7. June 2025
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Hotels & Accommodation

Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus

9,150 TRY
Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus
4.1

Rating

 4.1/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Impressing hotel grounds and building
  • Very nice services in a central location
  • Overall, very nice staff

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Long walking routes in the hotel
  • Insulting incident in the executive lounge (very well managed, though)

Rather briefly before I went to Istanbul in May 2025, I decided to change my hotel. I originally had a DoubleTree in the heart of Old Town – but then felt that I might have to go for a more relaxing and luxurious option. The Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus is a hotel with quite some tradition. It is not only the first five star hotel in the Turkish metropolis, it was also the first Hilton Hotel outside of North America. Here is my review of the experience.

 

Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus – Location

The Hilton Instanbul Bosphorus is centrally located in the Sisli district. Right outside the hotels, you find some restaurants and other services. In the area, there are multiple rather posh hotel options. Additionally, there are multiple car rental offices at the main gate area of the hotel.

The walking distance from the hotel to Taksim Square is about 15 minutes. From there, you have very good traffic connections. Some of them I featured in my recent A Day of Exploring Public Transport post. There are also bus stops in each direction close to the hotel. If you arrive by car, the hotel offers valet parking.

 

Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus – Atmosphere

Despite the hotel was undergoing some renovation during my stay, the atmosphere there has been amazing. The hotel is located in a park. It has its own entrance gate from where you can drive towards the hotel and its conference center. You still feel the classic charm of the hotel from the times it opened in the 1950’s. There are also pictures of former hotel guests at several points of the hotel – I am sure you know quite a couple of them. The Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus is a place you definitely keep in your mind long after you stayed there.

You have to say, though, that the hotel design is rather… complex. From the reception to my room, for example, I had to take three different elevators (I guess it would have been two without the construction work) and quite some steps in between. Walking to the outdoor pool also required steps down, before you headed steps up again. It takes a while to get around at the Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus. I even did run into other hotel guests a few times, who lost orientation – despite the signs in the hotel were rather good. There is quite some security in the hotel. The taxi from Instanbul Airport (IST) got screened at arrival and they scanned your luggage whenever you entered the hotel. Despite I felt really safe in Istanbul and in the hotel, this shows that it is likely not the easiest place on Earth.

 

Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus – Room

I had a two night stay at the Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus, Friday to Sunday. The non-refundable price for a standard King Room was 18,300 TRY, roughly 410 Euro. Due to my Hilton Honors Diamond status, breakfast was included and I was upgraded to a really spacious room on the garden level. I loved to see the birds in the park of the hotel from there. The room featured all amenities you need. Free water was provided in quite large amounts, which was very handy. The mini bar had quite… Hilton-alike… charges, though. I wondered that the whole room was solely equipped with power outlets which are used in Turkey and Central Europe. International visitors profit from the universal power outlets.

The bathroom was really large and featured a spacious shower. Apart from amenities provided in dispensers, there were also additional ones like toothbrush kits, vantiy kits, shoeshine and similar. The hotel overall felt very clean and well-maintained. Even though the room (not the bathroom) had a bit of a traditional style, it did not feel outdated or run down at all. The room also featured air conditioning and proper shutters, which I absolutely appreciated. The terrace of the room, coming with some privacy screens, was definitely a nice feature as well.

 

Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus – Executive Lounge

The Executive Lounge located on the reception floor is really large and comes with a beautiful style. A lovely part of it is the large balcony, from where you can watch the ships on the Bosporus and the Asian side of Istanbul. I went there twice for the snacks and drinks in the afternoon. They offered a lovely buffet with nice warm dishes, but also a lot of salads and sweet Turkish delights. Compared to other Hilton places, the lounge definitely exceeded my expectations.

Unfortunately, on the second evening, there was a bad behavior by one of the waiters in the lounge. Without asking me, he insulted me for having taken a table of “his friend”, another hotel guest. This was ridiculous, as even my used plates were still on the table after I came back from the buffet. That is a typical example of (unconsciously) biased behavior, which should not happen in a Hilton Hotel. It was the first time (as far as I remember) I insisted to talk with a manager about that. I have to say that the chat was really good and the manager on duty took quite some time for the chat and very honestly excused himself for that. I also got a nice plate of Turkish treats to my hotel room as an excuse – which would not have been necessary from my point of view.

 

Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus – Breakfast

I could have gone for breakfast in the lounge as well. However, I typically like having the normal breakfast buffet, if possible – and so I did in Istanbul as well. The breakfast room was really large and also illustrated that the hotel was obviously not that well booked during my visit. I really liked the buffet, which was in a separate room, featuring a wide range of warm and cold dishes, some of them even changing. It also had a really nice balance of local and international option. I somehow never got offered some orange juice as other hotel guests did – which was a minor thing to me, though.

 

Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus – Service

The staff at the hotel was very friendly. I was also impressed by the overall very good level of English at all relevant employees. Check-in was a bit of lengthy, but overall, I had a really good service experience. The WiFi in the hotel worked very well, too. You should be aware that smoking is allowed and accepted in the outdoor areas in Turkey. This includes the balcony of the lounge as well as the outdoor pool, for example.

Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus offers multiple sports and recreational facilities. They even have two tennis courts. I had a brief look into the gym, which was in use so that I could not take a full set of pictures. I loved hanging out at the outdoor pool. One side of the pool is used for cabanas, which are at an additional charge. As “toweling”, as I call it, was rather popular and the staff did not really work against it, the capacity around the outdoor pool felt much more limited than it actually was. The hotel also drives an indoor pool with a spa area. I did not have the time to explore that as well.

 

Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus – My View

The Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus is impressing and offers really great luxury in the heart of Istanbul. However, its tradition (and thus likely, renovations in the meantime and during my visit) pay their toll. Some walking routes are lengthy and confusing. The public transport situation  is good, but the 15 minute walk to or from Taksim Square can be bothering. Now matter how much I loved the amazing lounge of the hotel – I have to factor in what the staff did there to me. This must not happen at a Hilton Hotel. I liked the professional and very caring handling of the issue by the hotel management, though.

 

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