Hotel of the week: Four Seasons Bosphorus

Four Seasons faced stiff competition when it opened its second Istanbul outpost on the banks of the Bosphorus last year, says Rachel Howard in Condé Nast Traveller.

It is housed in a "powder pink palace", just down the road from the venerable Ciragan Palace Kempinski, once the Sultan's summer retreat and long the king of the city's waterfront hotels. But the newcomer has so far held its own, "hosting countless society weddings".

The décor is fairly "mainstream", all "pale marble and plush neutrals": what sets the hotel apart is its 190-metre water-front terrace and "vast basement spa".

Doubles from €465. Contact: 00 90 212 381 4000; www.fourseasons.com/bosphorus.