Stay here to experience old Istanbul. We stayed for 3 nights in April, 2019, and wish we had stayed longer. Our studio was on the ground floor and had a kitchen area, armchair, two tables and a private bath. The ceiling is stone arches. The walls and floors are painted bright colors. The bed is comfortable. Like all of Balat, the studio and whole house have color, character and charm.
There are other units on three floors above. The roof terrace has views over the rooftops of old Balat. We opted for breakfast there and it is a great way to start the day. Turkish style comes with tomatoes, olives, cucumber, cheese, honey, jam. Omelette style is a large omelette. Both come with bread and coffee. Our second day on the terrace we met a Colombian couple staying in one of the other apartments and swapped travel stories, adding Colombia to our bucket list.
Communication before and during our stay, and check in were easy. Mustafa will get you settled and make sure you have everything you need. He heard our cab drive up and met us at the door, and was up at 5 to see us off the morning we left. We never met Carolina, but she was available on line and answered our questions. She set up our early cab ride to the airport with excellent Apo.
The room locks from inside.
Balat is hilly. The walk up to the house is steep. There are plenty of restaurants down the hill. We liked Makar_ri so much we had chef Muzu's Special 3 times.
Airport Bus 6 cost 12 TL to drop us at a large bus station reasonably close to Balat. It was a non-stop ride ending at the bus station. A cab from there cost 27TL. The signage at the new Istanbul Airport 5vdays after the grand opening was not great, so finding Bus 6 was an adventure. Airport staff was unfailingly willing to help, but were still figuring it all out. As of April, 2029, try this: Exit the arrival area, turn left and walk down the row of buses until you come to Bus 6.
There were no cabs waiting at the station where the airport bus dropped us. . We waited about 10 minutes at the bus station for a cab to drive up.
Our 5am pickup from the studio to the airport cost 50Euros, but at that hour we had no choice .
The location is great. It’s a 20-30 minute walk through this interesting neighborhood to the spectacular mosaics at Kariye Muzesi (Khora Church). Transportation is easy. There are 2 stops for Bus 99 down the hill on the main street that runs along the Golden Horn: Fener and Balat. There is a ferry stop in Fener for the commuter ferry that zig zags from side to side up to Eyüp and down and across the Bosporus to Uskudar on the Asian side.It’s a wonderful trip. We have done it a dozen times, every time we are in Istanbul. We use our IstanbulKart so I am not sure if it cost 2.6TL or 3TL each way.
This is a great place, in an interesting neighborhood, in one of the world's great cities.