The Ottoman Hotel is located at the bottom of a large, steep hill below Sultanahmet in an old area known as the Kadirga district. The hotel is in a residential area, which was a fascinating experience. Men are outside drinking tea and playing backgammon for most of the day and evening. And packs of friendly children greeted us daily when we left the hotel in the morning. Woman are all but invisible in this area of the city.
There is nothing particularly special about the hotel itself—the price and location were its only selling points for us, though we found it very clean and perfectly serviceable, and the rooms had A/C! A typical Turkish breakfast of olives, bread, cucumber, jam, hard-boiled egg, and very black tea was served in the mornings, giving a fabulous jump-start to our day.
The rooms were small, but comfortable. They featured A/C, a small refrigerator, telephone in room, and a private bathroom with towels. All in all a positive, but not necesarily a noteworthy experience.