Newly reopened. There are not many city hotels in the world where one of the city’s citizen might wish to hide away for a week, but this is one. In the heart of the ancient city, almost literally on the doorstep of the Topkapı, Blue Mosque and Ayasofya, this rightly lauded hotel is quite simply a bastion of luxury and ranks among the world’s greats. Designed originally to keep its guests (in former times inmates – this was once a prison) in, its sturdy walls manage to keep the tourist tat so far out of earshot that there is nothing between you and two thousand years of history. Each of the 65 splendid, high-ceilinged rooms in this sensitively restored Turkish Neoclassical, neo-Ottoman century-old bastille has its own unique character. A hallowed silence reigns throughout.