ISTANBUL · ÇIRAĞAN vs. FOUR SEASONS SULTANAHMET · 5 MIN READ

Çırağan or Four Seasons: the water or the walls, in Istanbul

Both are excellent, and the right answer depends on how many days you have. Two: the old city. Three or more: at least one night on the water. Four: both, in the same trip.

By J.C. Mercer

Verified stays·paid in full

	Çırağan Palace	Four Seasons Sultanahmet
Stayed	April 2025	April 2025
Room booked	Superior Bosphorus View, king	Deluxe Room, king, courtyard side
How it was booked	Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts, public rate	AmEx Fine Hotels + Resorts, public rate
What the channel bought	Not clear if upgraded, but a great view from an otherwise standard room	The full FHR package, with an upgraded room
Value verdict	Tremendously outsized value, especially in the shoulder season.	Worth it for the old city days; the ideal trip pairs it with the water.
When to go	April to June, or September to October. Book Çırağan	April to June. Book Four Seasons

Both stays booked the way any other guest would book them.

The question

Istanbul is two cities pretending to be one, and these two hotels are the cleanest way to choose between them — with the honest complication that both are excellent. The Çırağan sits on the Bosphorus with the last sultan’s palace at its heart and a pool a metre above the shipping lane. The Four Seasons sits in the old city two hundred paces from Hagia Sophia. I stayed at both in the same April, booked the same way, in the entry-level room at each.

The pool terrace and the Bosphorus in full sun, the suspension bridge in the distance — Çırağan: the pool terrace and the strait in full sun, the bridge in the distance. A ship goes past at arm’s length.

The real question is not which hotel is better. It is how many days you have. The correct answer, from three days up, is a ferry ticket between the two.

Looking down into the courtyard, its glazed pavilion set among the ochre wings — Four Seasons: the old exercise yard, now a garden with a glazed pavilion between the ochre wings.

Side by side

What	Çırağan	Four Seasons
Where	The Bosphorus shore, on the last open waterfront before the city closes up	The old city, beside Hagia Sophia, above the Marmara
The building	The last sultan’s palace at its heart, with a history wing the equal of any hotel’s	A former prison, converted; the exercise yard is now the garden
Entry room	Superior Bosphorus View, king: committed Ottoman revival, generous throughout	Deluxe, courtyard side: warm, low-lit, thick walls, deep reveals
Service	The more attentive of the two — more people on the floor, and it shows	Small-house warmth; names by the first morning
Pool	On the water, a metre above the strait — a tranquil haze all afternoon	None; guests are sent across town to the sister hotel
Inside the hotel	The palace, art worth hours of wandering, and a tour that may end in the sultan’s suites	The roof, and the building’s own history told on the corridor wall
Eating	Excellent — and Tuğra, in the palace, is exceptional: the Anatolian wine pairing alone justifies dinner	Excellent — Avlu draws locals across town, and the roof closes the evening
Families	The better fit: grounds, pool, and room to run	Tighter quarters, busier pavements
The days	Tranquil: the pool, the nargile at the rail, the art, Ortaköy on foot	Nonstop: all of Istanbul in a day, starting at the front door
Getting about	A car or a boat; the drive bottlenecks at six	On foot; tram or boat to cross to the modern city

A bed with a red runner against a patterned headboard wall, lamps either side and a seating area beyond — Çırağan: the room, Ottoman revival without apology.

White linen and a warm bedside lamp, with the door to the sitting room ajar — Four Seasons: deep reveals, thick walls, a courtyard Deluxe.

Noted

Observed on both stays, not measured.

What	Çırağan Palace	Four Seasons Sultanahmet
Wi-Fi	Strong in the room; spotty through the property	—
Noise	Quiet in the room; the street audible on the land side, the call to prayer each night through the window; blackout curtains weak	Silent in the room; the call to prayer carries on the roof, which is the point
Bed	King, medium-firm	King, medium-firm
Water pressure	Strong and hot	Strong and hot, no wait
Spa	—	Kurna Spa — hammam, steam and sauna; books out
The walk that matters	Ortaköy, about fifteen minutes along the shore	Hagia Sophia, three minutes

Where Çırağan wins

Service, to begin with, which surprises people: more staff on the floor means more eyes on you, and it shows in the details — at the Çırağan a screw from my eyeglasses, dropped invisibly to the floor, came back to me via housekeeping and the manager presented like it was the Sultan’s jewel.

