Highlights

  • Stay in an historic property that perfectly captures Istanbul’s spirit
  • Ask for Agatha Christie’s preferred room, No 411
  • Visit the lodgings of Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, whose suite, No 101, is now a museum
  • Dine in the Agatha Restaurant on dishes influenced by the route of the Orient Express

The Pera Palace captures the Byzantine spirit of Istanbul. It was constructed in 1892 by the Eastern & Orient Express Railway to meet a niche market demand: a luxury hotel for their passengers disembarking from the Venice Simplon-Orient Express. The hotel’s history and illustrious guest list (Mata Hari, Great Garbo, Edward VIII and Sarah Bernhardt, Ernest Hemmingway, Alfred Hitchcock, among others) as well as original features convey a sense of mystery. Master detective story writer Agatha Christie herself was a regular guest from 1926-32, although sadly she didn’t write Murder on the Orient Express while staying in her favourite suite.


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In more detail

As well as a purpose-built property, the Pera Palace was a harbinger of modernism, as it was Turkey’s first building other than an Ottoman palace to have electricity, the first Turkish hotel to offer hot running water and the first to have an electric elevator. Today, the hotel maintains its elegant classical style. That first cage-style elevator still runs and the hotel has almost 200 original pieces of furniture. Most rooms have at least one of them in.

The best rooms have views of the Golden Horn, which look out over the Old City and its massed minarets. The Presidential Suite even has a head-on view of the Blue Mosque. The famous Agatha Christie Suite looks out over a traffic artery but has masses of mystique; it is a bedroom done out in rich crimson and burgundy brocade, her favourite colours, with a replica of her typewriter on the desk. Other celebrity suites include six discrete Garbo Suites and the Hemmingway Suites, which have a nice period sense.

Step out of the stylish surrounds though and explore Istanbul. The Pera Palace stands on a rise across the Golden Horn from Istanbul’s Old City and is a short walk from the Bosphorous, Galata Tower and renowned shopping street of Istikal. Spend your day on foot, wandering from cool boutiques and concept stores to hidden gems in the Spice Bazaar.

At the end of the day, return to the hotel and pamper yourself with a traditional Turkish bath ritual or treatment at the compact Spa Soul. Later, immerse yourself in the dusky, humidor feel of the Kubelli Saloon to take afternoon tea, sinking into a deep-red-plush armchair to whisper intimately to your companion, below the remarkable six-domed ceiling. Or enjoy a well-earned drink in the sultry Orient Bar, once a popular hangout for Hemmingway. Later, dine in the charming Agatha Restaurant, where dishes are influenced by three of the most famous stops on the Orient Express, fusing French, Italian and Turkish cuisines to delicious effect.

 

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