Arriving at a hotel in the Middle East you’ve booked over the Internet is always a gamble – no matter the 37 reviews you’ve read on Trip Advisor. My backpack weighted after scouring the Grand Bazaar, I trundled my wheeled suitcase down a cobblestone street searching for Istanbul’s Eklektik Galata guest house.
The B&B is tucked off a street that half-crumbles with 19th century residences. Looking up, I finally spied the 1890 building, which was renovated in 2005. Ten minutes later I was snug in my fourth floor “Retro” room. Each of the eight rooms on the six floors is decorated with a different theme: Retro, Sultan, Zen, Black, Red, Colonial, Lilac, Hamam. The Sultan, Zen, Black and Red rooms are slightly larger than the others, which measure nine meters square.
The room seemed larger than its small size, its curved corner shower neatly tucked away – the whole room was ordered, clean and tidy.
John, the half Turkish, half Italian owner, studied tourism in Milan and runs Eklektik with his British partner, Jeffrey. Their hotel is in Beyoglu, a trendy hip and hilly neighborhood across the Golden Horn from Istanbul’s historic center, Sultanahmet.
Eklektik is also just down the way from Galata Tower and the crowd-crushed Istiklal Avenue (Independence Ave.) lined with towering, late Ottoman shops and endless byways and alleys edged with shops. The Beyoglu neighborhood presents a fun and hilly cobblestone maze, wreathed with bright shops and restaurants.
Beyoglu is the new heart of Istanbul, having miraculously shaken off a few millennia of entrenched history. Still, old Istanbul is ten minute walk away across the Galata Bridge (in truth old Istanbul is inescapably everywhere but Beyoglu puts a fresh face on all the storied architecture). Beyoglu and the Galata neighborhoods are an optimal base for exploring the Immortal City – an area I stayed in for three nights before moving to another hotel in the heart of Sultanahmet.
Eklektik is decidedly homey, with breakfast served in a first floor side room around a family-style table. A local named Dilek (which means “gift” in Turkish), serves up her fresh baked scones and other specialties – the food just keeps coming. I shared the table one morning with a couple from Malta, a man from Rome and a Pakistani journalist reporting on the Vans earthquake story for China’s CCTV. You won’t find this at the Holiday Inn Istanbul.
A rooftop terrace reveals a panoramic view of the Bosphorus, opening up to the Sea of Marmara. You’ll hear the usual adhan, or Islamic call to prayer from the hotel – but at Eklektik, the haunting song is far enough away (this is a trendy, hip district after all, with few mosques) that it doesn’t wake one up at 5 a.m. each morning.
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Turkish Airlines offers new non-stop service from Los Angeles’ LAX to Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport. The 13 and-a-half hour flight operates on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Saturday and Sunday. Daily service is expected to launch in March, 2012. The airline is rated by Skytrax as the 7th Best in the World.
More to explore in Istanbul's Beyoglu Neighborhood
• The century-old Mer Balik Restaurant, owned by Kemal Selcuk, was once a dairy shop and now features fish –– and overall, award-winning cuisine.
• Among the scores of shops, stop in at Hammam natural soaps and bath products, which includes artisan soaps and watercolors. The shop is a nice break from teh ubiquitous souvenir fare.
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