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Travel bucket list idea:

Last updated: 24 June, 2023
Expert travel writer: Dana Facaros

Built in 1892 at the terminus of the legendary Orient Express, the Pera Palace Hotel is a historic monument and the most famous hotel in Istanbul – this is where everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to the Kennedys bedded down in the golden age of travel. Room 411 is where Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express.

For a refined escape from the bustle of the city, and to experience old imperial Istanbul, stop in for traditional English afternoon tea in the hotel’s atmospheric, red-velvet, gilt-edged Kubbeli Salon. Join the Istanbul elite, who lap up French pastries served on rare Christofle silver, to the accompanying sounds of a live Schiedmayer grand piano.

The legendary Pera Palace remains an icon of imperial grandeur.

Logistics

Price from: £8
Minimum age: Any
Age suitable: 10+
When: All year around
Duration: 1-2 hours

When to do it

Tea is served in the Kubbeli Lounger from 3pm-6pm seven days a week, all year round.

It gets busy at weekends, so if you are going then, book in advance by calling or emailing. Weekdays are usually quieter and you can just turn up.

Destination guides

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Destination guides including or relevant to this experience

Istanbul

Marmara Region, Turkey

Large illuminated mosque at night with sea in background

Exotic, inexhaustible and dynamic – East meets West head-on in this mesmerising city metropolis, famed for its extraordinarily rich history, superb food and shopping, and mind-blowingly magnificent, over-sized mosques.