The Notorious M.E.G. blogs

Open ANY guidebook or ask ANYONE who’s ever been to Istanbul and you will hear about the wondrous Four Seasons, which was once a prison.  While I am as interested in former-prisons-turned-luxury-hotels as the next gal, every person who gives you this sage advice thinks they are the very first person to think of it, and that you will happily fork over the 400 euro a night to stay there.

Despite still holding a large cache of Marriott points, we didn’t use any lastyear, as the Marriott properties in Portugal and Istanbul weren’t well located for our purposes and rarely cost-effective, so we had to look elsewhere in the ‘Bul.  We shot nearly all of our Starwood points wad on 3 nights at the W Istanbul, which I was really excited about in the weeks leading up to our trip.  Perhaps because it was the holiday season (and even if Turks don’t celebrate Christmas, there are many Europeans who take holidays then), we didn’t find much in the way of great deals, and ended up booked our first 4 nights at the InterContinental at an advance purchase rate of a little under $100 USD per night, not including breakfast or Wifi.  Some notes on the hotels:

Continue reading →