Istanbul overnight transit on separate ticket

[luxury-lizard]

We're travelling to Malta late May - fly into IST arriving May 28 10pm. Flight to MLA is currently booked as a separate ticket departing May 29 10:35AM.
So will need to collect bags (and clear immigration) and stay overnight at a hotel then be back at the airport by 8am (say) - flight to MLA is business class.
Now all somewhat close by hotels look a bit dodgy but better hotels are 20-30K's away - we concerned about the transfer as I presume the morning traffic could be horrendous.
Any advice most welcome. Also Google advises me that taxis are "hit or miss" with accepting credit cards - prefer not to get Turkish Lira for 2 taxi rides - so I presume some sort of pre-paid car/driver transfer is the best bet.

 

[jase05]

When I researching a similar short stopover a while back I found that the Ibis close by had a paid shuttle service. Rooms were only about $60 a night and it stated you had to email the hotel to arrange the shuttle. It’s only about 15 minutes from the airport.
Otherwise, Uber or their local rideshare mob works just fine (forget the name of it) As an aside I always take a small amount of local cash wherever I go just in case, always comes in handy for taxis, tips, gifts, snacks etc.

 

[luxury-lizard]

Thanks @jase05 - I finally figured out that there's a Yotel (Landside) which has Premium King rooms (30sm) which would work best for us (given the time frames) - the down side is it's close to $500 pn - a total rip off - but hassle free is worth something. I'll check out the Ibis as well before booking a hotel.

 

[kpc]

We stayed at Hampton by Hilton (reasonable price) which is about a 10 min drive from airport. We caught Uber from / to airport

 

[henleybeach]

We stayed at Hampton by Hilton (reasonable price) which is about a 10 min drive from airport. We caught Uber from / to airport

Likewise!
Hotel was fine and would stay there again if having a short stopover.
Flight crews stay there as well

 

[Tiki]

Download Bitaksi, it's like a Turkish Uber/Grab/Gojek and you can add a credit card. You don't have much time, otherwise I would have said go downstairs and get a Havaist bus to Taksim where you can walk to many hotels in all price ranges. The traffic wouldn't be too bad that time of night.

 

[Scarlett]

We (3pax) stayed at the Express Plus Hotel in Arnavutköy for a couple of nights during an enforced layover from IST. Basic but clean and fine. Was about 10 minutes from the airport by taxi.

Seems to be going for about AUD60 per night.

I guess you already know you’ll be paying ~AUD50 pp for the visa?

 

[luxury-lizard]

Thanks @Scarlett - now considering the Hampton (as suggested by @kpc) - just need to make sure we acquire some Lira or Bitaski app (would need WiFi I presume, as I won't have an e-sim at that stage).

Fortunately Mr LL travels on a German passport and I have dual Australian/Canadian passports - so no visa required.