Hotel Review: Park Hyatt Istanbul Spa Room
This is an installment in my Istanbul: End of Year Mileage Run with Dad series. Posts include; Cheap Istanbul Flights: From $576 Total Roundtrip on Delta from JFK, Help Plan My Long Weekend in Istanbul, Flight Review: Alitalia JFK-Rome in Coach, Hotel Review: Westin Excelsior Rome, Hotel Review: Park Hyatt Istanbul Spa Room, Istanbul Eats and Excursions.
For my long weekend in Istanbul with my dad, I decided to stay at the Park Hyatt Istanbul since I had heard many good things and I just generally love Park Hyatt hotels (see my past reports at PH Paris, Buenos Aires, DC and Tokyo). Though the hotel wasn't really close to the old city, it was a manageable taxi ride away, and I liked how nice and quiet the Nisantasi neighborhood was, and all the nearby shopping in Sisli.
The hotel itself was a beautiful modernist building constructed in 1922 and has just 90 rooms and suites. When I made our reservations I made a paid reservation of 220 euros a night and used one of my remaining Diamond suite upgrades and then used 18,000 points a night for the second room for my dad.
However, I heard that the Spa Rooms were the best, so upon arrival I requested to be placed in a spa room instead and the friendly front desk agent allowed me and my father to get spa rooms since they had availability and they appreciated my business as a Diamond member. During the check-in process I also met the head of PR for the hotel and asked to see the other rooms at some point during my stay so I could asses whether the Spa Room was better than a standard suite and she also showed me some of their stunning Diplomatic suites.
In general, I don't think there are any bad rooms. The standard Park King rooms are a good 400 square feet in my estimation, and had a king-size bed, work desk, flat-screen TV and DVD, a little armchair, a small balcony with French doors, and a pretty spacious bathroom with dark wood and limestone features and a deep soaking tub and separate rainfall shower stocked with Blaise Mautin products.
The Park Suite King was a bit bigger (maybe 500 square feet) and had all the same features, plus a separate living room/sitting room area with the desk, a chair and a loveseat facing the TV, and the bedroom was a separate room just off it. The bathroom was also larger.
The Spa Rooms were truly better than the suites because they came with their own steam rooms and their layouts were very open and spacious even though there technically wasn't a separate living area. Unless you absolutely needed some entertaining space, I'd recommend the Spa Rooms and the hotel said they upgrade Diamonds to Spa Rooms when they are available, so I wouldn't bother using Diamond Suite upgrades for this property.
During the stay we dined at the Lounge lobby restaurant daily for our free Diamond breakfast and even on our first day for lunch since we were famished. All experiences were positive, with the service always being superb.
I also put the concierge to task, asking for last minute reservations at several top restaurants (mostly from TPG reader recommendations) and he never flinched. I'll outline our culinary experiences and excursions in a different post.
Take a look at this little gallery of shots I took to see photos of the different types of rooms and some of the hotel's other amenities like the beautiful gym, the spa where I got a massage, and the balcony of the Diplomatic Suite overlooking the city, which we peeked into during our stay. The pool area was also beautiful, but it was too cold to indulge in a dip during our stay, so I don't have photos, sorry!
Overall, just like the Park Hyatt Tokyo, the property is a quiet oasis in a hustle bustle city of over 13 million people. It's certainly not the cheapest option, but you pay for good service and amenities. The only main gripe about the hotel is that getting to Sultanahmet or other touristy areas is a bit of a hike and traffic can be nasty at certain times of the day. That being said, taxis are relatively inexpensive in Istanbul and we never waited more than a minute to get one at the hotel.
Istanbul is a fascinating city and I'll highlight my personal experiences - from the Blue Mosque to getting a private yacht ride on the Bosphorous, in upcoming posts.
Special Offer: From now until January 31st, when you stay either at the Park Hyatt or Grand Hyatt Istanbul, for two nights, you also earn an extra 2,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points. Offer code GP2000. Find details here.
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