sharkey

I just completed a stay as a Diamond. I agree that the lounge is very nice.^ Upgraded to the executive floor, appeared to be a standard room on the executive floor, which was fine since I was travelling alone. I was given the option of eating breakfast in the lounge or at the restuarant.^^

Information on getting to the hotel (cheaply). There is a bus that runs directly from the airport to Taskim square for 10 Lira, about $7.5 dollars. Get a map at the tourist office at the airport, which shows the location of the Hilton. From the square it is less than a 10 minute walk to the hotel. The Hilton is not visible from the square. Go about 4 blocks north and the hotel is on the right side. Follow the blue "Tourist information" signs since the tourist office is next to the hotel.

If you have alot of luggage I am sure you can get a taxi for very cheap to the hotel from Taskim square.

sharkey

I forgot to add, while the hotel isnt located in the old town, the public transportation system (trams, subways etc) are very easy to use to get to the tourist sights. It is only a short 10 min walk back to Taskim square to get to the transit system. Taxis are also reasonable.

AHN

Very good advice.

The bus in question is the Havas bus. They are easy to identify as they have HAVAS painted in big blue letters on the side of their buses. Note that there is more than one Havas route to and from Ataturk airport. Not all Havas buses go to Taksim square. (Nor for that matter do all Havas buses from Taksim square go to Ataturk airport).

MacDaddie

Unless your really looking to save money - you'll end up wasting a lot of time trying to find the right bus. Someday I'm going to figure out the metro into the city but until then the taxi's are reasonable.

I don't believe I've posted about this property recently, so I stayed in December and enjoyed the stay. They have redone some of the equipment in the workout room and its still a good gym for a hotel. The lounge is excellent and the service in the lounge was outstanding. I ate in the restaurant and one night had good service, the other night had poor service. I ordered from the menu the night I had poor service - think they generally expect you to have the buffet. The room was excellent and housekeeping did a nice job each day.

I think I'm getting older because the walk from Taksim seems to take longer than 10 minutes these days

On another note, used the metro more this visit and I think is definitely getting better each year in terms of being efficient, clean and generally safe. Istanbul is a very nice city to visit and everyone should try to get there at least once in their life if possible.

sharkey

[QUOTE=MacDaddie;13582353]Unless your really looking to save money - you'll end up wasting a lot of time trying to find the right bus. Someday I'm going to figure out the metro into the city but until then the taxi's are reasonable.

I agree that a taxi from the airport is the quickest and easist way to the Hilton. IMHO, it was very easy to find the bus that went from the Ataturk airport to Taskim square, and I like to save money when I travel. On the return to the airport, make sure you know which airport you need to go to. There are 2 airports with international flights.


QUOTE=MacDaddie;13582353]"I think I'm getting older because the walk from Taksim seems to take longer than 10 minutes these days "

I am less than 60 years old, so I was able to walk to the Hilton in under 10 minutes. ^ However, if I was walking with my wife, it would likely take longer than 10 minutes. If I stay at the Hilton again, I will post my best times

Thunderroad

I recently received the following information, which I paste in below, as part of a very nice longer note from the Hilton Istanbul concierge. (It came via an FT pm, probably in response to a message I posted in the Europe Forum, and looks legitimate.) We're arriving in Istanbul at 5 p.m. on Friday next month after a long trip from the United States. Of the options he offers below, my sense is that the best bet is the second one, the shuttle service, since we don't want to shell out 120+ Euros and don't want to bother with a multi-stop public transportation trip.

Anyone ever use this shuttle service? I realize of course that we'll be stuck in horrible traffic at that hour, but still suspect that the shuttle is the least worst option. But I'd welcome feedback from folks.

Also, once we get to Taksim Square, is it really that easy a walk? We'll be traveling fairly light, I think, with this carry-on wheelies. And if we would rather take a taxi, is it easy to get one at there at that hour, and how much would it cost?

Finally, anyone ever use the airport concierge service he mentions?

Thanks for any advice.

"As a Hilton Istanbul we do arrange Airport Pick Up Service with a fee of 120 Euro + Tax with Bmw 7 Series car.

There is a Ground Handling Company name Havas and they do have a Shuttle Service from the Airport to Taksim Square which is 10 TL per person. It's quite easy to walk from Taksim Square to Hilton in 10 minutes.

There is also Metro at the Airport and it goes to Aksaray in the Old Town then you should take the Tram to Kabatas. There is a small Subway called Fenikuler and it takes you to Taksim Square. This trip will cost 7.50 TL for 2 people.

