May 16, 2018
Our view of the Turkish Airlines lounge in Istanbul
The lounge was built for its business clients. However over the last few years anyone who has a gold card for this or an elite card for that can get in. Which means that all types of people can get access and that the lounge has become very busy almost 24/7. Click here for the official link to the lounge and click here for a very recent review of the lounge and lots of photos.
We had a choice of a 75 minute connection or a 17.5 hour connection in Istanbul. Turkish Airlines has a reputation of being late with its international flights and upon reading about the lounge we decided to go with the longer connection. Which as it turned out was the correct decision as we would have missed our flight. The plan was to have a vacation day in the lounge and also help us with jet leg by staying for a night. Here are just some random snaps we took and in no particular order.
Our sunset that evening. From where we hung out we could watch planes taking off one after the other. So many areas and types of sitting to choose from. A very busy airport. There is a plane taking off mid right of this photo.
There are food stations set up everywhere. Desserts in one area. Salads in another as well as soups. There are stations of Indian food, special Turkish dishes including a separate olive bar, coffee and tea bars and the list goes on and on. More food than you could possibly want to try There are also wine bars set up here and there but with just a choice of three whites but a dozen different reds to try. Around the dinner hour the lounge was chaotic. Once the overnight flights started to take off it quietened and was peaceful.
The lounge is beyond huge at over 30,000 square feet. There are two grand pianos, a games room for adults and a few folks walking around giving you a massage where you sit. Sadly I never saw one.
The library was a quiet place to be unless someone was playing a game of billiards. There is also a movie theater with comfy seating.
A large bank of TV’s to check on whatever you wanted to. There was also a hard wired bank of Apple desktop computers to use. WiFi was free but you had to scan your boarding card to get a password. However when the lounge was full it was almost impossible to download emails or to get online.
The bathroom stalls were almost totally mirrored making for some strange reflections.
We had a great salad for dinner and the best homemade soup. Colin enjoyed his pastries while I merely sipped wine and had a wee bite of each of his desserts.
There is a separate area for showers and there are also sleep rooms available as shown here.
Part of the reason we went with the long layover was because of being able to use the sleep rooms which would give us a good rest in a bed and help get over any jet lag that we had. I found out just a few days before we left that one could only use a sleep room if your layover was between 4 and 7 hours. Not a minute more or less. It did not matter if it was midnight and you were wanting to get a sleep room for a few hours to rest you could not unless your layover fit the exact parameters even if all the rooms were empty. They are very strict with rules.
I called and there was no way we could stay in a sleep room in the lounge but they were most happy to put us into a hotel in downtown Istanbul for the night at no charge to us and to provide a voucher for dinner and for breakfast. Not only for us in business class but they offer this to anyone traveling on Turkish airlines and having a layover of so much time. They also offer a free tour and lunch or dinner of the city as on option. However to leave the transit area of the airport you had to get a visa to enter Turkey which you can do at the airport but depending on what country you were from it cost money. For us it would have cost us each $60.00 US cash. We will visit Turkey another time but it was not to be on this trip.
We had no intention of leaving the airport. I had read stories that by the time you cleared passport control and customs and then got assigned a hotel and finally get to the hotel that close to three hours had gone by. Then of course in the morning you would have to check in, go through passport control and security, etc. Yet another nightmare. No we wanted to stay and enjoy the lounge which we did. But we did need to have some quality sleep before we got to Naples.
I found out that there are 52 rooms in the TAV Hotel airside that are within the transit area. But they charge by the hour in three hour increments. To rent this room from midnight to six in the morning cost us a lot, 160 euros. However we both slept and showered and it was worth every penny in that we arrived here in Naples mostly rested.
Near the custom omelette station they had a real honeycomb dripping honey. You could just scoop some up to put on your cereal or bread or whatever. That was quite something to see.
There are so many flights out of the airport that you can’t find your gate number until about an hour before your departure. I found this board which is totally out of focus as it was a very quick shot. What is of interest it the board under the constantly changing electronic boarding board. It gives you a range of gate numbers and the actual walking time to the gate. Good thing as we had a good 22 minute fast hike to our gate for check in. There are not many if any places to sit at the gate so a lot of standing or sitting on the floor is involved.
I will leave you here for tonight. It is only noon PST back home but here it is 9 PM and we need to head out for dinner. Today was a full day, we were supposed to get back by 2 or 3 PM but it was 6PM instead. So much to do and so little time. Colin has been napping while I worked on this. Tomorrow will be yet another full day and the sun should be shining.
Ciao 😎
Dang, it’s raining again 😕
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WOW. THE BUSINESS LOUNGE IS ABSOLUTE ELEGANCE. TOO BAD YOU HAD A BUM STEER ABOUT THE SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS THERE. BUT STILL THINK YOU WERE SMART TO PAY TO GET SOME SLEEP BEFORE FLYING TO NAPLES. SORRY THE RAIN KEEPS REAPPEARING. HOPEFULLY YOU’LL HAVE INDOOR ACTIVITIES YOU CAN DO DURING THOSE RAINY PERIODS. THANKS FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL PHOTOS AND USING YOUR PRECIOUS TIME TO POST AND SHARE.
BE SAFE. LUV AND HUGS.
I have never so badly wanted to visit an airport in my life.
I’m having so much fun with you! Hope Naples is all you dreamt it would be!
What a wonderful airport going and nice place to hang out and relax, enjoy the rest of you travels.
Being in a panicky rush at an airport is no good, you made the right choice. Bon voyage! Looks like Colin has a sweet tooth…
What a great start to your trip. Building memories already.