Our stay in Carolina’s space was brilliant. Right in the heart of historical Balat, the apartment is less than 5 minutes walk to all the funky restaurants and cafes in the area, and offers a stunning rooftop terrace that overlooks part of this side of the city. The room feels very private and has been beautifully decorated to give feelings of the revamped style of modern Balat. Would highly recommend this to anyone looking to get a more immersive experience of Istanbul away from the tourist crowds.
Some things to note:
The floor and walls of the room are quite thin. You may be woken up by residents arriving late in the evening or from neighbours leaving their TV on at loud volume.
We never actually met Carolina in person. The apartment is actually physically managed by Mustafa, a friendly gentleman who did all the interior design for the space. Mustafa lives on the bottom floor of the apartment with 2 other long-term residents in the apartment, who you may run into on the roof terrace from time-to-time.
When checking-in and being shown around you may be offered a BBQ on the roof terrace one evening. Note that this is NOT free - you will be charged 10 euros each. This being said, the food was good.
We were also asked to tip on the way out. This generally made us uncomfortable, as we had already accepted the invitation for the paid BBQ dinner and did not feel that the staff had provided us anything beyond what was expected.
Apart from this, we had a wonderful stay and would recommend this to others. Thanks again :)