The long outdoor pool seen from a sun lounger, a rolled towel on the chair alongside — The long pool from a lounger, towel rolled, the strait doing what the strait does. Nothing in the old city can answer this.

The pool is the other half of the argument: a metre above the strait, ships at arm’s length, and a tranquil haze that settles over the water side for whole afternoons. Nothing in the old city can answer it, and the Four Seasons does not try.

The pool lit blue after dark, the illuminated bridge and city across the water — The walk to dinner: the pool lit blue, the bridge lit red.

A brass water pipe standing on the terrace, its mouthpiece held ready — The nargile at the rail, held ready.

A copper pan of tomato and egg at the breakfast table, plates and juice set around it — Menemen in its copper pan, on the terrace.

And there is more to see without leaving the building: the palace itself, a history wing the equal of any publicly accessible hotel’s, art worth several unhurried hours, and a front-desk tour that might end in the sultan’s suites. Dinner at Tuğra — Anatolian wines packaged by a sommelier who is unreasonably good at it, at a table over the water in the palace — is the single table I would book first at either hotel. Families fit better here too: grounds, pool, and room to run.

The ornate palace facade seen through palm trunks from the terrace cafe — The palace through the palms. Ask the front desk for the tour; it may end in the sultan’s suites.

Where Four Seasons wins

Ease. If Istanbul is a two-day stop, this is the base and it is not close: Hagia Sophia is three minutes away, the Blue Mosque is on the ridge above, and the whole of the old city is a walk. It is the see-all-of-Istanbul-in-a-day home base, and the action outside the door is nonstop and in your face, in the way a first visit wants.

The illuminated hotel facade at dusk with the mosque glowing violet on the skyline — The hotel lit gold at dusk, the mosque going violet behind it. This is what the address buys, and nothing on the Bosphorus has it.

The roof remains the best single view either hotel owns — Hagia Sophia square in front of you, the Marmara opening out beyond — and the small-house warmth is real: names by the first morning, breakfast under a blanket without asking.

The lit courtyard from above, with the floodlit domes and minarets of the Blue Mosque behind it — The courtyard lit at night, the Blue Mosque behind.

A cocktail and its accompaniments on a tray, on a glass table looking out to the water — A cocktail and its tray on the roof.

A gull crossing a pink dawn above the gardens, with Hagia Sophia at the left — A gull crossing Hagia Sophia at dawn.

Verdict by traveller type

Two days in the city: the Four Seasons, for ease of travel, and be on the roof half an hour before sunset.

Three days or more: spend at least one of them — preferably two — at the Çırağan. The pace change is the point: the old city at full speed, then the water at none.

The suspension bridge lit red across the Bosphorus at night, a floodlit mosque on the far shore — The bridge at night, the mosque floodlit on the far shore. The Four Seasons does not have this. It also has no pool.

Four days or better: do both in the same trip, and I mean that strongly. They are different cities that happen to share a name, and the boat between them is one of the great cheap pleasures on earth.

With children: the Çırağan, for the grounds and the pool. For a first visit on a tight clock: Sultanahmet, and take the tram.

Bottom line

Both are excellent. Two days: Sultanahmet, for ease. Three or more: at least one night, preferably two, at the Çırağan. Four or more: both in the same trip, and thank me from the ferry.

See the full set: Çırağan Palace Kempinski — in frames and Four Seasons Sultanahmet — in frames. The stays: Çırağan and Four Seasons Sultanahmet.

The Istanbul galleries

Every photo on this site is my own, shot on the stay. Slide through →

A tray of Turkish sweets set beside a folded napkin and plate on a glass table

The ochre wings of the hotel and the rooftops of Sultanahmet under a pale, hazy sky

The outdoor pool and gardens seen from above, ferries crossing the Bosphorus beyond

A warm, low-lit passage with framed pictures and an open door to the room beyond

Two red tub chairs at a round table with an ice bucket, framed Ottoman prints on the wall above

Close-packed roof tiles in the foreground, the mosque rising through a warm dusk beyond them

Terrace seating on the lawn looking towards the water in early light

Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque lit above the dark gardens between them

A long corridor with a patterned red and cream carpet running towards a lit window

The mosque's minarets picked out in floodlight above the silhouetted rooftops