Season Guide - Turkey - Hilton Racing

Across the water in the East, women wearing the black abaya answer the call to prayers that rises up and seems to curl around the minarets of the mosques. It's the perfect place to spend a day or two flitting between two continents and two civilisations.

I start in a super market. The Grand Bazaar may be easy to find - it's a short walk from the Hilton - but it's almost impossible to negotiate. There are 60 lanes,with 4,000 shops, packed to the rafters with trinkets, tea sets, gaudy golds and enough rugs to keep Elton John happy for months.

After a heady dose of eastern promise, I decide to follow in the footsteps of western fashionistas Donna Karan and Jean-Paul Gaultier to Sivasli Yazmaci, where I pick up some of the best textiles - new and vintage- in silk, wool and cotton. I order a bespoke cotton shirt for just £40 which will be ready the next day.

After the more western retail therapy of the recently-opened Harvey Nichols, it's back to the east - to the Blue Mosque, Istanbul's finest. I admire the indigo hues of the intricate Iznik tiles and when the call to prayer rings out, I shut my eyes. I could be in Mecca, Baghdad or Jakarta - not a three hour flight from London.

Lunch is kofte (meatballs) and simit (sesame bread ring) from a stall. Unlike many places throughout the world, Istanbul’s street food is wonderful. Then I head for the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul's answer to the Palace of Versailles. Set in the garden of the Gulhane park, I walk through the perfectly-preserved marble buildings that served as the private home of the Sultanate in the days of the Ottoman Empire. I opt for the harem tour. Well, when in Istanbul…

I have to find my sea legs next for the 15-minute ferry ride through time - and across continents - from the Eminonu terminal in Europe to the Kadikoy district in Asia. I admire the views of the Islamic palaces and towers that punctuate the city roofscape like giant exclamation marks and arrive in the East feeling markedly less Occidental.

Walking the cobbled eastern streets, I pass dozens of old men puffing on Nargile - waterpipes - and chatting over delicate glasses of tea. It's hungry work, so I soon decide to head back, westwards ho, for an early start to a big night out. I start at Leb-i Derya where to try the notoriously powerful house cocktails - the Balalaika and Caipirovska.

At Mikla, I have to submit to a metal detector - Turkish men still often carry knives, mainly out of tradition - before making it through to the restaurant with the best views in town. The decor is modern Scandinavian and the menu is east-meets-west. No plain kebabs here. I opt for stuffed vine leaves, lamb with apricot confit, followed by savoury, basil ice-cream.

The rooftop bar at stylish 360 has sweeping city views and the city's best whisky list. I relax there before getting down 'n' dirty in Blackk which, unsurprisingly, features black leather banquettes, black tables, black floors, black curtains and black-clad waitresses. In the Rococo conservatory I say goodnight to the city, watching the boats on the Bosphorus, with the glittering backdrop of the Asian continent just across the water.