Hasret’s place is great value for money for temporary budget travellers visiting Istanbul.
The location is very convenient and is in a short distance to the main road where you can find the bus stops that will take you to take Taksim or to the European tourist side to Sultanahmet for 7.25 TRY one-way
Also, it is only 20min walk to the Havaist Taksim bus stop which will take you directly to SAW airport for 50 TRY one-way
Local side road convenient shops where you can buy essentials and 5L water for 11 TRY
The location is behind one road away from the Himalayan Nepali restaurant which I highly recommend for a local price
Another 20min walk will take you through Istiklal street, towards very good cafes and restaurants and to the Galata tower.
Highly recommend the Lebanese restaurant for Turkish breakfast 199 TRYOUT- Arada Cafe - You will not regret this!!!
The buildings off the main road are still underdeveloped, look rundown and the roadside is a little dirty but don’t let that deter you from this great location.
Checkin with Hasret via WhatsApp was great, was responsive and provided detailed entrance instructions.
The room is on the second floor, no lift and you’ll walk up a carpet stairwell.
The room itself is all you need for your basic stay. Photos are just as described but the carpet, furniture would benefit from an upgrade + new fresh paint + new bathroom sealant
- clothes rack with hangars
- a single pair of floor slippers
- comfortable double bed
- small wall hung TV
- small kitchenette with utensils for eating / NOT cooking
- kettle
- small coffee table area with 2 yellow sofa chairs
- bathroom has a toilet, shower closet, small wash basin with mirror, wall mounted shower gel dispenser, floor bin, toilet paper, fresh towels are provided
- wifi had good connectivity but low bandwidth (could not support 2 devices on zoom)
The room had a big ceiling fan which was great to cool the room, can leave on all night to sleep (it is a strong fan / the light shade moves a little but it will not fall off)
There is a door that leads to a small balcony where there is a small sofa and there is another door which is a window, great for allowing cool air to come in.
Stayed for 3 hot summer nights, the outside can get a little noisy with the neighbours and the odd car/motorcycle but still managed to get good sleep with the door closed
Overall, great location for budget travel, to do all your tourism in a day, walk in and head to sleep, wake up and repeat
If you have high western living standards, avoid this place and pay a higher nightly rate
This place is most suited for very short term budget travellers