340.

TK JNB-IST (http://www.pickledelisquare.com/2009/04/trip-report-jnb-ist.html)
TK IST-BKK (http://www.pickledelisquare.com/2009/05/trip-report-ist-bkk.html)

I took a picture of the business class seat in this post (http://www.pickledelisquare.com/2009/06/rtw-roundup-best-business-class-seats.html). Some people say that the A330 and A340 seats are different, but I seriously did not notice a difference, even in distance between rows.
Finally, here's a play by play (http://www.pickledelisquare.com/2009/06/rtw-roundup-best-of-business-class-eats.html) of the meal service on one of my TK flights - really really first class, I really enjoyed it!