The Best Hotels and Resorts in the World: The Gold List 2024

"Originally built by a 17th-century sultan, the Çirağan Palace Kempinski is an Ottoman-era imperial palace overlooking the glistening Bosphorus. Weave through winding corridors to delve into rooms complete with four-poster beds, tulip-patterned headboards, velvet armchairs, marble bathrooms and red-and-cream-striped wallpaper. The palace’s other areas are similarly decadent: there’s riverside fine dining with magnificent Turkish dishes at Tuğra, a centuries-old Ottoman arch and the original palace hammam, tucked away behind a large wooden door with floor-to-ceiling marble and ornate carvings."