From Global Travel Writers (Travel & Leisure)
In 2019, the opening of the monstrous Istanbul New Airport — now the world’s biggest — brought Istanbul back into travelers’ field of vision.This year, cultural openings have the city abuzz. Arter is putting Istanbul back on the map as an art capital: The angular mosaic-wrapped building houses the city’s — and country’s — first permanent collection of contemporary art, showcasing more than a thousand works by Turkish and global artists throughout six floors and terraces. After a few years of slow growth, Istanbul’s hotel game is heating up again, particularly with the impending christening of the new Six Senses Kocatas. An hour-long ferry ride up the Bosphorus, in a quiet seaside district, the luxury hotel brand transformed a pair of opulent Ottoman-era mansions into a boutique hotel unlike any other. Add to that the city’s newest hammam, the intimate Curkurcuma Hamami — a gleaming 19th century white marble bath that was painstakingly renovated for 11 years — which isn’t in overcrowded Sultanahmet, but tucked away on the charming cobblestone streets of Çukurcuma. To top it off, the long-in-the-works Galataport cruise terminal is set to open this spring. Despite all the flashy openings, you can still visit old favorites like the Hagia Sophia Museum, Topkapi Palace, and Ciragan Palace Kempinski, because Istanbul is a city that has all but mastered the precarious art of commingling traditional with contemporary. —Jenna Scatena
