Brickpalas — Hotel in Beyoğlu

I recently stayed 7 nights at Brickpalas 3rd floor room Nr 5 . It was a good experience. Just as advertised, just what I needed: a quiet place in Beyoglu side of Istanbul and not too far away from public transportation stops and stations. ||||A modern well furnished room with a fully equipped kitchenette. I was indeed looking for such serviced apartment type of accommodation and I feel I made a good choice.||||As many contributors here have testified: the place is not easy to find, not even for local taxi drivers. On arrival from the airport when nearing the area the driver on my urging called Brickpalas number for directions. Still it took a few more enquiries from local passers-by before we arrived to the right street and saw the tiny Brickplas No 8 sign. ||||Before my trip when GoogleMapping the place I had actually planned to just take the airport bus to Taksim Square and walk to Brickpalas dragging my luggage. That would have been a mistake. The narrow uneven sidewalks are definately not suitable for wheeled luggage.|| ||Thank you CanadianTravelers33 for you comprehensive posting of July 11 2014. It helped me a lot when planning my stay.||||Kind of off-topic but I want to share my favourite way to get from Brickpalas to Ulker Sports Arena on the Asian side, using public transport. That arena is the biggest multi-purpose arena in Istanbul hosting sports events, concerts and congresses. During my stay the FIBA Basketball World Championship for Women was held there. Walk downhill to tram line T1 Tophane stop. At Sirkeci station transfer to Marmaray Line metro. The end station is Ayrilik Cesmesi where you transfer to Metro line M4. Get off at Yenisahra station, take Exit 3 and right outside on the left you will see yellow taxis. If there is not one right away one will pass by soon enough. The short drive to the Arena will cost you about 10...

We are soooo happy we cancelled our booking at the Intercontinental hotel up the main street and stayed here instead. We were supposed to stay at the top suite which had a terrace but it only had an armchair in the living room and not a sofa ;) So we requested one floor down which was the 4th floor, suite 6 ;) The design and furniture is very Scandinavian (clean lines, wood, pop of colour here and there) so we instantly felt at home;) One of our worries was that the insulation of this boutique hotel was not that good but we slept like babies and heard nothing...surprisingly not even the minaret nearby! We felt like a local by staying in this area that it was very rare we bumped into tourists which we ADORE :) The grocery, hamami (check out tip below), the locals' fave seafood restaurant (packed EVERY single day, thanks for the tip Karen), även en Svensk kafe (hahaha!), the strip of antique shops, galleries, a mini theater for book readings and small performances; even the hip area for the best barbers (my fiancé just had to have a haircut!) and cocktail bars are just a short walk away;) On top of that, Arek and his team are so welcoming, speak great English, gave us all the tips we needed (away from touristy crowds) and provided me the best pillows to support my back pain :) We are already planning our next trip back to Istanbul next year and won't hesitate booking here again :) Thank you Arek and team, for a wonderful stay! ||||TRAVELLER'S TIP: ||Don't forget to take with you Arek's phone number just in case. The cab drivers often found it hard to find this place. ||The historic hamam closeby is NOT worth the visit. If you'd like to know which one it is, send...

I have been to istanbul 6 times and Brick Palas is by far the best accommodation. ||||1) Location: Its located very close to Taksim and surrounding the hotel are charming cafes and convenient stores that make you really just want to stay in the area. The only hindsight is that it might be a challenge for older people to drag their luggages from the hotel to the nearest metro (Taksim) as you would have to walk up hill for around 10 minutes. Neighbourhood is very quiet at night yet very centralized. Perfect location to wander around and yet come back to a good night's rest! ||||2) Room condition:||The online pictures truly reflect the actual room condition, which is very rare to find! We stayed in room number 6 and we had a sitting area with a small balcony. The kitchenette has quite a good set of cooking tools which we used almost every night. We were surprised to find that there was house-keeping every day except Sunday, and the lady really did a fantastic job in ensuring that the rooms are kept clean, and replenished everything that was used or running low. ||The only non-positive comment is that the toilet is rather small and i wish the hotel provided washing machine in every room so that we can do our laundry at our own convenience. Nonetheless , they do have a laundry service at the reception.||||3) Staff:||Staff was friendly and helpful. ||||I will definately come back to stay...