If you wanted a crash course on movers and shakers in Istanbul you could do worse than to take a seat in the lobby of the Çırağan Palace Kempinski. It is host to any number of important events, from board meetings to inter-governmental conferences, and the world with its accompanying press-corps spins regularly through the revolving doors. One half of the hotel really is a palace, the painstaking reconstruction of the 19th-century home to Sultan Abdülaziz, and a fine example of the Venetian-Turkish Baroque style of the Balyan family of architects. Most of the rooms and some of the facilities are in the adjacent modern annex that is a mirror image of the palace, but this, too, has a palatial feel. The rooms are large, furnished with Ottoman-style fabrics and details, but refreshingly unfussy. And of course, the Bosphorus side of the hotel commands regal views of the water, including the portico through which the Sultan would board his longboat. A new fish restaurant has just opened in the garden of the modern wing; and Istanbul's grandest ballroom and a recherché Ottoman restaurant are housed in the actual palace, where there is a handful of exclusive suites accessed separately from the hotel, where guests fussed over by the palace butler. A splendid infinity pool allows you to feel you are doing laps on the Bosphorus. A place to feel important but also comfortable.