In Istanbul there is alwys heavy traffic on Fridays & Saturdays so I do not recommend you to spend your time at the Airport.

...Also we do have Airport Concierge service and if you can provide me your flight details I can arrange free Meet and Greet service for you. Our greeter can help about your journey to our Hotel."

hfly

Just take a normal taxi, it should set you back about 30 TL from the airport, and not mess with the other options. The public transport option would be a nightmare.

sharkey

I will repeat my previous post# 74
Information on getting to the hotel (cheaply). There is a shuttle bus (Havas) that runs directly from the airport to Taskim square for 10 Lira, about $7.5 dollars. Get a map at the tourist office at the airport, which shows the location of the Hilton. From the square it is less than a 10 minute walk to the hotel. The Hilton is not visible from the square. Go about 4 blocks north and the hotel is on the right side. Follow the blue "Tourist information" signs since the tourist office is next to the hotel.

Since it appears that there are two, the cost of a taxi isn't a lot more than 2 shuttle tickets, so I would consider a taxi as it will take you right to the hotel.

I wouldnt consider taking the public transportation from the airport.

Thunderroad

Thanks hfly and sharkey. I should have made clear that I was wondering about the best option listed by the concierge (or otherwise) for getting to the Hilton given that we will arrive in Istanbul at 5 p.m. on a Friday, which I understand is horrible, traffic-wise. I guess your advice would be the same, but just thought I'd mention that.

hfly

Yes there will be horrible traffic for a taxi, it will be the same horrible traffic for the Havas bus, and the public transport options will be absolutely jammed packed with people.

soy

I used http://www.backpackerstravel.net/index.php?pid=20&id=43 on my last stay at Hilton Istanbul.
Transfers in a Mercedes minivan for a fixed price of 25euro from Taksim to IST (all organized online).
Service very professional and not much more expensive than a cab. Definetly worth it - especially if more than one passenger or a lot of luggage. (taxis are tiny in Istanbul)

Thunderroad

Completed a very nice stay five-night award stay with my wife at the Hilton Istanbul a couple of weeks ago. I'm posting this to echo the other very positive reviews of the property.

I don't usually start my reviews by mentioning a hotel's lounge, but the Hilton Istanbul is a worthwhile exception to the rule. The lounge is great! Great views of the Bosphorous, nice breakfast spread and hours (6:30 a.m. to I believe 11 a.m.), plus a comfortable place to meet, have drinks and evening snacks other times of the day. It's also a very large room with lots of tables, so was never too crowded at the various times we showed up for breakfast and a couple of evening drinks. Four comfortable computer terminals that usually are available and that work pretty well, though the slightly different Turkish keyboards take a bit of getting used to and a couple of times I had trouble using websites via the terminals.

Ayse, who runs the lounge much of the day and is the Executive Floors and HH Manager is a real gem, in terms of being friendly, helpful and efficient. And the rest of the staff there is also excellent.

For someone like me who has trouble even talking before drinking coffee in the morning, a minor but nice aspect of the service there is that you can help yourself to coffee from a decent coffee/latte/etc. machine without having to flag down the service staff to get your caffeine fix--though, again, they are more than willing to be of any help they can.

Speaking of the staff: throughout the hotel, it was uniformly fine. For example, nice pre-arrival message from the concierge perhaps a couple of weeks before our trip, offering airport transportation options. All we opted for was the free meet and greet service by a hotel rep as we emerged from customs/immigration at the airport. He pointed me to the ATM and showed us to a taxi, instructing it re our destination. Given that my wife and I travel a lot and that Istanbul is a relatively organized airport, the help wasn't necessary at all, but was still a nice touch given our jet lag. And I guess it probably helped lessen the already small chance of getting overcharged by the taxi driver on the ride to the hotel, which in Istanbul rush hour traffic took maybe 75 minutes. (Thanks again to the FTers who provided good advice and info re this matter when I posted questions about it here prior to our trip!)

Another example of fine staff: My wife needed to transfer an uploaded document from the lounge computer terminal to a flash drive, but had problems doing so. Two staff members helped her out a lot and managed to overcome the difficulty, even apologizing for the problem even though it wasn't their fault. This was going beyond the call of duty.

Back to taxis: the couple of taxis that we took from the hotel were fine; they apparently need to register with the hotel to service it, which is good. Of the two we took on the street, we found we had to negotiate prices with both rather than their using the meter. One was easy to deal with, the other something of a hassle. Don't expect them to speak English.

