Bottom line Four hours from the UK, Istanbul is a great world metropolis. Gathered east and west of the blue Bosphorus Strait, it’s faintly San Francisco in its setting: Golden-Gate-shaped bridges even link the European and Asian sides.
There’s a whiff of Cairo and Athens in its spiritual antiquity, Lisbon in the hip food scene, London in the cooler cocktail bars and, on elegant uptown streets, Madrid.
Storyline This is a tale of three cities. First, circa 660BC, Greek Byzantium; second, 1,000 years later, Christian Constantinople, when recast as Imperial Rome’s eastern twin. Islam arrived in 1453 with the Ottomans, whose rule fizzled out after the First World War. In its third incarnation, since 1930 it’s been Istanbul.
High line Get your bearings after dark at glam rooftop restaurant-bar Mikla (miklarestaurant.com), towering above party district Beyoglu. Over martinis, spot the sparkly distant Asian shores east beyond the now black Bosphorus waters. South is Sultanahmet, the old city. Minaret-spiked and blistered with domes, it’s lit nightly in orange, yellow and gold.
Beyazit tower (left) and Süleymaniye mosque overlook postcard Istanbul
Get in line You won’t regret queueing to enter the colossal Hagia Sophia, its watermelon-pink bulk rising over Sultanahmet like an ancient spaceship. It was founded as a church in 532. Today it’s a dynamic working mosque. The vast interior, cut with sunbeams from high windows, is utterly mystical.
Bloodline Topkapi Palace (muze.gen.tr), for four centuries home to the Ottoman Dynasty, deserves a lazy day’s viewing. Laid down by Mehmet the Conqueror after he’d nabbed Constantinople from the Byzantines in 1453, it has chamber upon chamber of glittering military regalia, also spectacular gifts from old imperial China. The lawned grounds invite you to lie down and daydream.
Buy line Take an hour to scour the fragrant Spice Bazaar. In the Grand Bazaar are mountains of rainbow ceramics, kilims and soaps. For truly covetable Turkish goods, the new Galataport mall (galataport.com) is the biz – don’t leave without exquisite candles and lotions from Atelier Rebul Heritage Store.
Waistline Hungry for a bread and honey breakfast in a historic caravanserai?
A cheesy pide (Turkish pizza)? Colourful candy from a curiosity confectioner? Nonstop treats feature on the Culinary Backstreets tour Secrets of the Old City, which visits fascinating artisanal quarters. Arrive starving (£110pp with food and drinks; culinarybackstreets.com).
Shipping line On the breezy deck of a slender white ferry (Istanbul’s answer to the London double-decker), day-trip the Bosphorus (a bargain £2.95 return; board at Eminönu pier by the Galata Bridge).
Tea boys ply glasses of çay as pastel waterfront mansions spool by. Lunch could be seabass and chilled white in the sun at tiny Anadolu Kavagi village near the Black Sea, before you voyage back.
Sky’s the limit: alfresco dining with a view at Mikla
Clean line Are you ready for a romantic rubdown? Couples massages are a speciality in the grand spa at newish hotel Peninsula Istanbul (peninsula.com). The subterranean pleasuredome is a flawless homage to Ottoman Turkey, with Marmara-marble columns, walnut doors and Islamic vaulting.
Dateline Cocktails are calling. Start with dusk negronis alfresco at loungey I-guru (i-gurugalata.com): a funky haunt below Galata Tower. Later, in the boho streets of Cukurcuma, bar Flekk (flekkcocktailbar.com) beckons: a good-looking grotto, where young Turks neck wild and potent creations.
Flatline Fatigued sightseers sleep deeply at Ecole St Pierre (estphotel.com; doubles from £334, B&B). It’s a fashionable yet comfortable design hotel in a restored 19th-century French Catholic school in Galata district. Bedrooms – once classrooms – are lovey-dovey cocoons.
Shoreline In Southern Turkey is the chi-chi resort of Bodrum: add a week here to three nights in Istanbul: ten-night honeymoon packages from £1,499pp; trailfinders.com.
Guideline For bespoke city (and country) exploration, consult clued-up and engaging man-about-town Sinan Sökmen at his agency istanbultourstudio.com.
Airline Fly nonstop from Edinburgh, London, Birmingham and Manchester from £203 return with turkishairlines.com.