Istanbul next weekend – any tips/advice

[Sobeboy15]

Good Morning,

Im in Istanbul next weekend staying at the Hampton Hilton Old town. Booked as a tier point collection with the double tier points for a five night stay.

Haven’t got any real expectations apart from the Blue Mosque.

Does anyone have any tips/must sees/ restaurant recommendations.

Interested in maybe doing a train trip out of the city and not sure where.

Any Help greatly appreciated.

[BBbetter]

Use uber if you don’t want to take public transport. Not a fan of the local taxis.

Dolmabahce palace was pretty. But plan ahead as it’s difficult to get out once you are inside the building and in the walking path for visitors.

[can2]

Don’t buy anything from the tourist trap Grand Bazaar 🙂

[Aston100]

Sobeboy15 wrote:

Good Morning,

Im in Istanbul next weekend staying at the Hampton Hilton Old town. Booked as a tier point collection with the double tier points for a five night stay.

Haven’t got any real expectations apart from the Blue Mosque.

Does anyone have any tips/must sees/ restaurant recommendations.

Interested in maybe doing a train trip out of the city and not sure where.

Any Help greatly appreciated.

I’m familiar with Istanbul.
There are plenty of sites which list the attractions.
Come back with a shortlist and related questions and I’ll help if I can.

But to start you off, cards are accepted almost everywhere. Don’t be fooled into paying with euros or sterling. Either take some sterling with you and exchange for lira at a ‘doviz’ (and never at the airport or your hotel) or withdraw from an ATM.
There are at least four banks (out of at least twenty) that provide fee free withdrawals, though make sure you decline the offer of DCC.

Public transport is very good. You’ll need an Istanbul kart which you can get from machines at the airport, and top it up with your card.

[Keely]

Take lots of money! We went to Istanbul last month and found it very expensive compared to the rest of Turkey.
Check online booking sites for tickets. Eg tickets for Basilica Cistern were cheaper on booking.com and were skip the line tickets.

Balat area is nice to wander round for a hour, grab a coffee etc. There is a tiny Byzantine church at the top of the very steep hill that we stumbled upon by accident, and they were allowing groups of people in . You can get the public ferry from here to the Asian side.

The queues for the bigger tourist sites were huge so would recommend getting there early.

[Ally]

We were there last year and had a great time. Like the others have said public transport was really easy.

Food wise. We did an evening food tour with Culinary Backstreets which we really enjoyed. One of the best restaurants we ate at was Galeyan in the Old Town the tasting menu was excellent, great value and a lot of food.

Definitely take the ferry over to the Asian side.

For a day trip we did the ferry company (Şehir Hatları) cruise along the bosphorus which was really good but needs good weather.

[can2]

I often travel to eat.
This is a very local and popular restaurant in Kadikoy — not far from the ferry port:
http://ciya.com.tr/index_en.php?menu

[Aston100]

can2 wrote:

I often travel to eat.
This is a very local and popular restaurant in Kadikoy — not far from the ferry port:
http://ciya.com.tr/index_en.php?menu

There are three branches of that almost next to each other. One is a kebab / Ocakbasi place, another is a seafood restaurant and the third is the main one that many people go to.
Prices in that restaurant are well above average for Turkiye, but the food is good.
There are many eateries in that part of Kadikoy, a lot of whom are cheaper and the quality is not much worse.

[can2]

What distinguishes Ciya is that it carries out somewhat an archeology of traditional dishes and finds original recipes. I never even have seen some of these dishes in any other historical restaurants in the city.
After a few times, turkish *restaurant* cusine becomes very repetitive. Ciya is a good exception.

[Aston100]

Definitely makes a change from kebabs everyday for sure

[can2]

And I don’t even eat meat…