White House Hotel Istanbul Review
This White House Hotel Istanbul, Review is all about why you should think about staying in this boutique hotel in the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul. There are many boutique hotels in Turkey like the cave hotels of Cappadocia but limited number of boutique hotels in Istanbul. White House hotel istanbul is one of the best boutique hotels in Istanbul from their service and experience standpoint. It is nothing like the regular holiday chains (read SPG, Hilton etc) and the service you will get here including the personalized attention, is like no other. This place doesn’t boast of any facilities (fitness center, pool, children’s play area etc) but with its fantastic location, in the middle of the most touristy area in Istanbul, you couldn’t have asked for more.
Like many other cities the world over, Sultanahmet district of Istanbul is relatively crowded with buildings overlooking each other and still has an old world feel with its numerous touristy cafes flanking the cobbled streets.
This post covers
- Location
- Facilities and Amenities
- Room
- Restaurants
- Service
- Cost per night stay
- Rating on Travel forums
- LOCATION:
The White House hotel Istanbul, is about an hour’s drive from both the airports of Istanbul and the hotel will not provide a free pickup if you’re coming from Sabiha Gocken (which was our case). You will get cabs from the airport and there are also Uber and B-Taxi (read local Uber) which you can find at all hours. Read this post to know more about managing internal travel in Turkey.
Very centrally located in the Sultanahmet district, from a touristy perspective as it is within 5minutes walking distance to all the key attractions – Hagia Sophia, Basilica Cistern, Topkapi Palace and Blue Mosque. 5 minutes walking distance to the tram station which you can use to go to Grand market for shopping and Eminonu (to catch ferries or to go on a Bosphorous cruise). Check out this post for my top 5 things to buy in Turkey.
There is also one of the oldest hamams – Cembarlitas Hamami, which is again at a 3-5minutes walking distance. Great location also in terms of food, as the bylanes and cobbled streets next door are the streets oozing with cafes with all kinds of cuisines.
Due to its unparalleled location, it can be counted as one of the best boutique hotels in Istanbul and probably one of the best boutique hotels in Turkey too. - FACILITIES AND AMENITIES:
White House hotel istanbul is not on the top of the best hotels in Turkey list as this hotel cannot boast of a fitness center, swimming pool, kids play area, gardens or for that matter practically any other facility besides the room and the terrace – a small one which is the breakfast place as well. With kids, we would have ideally wanted to stay in a hotel/ resort with all these amenities. However, with young kids in tow where a lot of times you can only plan so much, the location becomes critical too. What this hotel lacks in facilities/ amenities it makes up in location and personalization – probably more than makes up
What is also more important, did we miss any of those amenities? Actually not, since the kids were already too tired of full day excursions and a fair bit of walking and running around. We had a fairly packed schedule for the 4-5 days we were in Istanbul. You can check out our Istanbul itinerary here to get some ideas. - ROOMS:
What White house hotel Istanbul could not achieve in size, they achieved in the grandeur of their decor. The hotel and its rooms are quite small and the decor is that of a palace throughout. 2
We had booked a standard room and when we got there we figured their standard rooms were quite small. They were happy to move us to their biggest room on the ground floor itself. In both the rooms we were provided with a baby cot which eventually got used more as a play pen. Some of the best hotels in Turkey and anywhere in the world can boast of such service levels.
Very comfortable chairs
The Palatial decor
Regular phone where the numbers are pressed and not dialled
Glimpse of the bathroom
Dressing table
- RESTAURANTS:
There is a single restaurant serving breakfast. There is no concept of in-room dining however they do serve hot milk/ milk for kids at any time of the day. Amongst the breakfast served at all the places we stayed in Turkey, White House would come second after Double Tree purely for the food and for the warmth with which they served, it comes right at the top. The spread for vegetarians was as expected – variety of cheese, fruits, yogurt, salads, nuts and cereal. There were 1-2 vegetarian dishes everyday along with either potato wedges or the french fries. - SERVICE:
Service level is a marker for some of the best hotels in Turkey. Room service of milk was pretty quick and we did not have to wait long. The staff ensured to help us out in case we needed anything. On arrival, we were served with orange juice along with Turkish delight (a sugar dusted jelly candy). The night we arrived in the hotel (at around 11:30 in the night), we left one of the phones in the cab. Language is a bit of a challenge in all of Turkey. We did not have a local number till then and neither any working knowledge of turkish. The hotel spoke to the company representative of BTaxi in Turkish followed up with the cabbie and finally helped us get our phone back in the next hour. We were also upgraded to a much bigger room the very next day as we were a family of 4 and their rooms are relatively small. We also got great suggestions in terms of shopping from their staff. The whole clothes market in Mustafa Pasha with beautiful lace work was recommended to us by the hotel staff itself. - COST PER NIGHT STAY:
Approx 400 AED per night is what it would cost you. In case you are visiting in the tourist season, it may be a little higher too. While the Turkish Lira was depreciating when we visited, since all the hotels and service providers quote their prices in Euro, we did not benefit. Most of the hotels in Istanbul will be in this range and it is a call you have to take whether a boutique hotel serves your purpose. - RATINGS:
It is ranked at #1 of 1,234 hotels in Istanbul and rated at 5.0 with 3,965 reviews.
