Our apartment is on the third floor - three flights of original marble stairs - of a grand 19th-century building with lion motifs, right next to the beautiful Galata Tower. From some windows, you feel you can reach out and touch the tower. The living room overlooks the lively pedestrianised square below, while the kitchen and one bedroom have glimpses across the Golden Horn.

The bedrooms are stylish: two doubles and one twin, each with chic velvet headboards and high quality crisp white linens. One of the doubles is very big with lots of space for an additional folding bed. There's a contemporary and chic, well-equipped kitchen with high-end appliances including dish-washer. The separate dining area is just outside the kitchen. In the comfortable living room there's a feather-cushioned sofa, armchair and bar table with stools overlooking the tower. The shower room has a smart rain shower plus loo and there's a second separate loo along the spacious hallway.

This apartment is big at 120 m2 in total. It's bright and welcoming with large windows and lovely high ceilings. The exposed floorboards are all original and the wooden panelled doors have been retained. The living room has it's original ornate white plaster ceiling and the overall feel is of space and elegance. The bedrooms comfortably accommodate six people.

Guests will have the complete privacy of the entire apartment.

This is a small Turkish-British family project. Julia and Tarkan used to live in Istanbul then Singapore and are now balancing life between England and Istanbul. If we're in Istanbul during your stay we'd love to meet you.

Your questions and booking will be handled by us wherever we are. When you arrive in Istanbul Tarkan’s wonderful family and/or our friendly team will welcome you to your apartment, give you the keys and explain about practicalities and the neighbourhoods.

We’ll all help you as much as you need and we're always only a phone call or email away.

Galata has a genuine, very welcoming and diverse community with an intriguing mix of cafes, restaurants, small grocery shops and artistic boutiques. Elegant 19th Century buildings line cobbled streets, with discoveries waiting around every corner. No matter where you wander, you’ll always find your way back to Galata Tower, which has been a well-loved landmark for the last 700 years.

Metro, bus, tram and ferry stops are all only a few minutes walk away. The famous Istiklal Avenue is around 5 minutes stroll. You can be in Sultanahmet (for the big sights of Ayasofya, Topkapı, Blue Mosque etc.) in about 20 minutes by public transport or 25 minutes on foot. In the other direction, by Metro, you can be in Şişli (for Istanbul’s biggest shopping mall) in 10 minutes or Levent (for Istanbul’s business district) in 15 minutes.

There are many taxi ranks around and some secure car parks too.

Will your stay with us make a difference? We hope so…

By self-catering right in the local community you’ll quickly become part of it, financially supporting small grocery shops and other family businesses. You’ll soon make relationships with these friendly people and develop a genuine understanding of the culture around you. We’re sure you’ll leave with special memories and more developed perspectives as a result of your encounters.

For each confirmed booking we arrange a tree to be planted in Turkey (via TEMA) to offset part of the carbon dioxide emission from the resulting flight. We encourage you to plant more trees: easily arranged during online booking.

We use local maintenance and cleaning services for the apartments and in this way we provide a good income for 2 families who lives nearby.We do everything we can to preserve all the original features and materials in the apartments. Where new materials are needed we source them locally, prioritising products that are designed and/or made in Turkey.

Our apartments are uniquely situated amongst mosques, churches, synagogues, a mevlevi ‘whirling dervish’ hall and other sites of religious significance. We encourage guests to sense the history of religious tolerance and hopefully! to experience something of it themselves during their stay.