About us

This is a small Turkish-British family project. Husband and wife team Tarkan and Julia used to live in Istanbul, then Singapore and now balance life between England and Istanbul. If we’re in Istanbul during your stay we’d love to meet you!

Tarkan was an IT security professional with an international Swedish company for many years. He was busy covering the Asia Pacific region when he realised that his home city of Istanbul had great potential for short-stay apartments to host similarly international travellers – and hopefully himself a bit more often!

Professional photographer Julia was the new mother of their bi-cultural son when she saw the importance of bridge-building across the divide. It was clear that stylish short-stay accommodation in Istanbul was a way keep their son close to both cultures as well as to help others with the balance between.

Your questions and booking will be handled by us wherever we are. When you arrive in Istanbul, Tarkan’s wonderful family and/or our friendly team will welcome you to your apartment, give you the keys and explain about practicalities and the neighbourhoods.

We’ll all help you as much as you need and we’re only a phone call, WhatsApp or email away.

Will your stay with us make a difference? We hope so…

• By self-catering right in the local community you’ll quickly become part of it, financially supporting small grocery shops and other family businesses. You’ll soon make relationships with these friendly people and develop a genuine understanding of the culture around you. We’re sure you’ll leave with special memories and more developed perspectives as a result of your encounters.

• For each confirmed booking we arrange a tree to be planted in Turkey (via TEMA) to offset part of the carbon dioxide emission from the resulting flight. We encourage you to plant more trees: easily arranged during online booking.

• We use local maintenance and cleaning services for the apartments and in this way we provide a good income for 2 families who lives nearby.

• We do everything we can to preserve all the original features and materials in the apartments. Where new materials are needed we source them locally, prioritising products that are designed and/or made in Turkey.

• Our apartments are uniquely situated among mosques, churches, synagogues, a mevlevi ‘whirling dervish’ hall and other sites of religious significance. We encourage guests to sense the history of religious tolerance and hopefully! to experience something of it themselves during their stay.