THE BEST PLACES FOR FAMILIES TO STAY IN ISTANBUL

Planning a family holiday to ISTANBUL and wondering where to stay with your children? The following list of our favourite places to stay with kids put you in the thick of the action, close to the main sights and with glorious city views, whether you want to live like a local in your own apartment or retire each evening to a boutique hotel.

You can reserve the Darussaade Istanbul through Booking.com; clicking on the hotel’s name below will take you directly to their booking page, where you can fill in your dates and secure your stay. To find out more about why we’ve partnered with Booking.com, see here.

Stylish but homely, ISTANBUL PLACE APARTMENTS make a wonderful base for exploring the city, with most properties occupying a variety of elegant nineteenth-century buildings in Galata, the artsy district that ranges up the hill across the water from historic Sultanahmet. Lovingly renovated, they all ooze character, combining antique furniture, wooden floorboards and room-sized rugs with fully equipped kitchens, flat-screen TVs and personal touches like framed black-and-white photos of old Istanbul and a mapped list of the owners’ favourite local cafés and restaurants. Nine of the apartments are suitable for families, sleeping between 4 and 6 people in two or three bedrooms, and nearly all of them lie within a few minutes’ walk of the Galata Tower, a useful landmark when returning home at the end of a busy day. If you’re staying in one of the apartments at Petraki Place, you probably won’t need to go up the tower itself, as the views from their shared roof terrace are nothing short of sensational: the Golden Horn laid out before you; trams trundling across the Galata Bridge towards the bustling ferry piers at Eminönü; and a minaret-studded skyline that takes in the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia. Pick up some pastries at one of the nearby bakeries and start your day soaking up the scenery, or climb up here at sunset and listen to the call to prayer roll along the rooftops. The helpful owners can arrange airport transfers and also offer a number of interesting guided tours, from visiting craftsman’s workshops to foodie walks that stop for tastings at restaurants, shops and markets. Sultanahmet is around 25 minutes’ walk away from the apartments, across the Galata Bridge, or you can head down the hill to Karaköy and then catch the tram from there. Beyoğlu and restaurant-lined Istiklal Caddesi are a 5-minute walk in the other direction. Check-out is a sociable 11am but can be extended depending on the next guests’ arrival time.

Located virtually in the shadow of the Blue Mosque, cosy, quirky DARUSSAADE ISTANBUL is perfectly positioned for the big attractions in Sutanahmet. The white wooden mansion is a striking sight, both inside and out. Colourful flowerboxes tumble down through the window grills, and the interior designers have not held back on its charmingly idiosyncratic rooms, lavishing them with a look that befits their nineteenth-century origins – expect brass beds, flowing curtains and lots of guilded furnishings. A “Family Room” (actually two adjoining rooms) can sleep up to 5 in two double beds and an extra single. For more room and more privacy, you can book your own “Private Floor”, three en-suite bedrooms on the same level (sleeping up to 7). Some rooms on the ground floor have their own separate entrance and private patio. You can enjoy a brilliant breakfast buffet spread of eggs, pancakes and lots of local dishes (included in the price) up on the enclosed rooftop terrace, with the Blue Mosque on one side and the Bosphorus on the other, and there’s also a little ground-floor café that spills out onto the narrow, cobbled pavement outside. Surprisingly quiet for how central it is, the Darussaade Istanbul is less than 10 minutes’ walk from the Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern, and around a quarter of an hour from the Çemberlitaş Hamamı, though the friendly reception staff can advise on plenty of other things to see and do in the neighbourhood.

To reserve your stay at Darussaade Istanbul, click here

For more images of Darussaade Istanbul, see Booking.com