Istanbul, Turkey

Bebek Hotel

Price per night from$503.66

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR450.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Bebek Hotel Photos

Style

The comeback crib

Setting

By the Bos'

Explore

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In the 1950s, boutique stay Bebek Hotel, a riverside hideaway in Istanbul’s ritziest neighbourhood, was no stranger to a camera flash. Now architect Mahmut Anlar has made it close-up-ready again. Original art deco features have been enhanced with neon lighting and custom furnishings, and the rooftop bar is a bona-fide glamourpuss where a chic crowd are entertained by DJs and keep the classic cocktails flowing. The toast of the town returned to form, this hotel truly sparkles.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A welcome drink each, plus early check-in and late check-out (subject to availability)

Facilities

Photos Bebek Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

22 suites.

Check–Out

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

More details

Rates don’t include breakfast, but it can be purchased for an additional cost.

Also

For a culture hit in the unlikeliest of spaces, pop into the rooftop bar’s bathrooms, where recorded readings of French novels are piped in. The lobby has some eye-catching digital-art installations, too.

At the hotel

Rooftop bar, dining terrace, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: LED flatscreen TV, minibar, coffee- and tea-making kit, air-conditioning and free bottled water.

Our favourite rooms

There are only suites here, so each feels equally luxurious. They’re similarly styled and all are large enough for lounging around in (at a generous 41sq m each). However, the higher up the building you go the better – the Bosphorus Suites have head-turning namesake views and a balcony to gaze out from.

Packing tips

Bring flat shoes for strolling along the waterfront; and a prettily patterned scarf to match the locals’ colourful wraps and cover your shoulders on mosque visits.

Also

The hotel is not wheelchair accessible.

Children

Leave little Smiths at home – the hotel is for over-18s only.

Food and Drink

Photos Bebek Hotel food and drink

Top Table

Go up in the world and grab a pew on the rooftop (it's open seasonally from May to September).

Dress Code

Flashback, but make it fashion.

Hotel restaurant

The Bebek Restaurant and Lounge has a menu of Continent-straddling dishes (dolmades, kofte, melanzane parmigiana, burrata and an array of salads) and a romantic strait-side terrace for alfresco date nights. Chef Yoshizumi Nagaya helms Sankai by Nagaya, an award-winning 24-seat omakase restaurant serving a blend of traditional edo-mae sushi and kaiseki cuisine. The menu focuses on seasonal ingredients, prepared with precision and served as part of a multi-course experience. Expect artfully made nigiri and classic Japanese dishes, in a calm, minimalist setting overlooking the Bosphorus.

Hotel bar

During the summer months (May to September), the rooftop bar brims with dressed-up locals, who dance to a DJ-set soundtrack after dark. There’s a bank of comfy sofas to gather on and from up here the Bosphorus runs by as the cocktails flow: there’s a solid list of classics, whether you love a Long Island Iced Tea, Mint Julep or Negroni, plus plentiful wines and spirits, too. In other times of year, drinks are best taken on the street-level terrace.

Last orders

Breakfast is from 7am to 11.30am (until 2pm on weekends). Sankai by Nagaya is open from 6.30pm to 12.30am, Monday to Saturday and drinks run dry at around 1am.

Room service

Food can be ordered to your room until 11pm, drinks till 1am.

Location

Photos Bebek Hotel location
Address
Bebek Hotel
Bebek, Cevdet Pasa Cad. No:34
Besiktas
34342
Turkey

Bebek Hotel is in Istanbul’s elegant Bebek enclave, a cosmopolitan neighbourhood by the Bosphorus strait.

Planes

Istanbul Airport is the closest, just under an hour’s drive from the hotel. Transfers can be arranged for €99 (plus tax) each way.

Trains

The Orient Express sadly no longer runs to Istanbul, but there are multiple train routes reaching the city through Europe. If you’re travelling from London (via the Eurostar), Paris or Amsterdam, choose to travel via Budapest and Bucharest or Belgrade and Sofia – either route is rich in cultural treasures.

Automobiles

The hotel is a 10-minute taxi ride from central Istanbul, so if you’ll be coming and going a lot it may be worth securing some wheels. There’s valet parking on-site from €10. However, the neighbourhood is easily explored on foot and it’s possible to explore using the Metro – the nearest stop is Etiler İstasyonu, a 10-minute walk away.

Other

There’s a commuter-ferry port next-door to the hotel, which can take you to other parts of the city.

Worth getting out of bed for

There’s little to do at the hotel by day, but by night the duo of restaurants fill up and locals and guests alike take to the rooftop bar (open from May to September annually). Before you try the hotel’s excellent Chinese cuisine, take a culinary tour through Istanbul’s backstreets. The flavour-packed capital is well-renowned as a gourmet hub, so tuck in to mezze platters, smoky-from-the-grill kebabs, zingy salads, laden flatbreads, toothsome kadayif and more, washed down with brain-slapping gulps of strong Turkish coffee. Walk all that off with a stroll over Galata Bridge to see the fishermen go about their business. Or wander south to the Blue Mosque (officially the Sultan Ahmed Mosque), a highlight of any Insta screen-scroll. The Balat District’s rainbow-coloured houses are begging to be papped, too. For beach lazing with beautiful people, hop on the Kadikoy Adalar Vapuru ferry and head to Elio Sedef resort on Sedef Island, where four-poster day-beds and waiters whisking over drinks await. The Bebek neighbourhood is where the city’s wealthiest keep elegant houses, so it’s worth getting to know: see the mansion that holds the Egyptian Consulate, amble along the waterfront to the Rumeli Fortress and stop for a pint in one of the few breweries in Istanbul: Taps Bebek.

Local restaurants

Yeni Lokanta has built its reputation on artfully updated Turkish classics and trailblazing tasting menus, all served in a relaxed, blue-hued space. Markus is less humble in its design, with a giant Rembrandt-inspired mural on one wall, many-branched chandeliers and tiled ceilings. Ribs (and rib-meat hamburgers) are the order of the day – something Markus does very well. For something a little less messy, Nicole’s tasting-menu dishes accessorise one ingredient with complementary flavours and textures – the result is beautiful indeed, and incredibly tasty.

Local bars

The hotel’s terrace and buzzier rooftop bar may suffice for Turkish red wines, well-mixed libations and panoramic Bosphorus views. But, for drinks and high drama, pick your poison below Halet-i Ruhiye’s vintage vaulted ceiling and decorative lanterns.

Reviews

Photos Bebek Hotel reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this vibrant hotel in the ritzy Bebek neighbourhood and unpacked their Happy-nes headphones and unrolled their kilim rugs, a full account of their Turkish break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, let’s sail up the Bosphorus to Bebek Hotel in Istanbul…

‘Bebek’ is a Turkish term of endearment meaning ‘baby’; but Bebek Hotel, while endearing, is a glamorous grown-up sort of stay, who’s been offering the high life since the 1950s. She’s got good bones – and some charming art deco DNA – but subtle nip-tucking, courtesy of esteemed architect Mahmut Anlar, has amped up her wattage (quite literally, with new neon-pink lighting in suites). Pieces have been commissioned from local artists and custom furnishings have been crafted. This is a second act of grand proportions, with the Bosphorus strait as its dazzling co-star; it steals every scene, whether you’re enjoying an intimate meal on the ground-floor terrace, chilling out in your suite or mingling on the lively rooftop – now a bar by night with a killer list of cocktails from Bebek’s past. So, if we’re in need of somewhere to stay in the dynamic east-meets-west city – well, Bebek, it’s you.

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