Byzantine encounters

Beyond Istanbul's golden triangle, John Brunton observes life in the city's historic Fener neighbourhood.

Istanbul is one of those destinations that guarantees a shock to the system. It is a seething metropolis at once ancient and modern. Yet when it comes to accommodation, many of the choices are less than exotic. Most travellers choose budget accommodation concentrated around the tourist golden triangle of the Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque and Sultanahmet, or the luxury hotels of the funkier neighbourhoods of Beyoglu, Taksim and Ortakoy.

I book a new holiday rental that offers a different way to discover this fascinating city, the chance to experience a slice of life where there isn't another tourist in sight. Verystanbul is hidden away on the shores of the Golden Horn, in the district of Fener, the historic home of a large Greek and Jewish population, just by the original city walls.

This charming two-bedroom house - you can rent one room or both - spans three storeys of a traditional Greek house, newly renovated with a colourful bow-windowed facade and cool designer interiors. Guests have the run of the whole place, including a fully equipped kitchen, comfortable lounge and a sunny terrace on the top floor. The French owners are rarely around and the place is efficiently overseen by a local couple, Rahmi and his wife, Gulumser. But relaxing at home is only half the story - staying in Fener is about immersing yourself in a part of Istanbul that bears little resemblance to guidebook descriptions.

The Verystanbul adventure begins just getting there by taxi. Though I'd printed the map and Turkish instructions from the website, the driver still gets utterly lost and we find ourselves driving up and down a maze of steep, narrow backstreets, asking shopkeepers and stallholders for directions, until we finally pull up outside.

This is now a fiercely conservative Muslim neighbourhood and first impressions produce a dose of culture shock: while several buildings have been carefully renovated - Fener is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site - the rest resemble crumbling ruins. The street is teeming with people: children playing football, veiled housewives collecting scrap wood for heating, men sitting around a brazier brewing a pot of tea. A family that owns a TV sets it up on the footpath so neighbours can watch a football match. There is a queue of people snaking out of the house next door to Verystanbul and it turns out to be a bakery producing the traditional simit, sesame-covered Turkish bagels, perfect for breakfast as they come straight out of the oven.

The locals are already used to strangely dressed foreigners trooping in and out of the house and could not be friendlier, from the Kurdish woman in the food shop who frowns only when we make the mistake of asking if she sells beer, to the grocer who helps us prepare for a picnic: pomegranates, fresh goat's cheese, honey, walnuts and dried apricots. In the streets around Verystanbul we discover Mekteb-i (Akcin Sok 3/A, Fener), a bohemian cafe where residents sip tiny glasses of boiling cay (Turkish tea) and an Armenian painter sets up his easel outside; Merkez Sekercisi (Leblebiciler Sok 33, Balat, +90 212 523 9334), an irresistible Aladdin's cave selling home-made ice-cream and luscious Turkish delight; and Tarihi Halic (Abdulezelpasa Caddesi 315, Fener, +90 212 534 9414), a lively restaurant, open 24 hours a day, with a huge rooftop terrace overlooking the waters of the Golden Horn, specialising in traditional dishes such as garlic soup, kokorec (tasty grilled lamb's intestines) and the best kebabs I have ever eaten.

Although all the classic tourist sights of Topkapi and the Grand Bazaar are a short bus ride away, we decide to spend the weekend exploring Fener itself, coming across little-known churches such as St Mary of the Mongols, the cast-iron Bulgarian church of St Stephen, the towering red-brick Orthodox College and the sumptuous Vatican-like residence of the Patriarch of Constantinople, as well as a hidden jewel, the Kariye Museum (Chora Church). Decorated with delicate frescoes and mosaics, this unique building mirrors Istanbul's complex history, originally a church, then transformed into a mosque and now a secular museum.

Verystanbul has two double rooms from €95 ($126) a room a night, minimum three-night stay; +33 613 057 090; holiday-rentals.co.uk/p441184.

- Guardian News & Media