Aly Port Hotel

Nice hotel located in the heart of Karakoy, right between Galataport area and Karakoy ferry port. Rooms are nice, clean and renovated, however, some walls are made of drywall, so you might be in trouble if you have noisy neighbors (was not my case though). Staff is friendly and welcoming. Breakfast is delivered to the room (there are no hot options).

Noise, noise, noise. You will NOT sleep here. This hotel is what you would imagine an Eastern European landlord offering a tenant in the 1970s as a furnished, as-is apartment. The shower was complicated, the carpeting was torn with material spread across the floor, the ceiling had significant staining from water pooling, AND THE AIR & HEAT SYSTEM NEVER WORKED ONCE after I told them repeatedly it was broken. I asked for a wake up call every night. They missed it EVERY morning. Every single morning the front desk person was asleep and forgot to call me. The saving grace here is the breakfast which is really decent. Wifi and hot water were good. Bed was somewhat comfortable. Here the problem, especially for anyone not accustomed to or appreciative of prayer call (if you don’t know what this is, you better look it up before going). Turkey is an Islamic state. If you think you’re just going to visit a beautiful, historic European city, think again. This hotel is DIRECTLY-ADJACENT to a mosque. Prayer call starts between 5 and 6 am. Nothing can stop you from waking up. You will think your room has been raided. And this goes on ALL DAY LONG. And then, the hotel is located directly above a nightclub open until 3-4am, so if you think you’re gonna sleep — you better do it for the one hour between 4 & 5 am. That’s what I did for three days. Oh, and I know this was probably once a single home of a very wealthy family or some kind of quarters for sailors at the port because any time someone opened or closed a door, took a shower, or sneezed I could hear it on my floor. You will feel safe, however. The hotel is located in an area known as Galaport or Karakoy. It is a nice-size, hipster area of coffee shops (must try Hale), restaurants (must try Lue), and bars (Icon). Shopping at the port is nice as well, and I would STRONGLY recommend The Red Bus to safely see all of the must/see sights in a safe and comfortable manner. On Friday night, there were 20-30 “police officers” outside under my window. I am grateful I had the experience to visit Istanbul. It’s extremely fascist and heading further in that direction. You can feel it walking the streets at night, you can taste it in Taksim, and you can hear it in your hotel room. This hotel and its workers are trying their best, I’m sure. The pre-paid taxi was on time at 6am. The spot check in the rain and dark on the road to the airport by machine gun, non-English speaking guards was a bit of a shocker. That was a plus as I was ready to leave. Check Turkey off the list.