I’m definitely getting my hotel fix on this trip since we’re on the move to much, so here’s a quick take on all of them.

Celal Sultan is in the heart of Sultanhamet, so it’s a great location for visiting the main historic sites. The downside is if you just stay in this area you’ll have no idea how most Istanbullans live. We somewhat remedied that with my forced marches to other neighborhoods, but another way to accomplish this would be to stay in a neighborhood not too far out and make day trips to the Old City.

That said, the hotel itself was very nice and surprisingly quiet. The only downside was rather hard beds, but the upside was an astounding view of the Hagia Sofia.

The call to prayer sounded while we were having our first dinner on the terrace – a cool, eerie experience.

Our 2000-year old room in Urgup was in the cave hotel Yunak Evleri. Again, the bed was hard and unfortunately the room was warm since it didn’t have air conditioning or fans.

But with views of the surrounding caves lit up at night and the cozy outdoor spaces and gardens, I’d stay there again. I’d go a few weeks or a month later when it should be cooler.

We stayed at the La Vista hotel in Kusadasi for our “ruins” touring. Yes, it’s a cruise port, and yes it’s a touristy seaside resort. But when your hotel has an infinity pool overlooking the mountains and the Aegean Sea there’s no need to go into the touristy town.  We didn’t, though we spent plenty of time in ancient towns as Jim covered earlier.

We returned to Istanbul for our final night to 10 Karakoy, a Morgans hotel, and the only American hotel of the trip. This room didn’t  have a view, but it had a comfortable bed, which was more important on the last night. The room style was evocative of mosques and basilicas with its round windows, while the ceiling might have been in an underground city. So the trip wrapped up nicely in our last stay.

The hotel did have a view of Hagia Sofia from its rooftop lounge, so we were able to bookend our trip with this view.