MyWorldReviews.com

Euro Plaza Hotel

Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey

The Room

The Bathroom

The Euro Plaza Hotel is located in Istanbul, Turkey. The location is actually quite good - it's halfway between the new area (Taksim Square) and the old city. We found that we could walk to both - it's about a 750m walk to Taksim Square, and a 3km walk to the old city. We would rate the hotel as a 2.5-star or 3-star quality. The rooms were definitely a bit worn and old.

The surrounding area itself wasn't very nice. Many of the surrounding buildings were old, and there weren't too many people out. We found that if we walked a few streets over, we arrived at Istiklal Avenue. That was a much more pleasant way to walk to Taksim Square.

I didn't get the impression the hotel was very busy. After checking in, it took awhile before I saw anyone else inside. There are a few people at the hotel who speak English, but not all of the front desk staff does. The lobby is fairly small with just one restaurant and a travel agent office.

There is a metal detector at the entrance, and there is someone there during the day to check any bags you bring into the hotel, but in the evening, nobody is paying attention to the metal detector.

Since this hotel is close to the old and new "downtown" areas, it is occasionally noisy outside. One night, after a sports game finished, it sounded like the locals were rioting in the streets! The commotion woke us up, and woke up a lot of other people on our floor, too. (We could hear them in the hall).

The first room we stayed in had a strange smell, and the window didn't open (and the heater wouldn't stop blowing hot air into our already hot room), so we had an uncomfortable night. Fortunately, we were able to switch rooms. The room we stayed in the following day had a window that opened, so it was much better (although the room and furnishings were still very worn). In both rooms, the bed was stained, the TV was very small, and the paint on the furnishings was peeling. The furniture selection was also very strange.

The bathroom was also looking pretty tired, but everything worked well. I did notice that the ceiling tiles had spaces between them as if they were too cheap to put enough in to fill up the space.

The Breakfast

The hotel breakfast

The breakfast eating area was actually half non-smoking, which was a wonderful change! Everywhere else that we visited in Istanbul was full of smoke.

The breakfast selection was pretty good. They had vegetables (cucumber, peppers, and tomatoes), and a good cheese selection. They also had a big selection of white buns (which were all very similar), and a couple hot items. Most of the hot items were strange. One day they had sausages, and the next day, they had pizza that was topped with what looked like leftover sausages. The scrambled eggs were also quite soupy and gross. The only good hot items they had were warm Burek (a traditional Turkish pastry). There was usually some dry cake or other small dessert.

On our first morning, they had those round sesame buns that people were selling on the street - we had lots of them! We were hoping they would have them every morning, but we never saw them again :( There was also a machine dispensing tea and coffee. I tried "white" coffee for the first time, and I loved it!

Cost

The view from the room

Rooms start at around $110, but rates vary depending on the time of year. Contact the hotel for more accurate pricing information.