Ciragan Palace Kempinski

We stayed in the main building and paid for an upgrade to a Deluxe Bosphorus suite (room 445) along with a connecting room for the kids. It was a very spacious suite with a large living room and terrace facing the Bosphorus. It's a grand view but you pay for it and hotels in Istanbul are surprisingly expensive. We were offered some good deals on upgrades close to arrival and also upon arrival. There were nice treats on arrival and sent in daily. A huge flaw in the room is that the patio doors can't be opened or closed from outside so if you close the door while on the patio, you're locked out. I cannot believe they did this when they designed the rooms. Breakfast here is fit for a Sultan with 3 rooms of foods to pick from. Concierges were very helpful arranging a taxi to the airport (one-third the price of a hotel transfer) and a very nice dinner out. It was a 35 minute ride to the airport on a Sunday morning without traffic. It is a large property and there were some concerns here. We looked forward to dinner at Tugra, their famous Turkish restaurant. A wedding was going on in front of the restaurant and featured a band that looked like it belonged at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. I wasn't up to paying $100 for a fish entree in that kind of environment and I think they must have raised the prices here a ton since my last visit 2 years ago since they got on the Michelin list. However, this restaurant is not going to get any Michelin stars till they figure out if they want this outlet to be a famous restaurant or if they are going to have weddings in front of it 4 months a year. We left and went to the Grill outlet along the Bosphorus for what we thought was a rather mediocre and pricey meal. Next evening we ate at a restaurant called Ruby's ten minutes walk down the street which had much better food at 60% of the price and had great views of the mosque and bridge. We ate off property because we were told that there would be a wedding the next night as well and frankly because Tugra had priced itself out of our market. At night, the music shook the floors of our room until nearly midnight. Had I been staying in the Palace wing (like I did on a previous visit), I would have been furious with all the noise and the lack of access to the main hotel because they closed off the pretty walkways along the seafront every day due to the weddings. The hotel's facilities are excellent. There is a great swimming pool, an indoor pool with a bathing suit dryer, a steam room and sauna and an excellent gym. Did not find any jacuzzis though. We did a cruise on the Bosphorus that was arranged by Tours By Locals and they docked the boat at the hotel's dock so that was convenient. The hotel will arrange a cruise but they cost twice as much and come without a guide. I spent a lot of money to stay here in a top suite and the hotel has a lot of history behind it. The rooms are furnished lavishly and the hotel has good service and generally decent food and excellent facilities. It also has connecting room options which are good for families, something the Four Seasons down the street does not have. However, it is a zoo here with the weddings from June to September especially on weekends. If I were returning and paying what I wound up paying at this hotel with the upgrade, I'd consider the Four Seasons Bosphorus which is 3 minutes walk down the street if they tell you that you are not going to be disrupted with weddings going on the property. Another reason to do that is that the street in front of the hotel gets very full of bumper to bumper traffic from 3pm onward and you can't get a taxi to drop you off or pick you up at the hotel. Truth be told, the location in this part of town is not near any public transport and the Dolmabache Palace is the main attraction but that is about a mile away. You can walk from here to Ortikoy which is a nice night spot about ten minutes walk. The other 5-star hotels are in different parts of town. There is the Mandarin Oriental and the Shangrila and the Peninsula along the Bosphorus but none of them are near here. The Ritz Carlton is inland. The Pera Palace is a city hotel about fifteen minutes walk from Taksim Square which is half an hour away by car. So you have choices. The Ciragan Palace is a good choice in a decent location and the Palace section is beautiful (but not during wedding season), but it's not a slam dunk to choose this place. And I would recommend a night at the Four Seasons Sultanahmet to be in the "theme park" in the historical part of the city and to get that vibe of Istanbul as well because both are needed to "get" Istanbul.