Grand Hyatt Istanbul Review
The Grand Hyatt Istanbul is located right on top of Taksim square. The airport bus stops less than 100 meters from it. It is right next to the Intercontinental Istanbul and just about 15 minutes away from the Park Hyatt Istanbul (Review).
The driveway and lobby is indeed 'Grand' - it's pretty presidential and it is a bit out of place. The lobby is huge as well and cooled down a lot (think freezing). The colors are in dark beige and brown.
Check-in was quick without the usual back and forth and waiting for room to appear for the front desk agent magically.
Our room was on the 6th floor overlooking the pool (the City View) and was on the small side. Like in the Hyatt Regency Bishkek (Review) the bathroom was huge and part of the room. At some point the hotel had decided to install a mini-spa and reduce the room size. Probably a good idea - but if you need an extra bed installed that leaves precious little room.
The marvel of the hotel is the enormous pool that comes in a Roman/ Greek style. It's not you standard lain vanilla pool but has lions, fountains and columns. It's very pretty.
The pool staff is very courteous and always ready to help out with towels, water and drinks. We spent most of our time at the pool in fact.
The rooms are well noise insulated and the AC worked perfectly to cool down the room.
The Wifi was shaky during the time of my stay. I used the Premium Internet and it would go back and forth between very slow (0.5Mbit) and very fast (10Mbit). Maybe that was a traffic throttling system installed by the hotel but it stretched to several devices.
I did not have any food at the hotel - so I can't comment on the catering.
I liked the hotel - it is a great oasis in busy Taksim Square and certainly more luxurious than the Intercontinental Istanbul across the street.
I had used a free night certificate from the Chase Hyatt credit card. Paid rates are about $250-$300 for most days.
You can book the Grand Hyatt Istanbul here.
Sorry for the lack of better pictures.