As an HH Diamond I was given an upper floor Bosphorous view room. Certainly a nice enough, roomy enough room with that great view and a pleasant balcony. Not state of the art, but more than sufficient. Either here at FT or at Tripadvisor I'd read a few otherwise favorable reviews noting noise from slamming doors. We didn't notice that at all--perhaps since those reviews were written the hotel has installed devices that slow the speed at which room doors close.

From the room, you can see two other two Hilton properties, the Conrad and the Hilton Park SA. The FTer in me was vaguely interested at stopping by them to compare, but the good husband and relaxed vacationer in me decided not to pursue that. The only thing I will say is that they seem not quite as well located as the Hilton, at least in terms of walking to other parts of town.

The hotel is located on some pretty nice, expansive grounds off of the main street you walk along to get there. It's an easy, ten-minute walk from Taksim Square, from which you can get public transportation. We love to walk, though, both for exercise and to see a city on foot, so basically didn't use Istanbul's p.t. system. I'd say from the hotel to Sultanahmet, the older part of town where a lot of the prominent mosques, markets, museums and other sites are located, is about an hour or more. Most of that walk is on a gentle down slope heading away from the hotel and up slope heading back, but it's a steep 10 minute walk up and down as you approach the Galata Bridge (about 45 minutes from the hotel) that connects to the older area.

The neighborhood near the hotel is generally nice, with some parts of it quite upscale. Lots of shops and restaurants. Less interesting than Sultanahmet, but a pleasant change of pace, including a nice park near the hotel with a few pleasant places to get a bite to eat. The Military Museum, with a show by the military band every afternoon that it's open, is a tourist attraction right nearby.

One suggestion I'd have for the hotel is to post a polite notice in the bathroom, saying that the tap water is not suitable for drinking (which is what the hotel told me after I asked) and that free bottled water is always available from housekeeping. My wife did drink it a couple of times by mistake and suffered no ill effects. But this is the kind of thing that can ruin a vacation or business trip. And in such a nice hotel, some guests might assume that the tap water is fine.

As for Istanbul itself, I'll just offer selected observations for those who haven't previously been there. Great views and a ride on the Bosphorous aside, we didn't find it a romantic city, but it's a fun and fascinating one. Some great food and cafes. It really is a stimulating East meets West place, in terms of lots of modern and Western features on the one hand and traditional culture and sites on the other. We generally liked the Turks a lot, mainly in terms of their friendliness, but also in terms of helpfulness and efficiency. Some minor inconvenience with folks near the big tourist spots in the older parts of town (but not the hotel or Taksim), in terms of guys approaching us on the street, asking us where we were from, engaging in conversation, etc., mainly just to eventually try to get us to go to their carpet stores, handicraft outlets, etc. It helps to simply take it in stride with good humor--if you wish, telling them you've already bought all the carpets or handicrafts you wanted--that seems to be a better "no" than simply saying you're not interested. Same with the greeters outside restaurants, who'll entreat you to come in to eat---tell them you've just eaten.

On balance, then, we really liked the city a lot. But be prepared for a big, bustling town, very crowded in some spots. In the evening, for instance, the pedestrian mall/street that runs down from Taksim much of the way to the Galata Bridge is an incredible scene, with lots--and I do mean lots--of folks out shopping, strolling, dining.

Some great advice I got here on FT from FrAAmer was to take time to relax in a cafe or a park, as a break from the bustle. I'd also suggest not going there during the summer, when the combination of the crowds and the heat could really be stifling.

Folks here at FT who travel with small kids certainly could better address whether and how suitable Istanbul would be for such family trips, but my two cents is that the crowds and busy-ness of the place (such as in spice market) might not make it the best choice. Then again, take some more taxis and go to more museums than we did, and the dynamic might be different.

hfly

A side note on this, never ever do a negotiated fare, it is not the norm, the taxi drivers know it is not the norm and even the slightest inkling that they are trying to do this to you means that they have marked you as a tourist and you are gonna get screwed. Just get out ofthe taxi and ge another one. Regrading touts, just ignore them, don't talk with them, that is how the locals handle them.

SaschaKoehler

It was a pleasure to read your detailed feedback. Thank you for your nice comments. We are very happy that you have enjoyed your stay at Hilton Istanbul and also had nice memories of the city. We hope that your travel plans will include Istanbul again soon!
Sincerely,
Sascha Koehler
Hotel Manager
Hilton Istanbul

ExPlat ExPat

Thanks for the information. I'm going to be staying here in July. Looking forward to it!