A'jia Hotel

Escape the crowds on the tranquil Asian shore
Word to the wise: It’s a 40-minute drive to Sultanahmet but you can beat the traffic by taking the hotel’s private yacht over to Europe.

This off-the-beaten track yali – a waterfront Ottoman mansion – in the Bosphorus village of Kanlica dates from 1876. By turns an army barracks, private residence and a primary school, it is now an ultra-modern boutique hotel hiding behind the original ornate, dazzlingly white façade.
The sleek rooms are a minimalist mix of white walls, dark-wood floors, glass, steel, and pale marble but the views are the breathtaking thing here. Each of the water-facing rooms has a balcony, and you can have breakfast and dinner – the menu is gourmet Mediterranean fusion – on a vast deck overlooking the sparkling Bosphorus.