On our recent trip to Istanbul and London, we stayed with Hyatt properties in both cities. For our stay in London, it was the Andaz Liverpool St and for our 4 nights in Istanbul, we stayed with the Park Hyatt-Macka Palas. For the sake of this review, I’ll focus on the Park Hyatt-Macka Palas.

The hotel is located in a very nice part of Istanbul, near high end restaurants and shopping. The area certainly reminded me of typical European cities like Prague, Rome, Brussels, Vienna etc. as far as the look and “feel”. The Macka Palas area is a 10-15 minute taxi ride from the historic districts (Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar, Topkapi Palace, etc) and with cab fares ranging from 10-15 Turkish Lira ($5-8), it was very reasonable getting around different parts of Istanbul. Another option is to walk or take a short taxi ride to the tram lines, which may reduce your cost by perhaps $2-3. However, whenever I saw one of these trams, it was packed with people, so factor that into your decision as to whether to take a tram around town or just take a taxi! For us the decision was easy. We did not have the desire to impersonate a sardine.

The hotel itself is very nice. It was very clean, well kept and had a fairly attentive staff, though sometimes a small language barrier would exist, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome. Our room was a standard Park King which was very large by European hotel standards. The room was well appointed however some of the furniture had some obvious wear indicating that it’s best days were behind it. The bath area was impressive, with a separate steam shower, a deep bath tub, and large vanity area. Definitely among the better bath areas that I’ve seen in a hotel room.

Overall we were very happy with the room. We had a decent view of one of the bridges crossing the Bosphorus, and the room was very clean and comfortable.

Images from the room:

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Large and Comfortable Bed

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Sitting Area w/ Desk

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Entry way from door

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Large Vanity Area

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Deep Bath Tub

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Steam Shower w/ rain shower head

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View from our room (unzoomed)

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View with a bit of zoom lens involved

As part of our room rate, breakfast was included each morning and we took full advantage. The Dining Room area is set up with many “self serve” items such as cereals, pastries, fruits, etc. and there is an a-la-carte breakfast menu available as well. The food was excellent and there was a large variety to choose from. Since we were only in Istanbul for a few nights, we did not have much time to experience the restaurants or bars in the hotel since we though it better to be out and about in the city as much as possible.

Overall, we were pleased with the hotel. But not to the extent that I was when I stayed at the Grand Hyatt or Hyatt Regency in Hong Kong. Those properties had that “little extra something” that sets them apart from most of the Hotels I’ve every stayed at. Perhaps it was the city itself and the obvious energy in Hong Kong. However, I would still highly recommend the Park Hyatt in Istanbul to anyone who would ask.

One item of note: If you decide to stay at this hotel, just be prepared that they do not reply very quickly to emails that you send to their main hotel or concierge email addresses. I was trying to arrange a private car transfer from the Airport to the Hotel and wound up having to call the Diamond service center to have them help me take care of it. In the scheme of things, not a major criticism, but just something to be aware of. Enjoy your stay!

This is only part of a much larger trip report covering the trip to Istanbul and London. If you would like to be informed of future trip reports, please follow me on twitter: @lufthansaflyer.

Here is the current “index” of the trip report. The one’s with hyperlinks have already been completed:

Lufthansa First Class Services from Chicago to Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Lounge in Frankfurt

Istanbul – Sultan Ahmed (Sultanahmet) Mosque.
Istanbul – The Basilica Cistern.
Istanbul – Spice Market and Grand Bazaar.
Istanbul – Park Hyatt Macka Palas.
Istanbul – Our Day with Ihsan (besttaxidriver.com).
Istanbul – Hagia Sophia.
Istanbul – Other Mosques and Churches.
Istanbul – I find out what Zultanite is….
Istanbul – The Food We Found.
Istanbul – Turkish Airlines’ International CIP Lounge.

London – Hyatt Andaz Liverpool Street.
London – Opening of Parliament – Great pictures of the Queen and procession to Parliament.
London – ‘The Sunshine Boys’ at the Savoy Theater (Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths)…..BRILLIANT, MUST SEE!
London – Spitalfield’s Antique Market – And the lesson I learned.
London – Churchill War Rooms and Churchill Museum.
London – Photos from around town.
London – Dinner at Petrus
London – St. James Park: Feathers and Fur
London – Covent Gardens.
London – All the other things that I can’t think of at the moment….

Pluckley – They said it was haunted……