If you haven’t taken advantage of the direct and super cheap flights to Istanbul, then start.This  city is changing so fast, it’s hard to keep up with it.

Blue Mosque

Say what you like about the President Abdullah Gul (and a lot of non-muslims aren’t fans) he’s brought this country to the level of a major global player.

In the Nineties, foreign investment in Istanbul rarely rose above US$3 billion. But by 2005 it had reached nearly US$10 billion and by 2006, double that. When, as European
City of Culture in 2010, Istanbul successfully played host to dozens of world-class acts, its status in the arts and entertainment worlds was cemented as well.

Mr. Vidal

In that year, when the three-day Liberatum festival brought together big names from all over the world, the city’s spectacular venues was put in the spotlight. By day, composer Michael Nyman and Gore Vidal gave talks in the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art and VS Naipaul read from his books at the contemporary Sakip Sabanci Museum.  Dinners took place in such glamorous venues as the Topkapi Palace.

Topkapi Palace

Flights to Istanbul from London are at record-breaking popularity, nearly three million last year, putting it on an equal footing with Spain. It also doesn’t hurt that there’s sunshine, stunning beaches and startlingly clear water, staring at the architecture is an optional extra.

Book those cheap flights to Istanbul now. Spring is the perfect time for a weekend and Istanbul has become the happening weekend getaway.

Istanbul is a walking city, a romantic city, so your hotel is key. In the old days there wasn’t much to choose from- either the sultan’s old digs or cheap backpacker’s pensions. Today there are more than 20 grand hotels, from the slick new all-suite Edition, designed by Ian Schrager, to a Kempinski housed in a former palace on the Bosphorus.

istanbul edition hotel

The remains of Istanbul’s ancient cultures are mostly within walking distance of each other in the Old City. But if have little interest in turning your weekend getaway into a museum walk, I totally get it. Istanbul has so much NEW going on.

hagia sophia

But you must visit the Aya Sofya. Once the greatest church in Eastern Christendom – and for a while the largest building on Earth– it was the crucible of the Greek Orthodox church for 916 years, then a mosque for a further 481. In 1934, to pacify both faiths, the father of modern Turkey, Ataturk, declared the building a museum where symbols of both religions could be housed side by side beneath one dome:

the dome

It’s breathtaking what a little compromise can mean: gilded mosaics of the Virgin Mary flanked by enormous gold circles with the name of Allah, Ottoman calligraphy alongside paintings of Jesus Christ.

And then to the new. Istanbul Museum of Modern Art , with its airy white spaces, lively bookshop and cinema showing local films. Then there is Santral Istanbul, opened in 2007 on the site of the Ottoman Empire’s first power station, and now housing a modern art museum, an energy museum, high-tech concert halls and a public library.

SSM Museum

The Sakip Sabanci Museum, arguably the most chic cultural spot in the city. Set in an elegant classical mansion with a modern glass-fronted extension, in gardens overlooking the Bosphorus, here you can watch the boats go by or you can sit under a dome and listen to spiritual music while watching art projected on the ceiling or hit the museum’s ultra-modern Muzedechanga restaurant.

sumahan

The Bosphorus is the heart and soul of this city. So if you’re planning on booking a couple of cheap flights to Istanbul, be sure to stay at Sumahan on the Water, a 20-room boutique hotel which is right on the water’s edge. Staying here, you can not only watch the boats cruise by from your bed, but they’ll ferry back and forth between the hotel and the city on the Sumahan’s own boat.

From that side of the river, you can explore the little local shops nearby, see the very Muslim area called Uskudar quarter where the majority of women cover up and men gather in groups outside the mosques.

Or maybe not.

Istanbul Bebek

From there, it is a 10-minute boat-hop across to the pretty, upmarket areas of Ortakoy and Bebek, where on Sundays the chic coffee shops and restaurants are full of cool people meeting  for brunch and browsing boutiques and arty little emporia.

ortakoy jet set

In the hip Ortakoy district, the shore is lined with clubs such as Sortie, where women in short skirts dance in the moonlight, and speedboats are ready to jet the rich home for mint tea at dawn.

Beyoglu is now the hot place for artists and film-makers who hang out in the hip cafes and coffee shops by day, before taking in the sunset over a cocktail at one of the rooftop bars such as 360 or Mikla, at the Marmara Pera hotel, looking out over 14th-century minarets and 21st-century skyscrapers rising side by side.

French Street Beyoglu Istanbul

While the old heart of the city is most definitely still there, today it bristles with ultra-modern additions and a thirst for excellence.

And remember London to Istanbul is just four hours. A different world in under four hours. Very inspired.