As this is the only Hotel on Heybeliada there is nothing to copmpare it to, but I was swayed by Time Out's description as this being "one of the finest hotels anywhere in Instanbul". However that was far from true; have they never been to the Four Seasons ! The hotel lacks air conditioning and the room we were first offered didn't even have a working ceiling fan, so we paid extra for a much better room with fan and two sets of windows. The staff are quite pleasant but they have very little grasp of English (why should they as most of the guests appeared to beTurkish) so a phrase book is essential. The Hotel seemed very very quite during the week with few guests which meant we had the good pool to ourselves. Generally this Hotel needs an upgrade and some attempt to woo a more discerning guest, but that said it was a restful holiday and these are intersting islands.

p.s. why is there so much litter on Heybeliada ? It was such a disapointment to see so much rubbish in... more