Best Western Premier Regency Suites Hotel-Spa
A terrace overlooking the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires
In many cultures, the figure "7" symbolises perfection: seven days of the week, seven heavenly spheres or degrees, seven rose petals, seven-headed naja of Angkor, etc. Similarly many legendary cities were built on seven hills: Rome, Lisbon, Yaoundé, Saint Petersburg, Jerusalem and Istanbul. Among all these, Istanbul is the only one that straddles two continents, Asia and Europe, and which has had, over the centuries, three names: Byzantium and Constantinople prior to Istanbul. The Turkish city has not only been divided geographically, successively part of Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, of which it was the second capital, the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire, it is also a melting pot of history and culture. Such multiple influences make it a superlative modern-day destination.
The Best Western Premier Regency Suite Hotel and Spa is in the heart of the Sultanahmet neighbourhood on the first of the city's seven hills. It is only a few steps from the Blue Mosque, Saint Sophie and Topkapi Palace. It commands an extensive view of what is in fact a relatively small area but one that has nonetheless witnessed 2000 years of the history of some of the richest civilisations humanity has ever known.
The hotel, a lovely old mansion built in 1905, is a listed historic monument today. Albeit sober, the elegance of its origins is still amply visible in the neo-classical moulding on the facade and the solid wood or beige Bursa granite floors. Above all though, numerous details and features in the house bear witness to a world of such sophistication that its sultans are portrayed holding a flower. The hotel's rugs, like the motifs on the walls, seem to have stepped straight out of the Topkapi Palace. One of the symbols of this world is the Turkish Bath tradition that is as much a cleansing ritual as it is a social way of life and which represents the epitome of architectural and technical know-how. Just like the "Çemberlitas Hamami", designed by the legendary Sinan in 1584, the hammam of the Best Western Premier Regency & Spa features a suite of three rooms with different functions: hot room, warm room and cool room. In the centre of the softly lit first room is a huge marble slab, which serves as a massage table. The hotel provides a team of professional masseurs who use lotions and soaps that are as refined as they are gentle. The second room is to wash and rinse the body and in the third room, you lie down, relax and quench your thirst. The hotel is equally dedicated to maintaining state-of-the-art international hotel standards, which rather than detracting from its historic past, leave its guests free to savour and appreciate this heritage.
In this way, the Best Western Premier Regency Suite Hotel and Spa distils the quintessence of Istanbul's distinctive lifestyle, particularly from its rooftop terrace and the windows of its 16 suites: the dome of the Blue Mosque surrounded by six slender minarets, the monotonous chant of the muezzin, the enchanting hush that reigns over the city in the morning, the sweetly scented Topkapi Park, the view of the Bosphorous or the Marmara Sea on which the Prince's Islands seem almost to float or its mouth-watering exotic cuisine, etc. The justly dubbed "Golden Horn", which the hotel overlooks, sumptuously sums up the inexhaustible wealth of this matchless location.
| Best Western Premier Regency Suites Hotel-Spa |
| Akbiyik Cad. No 38, Sultanahmet, Istanbul, TR, Istanbul, Turkey - 34122 |
| Phone: +90 212 458 55 56 Fax: +90 212 638 42 15 |