Every January, M and I plan our travels for the year, choosing our top 5 destinations each. Every January, I put Istanbul on my list, yet we haven’t managed to make it a reality. Until now, because I’m currently in our Istanbul Airbnb, looking at the Bosphorus from the living room window, writing this blogpost. (Edit: I was, actually, when I started writing, but as the time of posting, it’s January 2020.)
While doing our research for this trip, which included reading recommendations from friends, a variety of blogposts, Instagram stories, and even the good old-fashioned travel guides, I realized that I knew which sights I wanted to pay a visit to, but I didn’t know where they were exactly, and thus how to plan our days accordingly.
When we explore a new city, we always do one neighborhood at a time, so I thought I would write down our initial itinerary doing exactly that, and then complete it with practical tips so that you can learn from our mistakes and enjoy a carefree (and well-planned) trip to this incredible city!
A few thoughts on logistics:
When you plan your trip, the first question will probably be related to airlines and airports. Should you fly Turkish Airlines or Pegasus? Which airport is closer to the city centre? We chose Pegasus due to its low prices – compromising on free snacks and in-flight entertainment was a no-brainer for us – and arrived at Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport sometime in the late afternoon. Some say the transfer from there is a nightmare, but we had absolutely no problem using Havabus – a single ticket costs 18 TL (less than 3 EUR) and can be purchased on the bus. The ride itself took about 1,5 hours to Taksim Square, but since it was our first time in the city, it was actually nice to sit back and relax before conquering it bit by bit.
Where to stay in Istanbul
I have no experience with any other part of town when it comes to accommodation, but I can say this much: Cihangir is definitely a great area to base yourself. Why? It has a cozy, laid-back vibe, the main tourist attractions are further away, so you’ll mostly see locals in the cafes or on the street. Oh yes, it is jam-packed with amazing places that very much deserve your love and attention. We stayed at this charming apartment, and we would return anytime!
How to get around in Istanbul
You see, most people will say that calling a cab or an Uber is your best option – but they are so wrong! Agreed, if you want to get from A to B real fast, it might be so, but otherwise, don’t even think about it. The public transport system works perfectly well, it’s really affordable (the more you transfer the cheaper it gets, actually), and it’s easy to use. All you need is an IstanbulKart (available at most stations, transport hubs and airports). You can top it up with cash within seconds – one ride costs 2.60 TL.
You should also consider walking as much as you can – it’s a really diverse city, and you might stumble upon hidden gems or photogenic places at every other corner!
Day 0 – Arrival
Depending on the time of your arrival, day 0 should be about exploring your neighborhood. As I mentioned above, we stayed in Cihangir, and Gülin, our host gave us a pretty long list of cafes, bars and restaurants to choose from. We ended up in 49 Çukurcuma, a great place with a really cool interior design. I say great, but actually, their Pizza 49 was among the top 3 I’ve ever had! If you’re up for some drinks, too, check out the nearby Solera Winery or Geyik. There’s an abundance of cute cafes, too, like Çukurcuma Antiques & Cafe or Kronotrop, and some amazing brunch places, such as Journey, Van Kahvalti Evi and Cuma (we tried the latter on our last day). These are just some recommendations, but the area of literally full of places to choose from, so don’t miss your chance of a great night out!
Day 1: Sultanahmet and Balat
Sultanahmet is the area where you’ll find the most important historical sights – and therefore it’s really touristy. Get up early, choose the attraction you’re most interested in, and go there right when it opens to avoid the crowds.
What you’ll find here:
- Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya Müzesi) – an orthodox church-turned-mosque-turned-museum, definitely the top tourist attraction in Istanbul. Open from 9 AM – 17 PM, entrance fee: 72 TL (ca. 11 EUR)
- Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Camii) – it’s free to enter, but you will need a headscarf and a long skirt if your clothes are too short (both provided on site for free)
- Hippodrome & Sultan Ahmet Park – the piazza and the park that stretches along it, connecting Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque
- Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnici) – an amazing underground cistern that will give you all the Chamber of Secrets feels – there’s even a Medusa head to look out for! Open from 9 AM – 17.30 PM, entrance fee: 20 TL for foriegners (ca. 3 EUR)
- Topkapi Palace (Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi) – the royal residence of Ottoman sultans, it’s an incredible complex! Buy the combo ticket if you’d like to visit the Harem, too (highly recommended!) Open from 9 AM – 18 PM, closed on Tuesdays.
I’ll admit, Day 1 was a bit of a mess, so I’ll tell you what we did and how I think you should do it for a much smoother tour.
We started our day at the Blue Mosque, then walked through Sultan Ahmet Park (perfect photo ops everywhere you look!) to Hagia Sophia, then decided not to wait in line for the museum. Actually, we thought it was enough to see it from the outside, and deleted it from our schedule altogether. Instead, we went to the Basilica Cistern, then continued our walk in Gülhane Park.
We ended up skipping Topkapi Palace as well, as we had a lot to see, so instead, we headed to Süleymaniye Mosque (Süleymaniye Camii). It’s less touristy than the Blue Mosque, and in my opinion more beautiful, so definitely don’t miss it when in Istanbul. However, I’d recommend you save it for the time you spend in Eminönü (more on that later.)
By this time, we were quite tired from all the walking, and it was high time for lunch, so we walked back to Galata Bridge and had an amazing fish soup at Galata Sanat. What got me through the day between breakfast and lunch was a huge dose of freshly pressed pomegranate juice they sell at almost every corner. Try it, it’s seriously good!
Around 3 PM, we decided to go back to Topkapi Palace, but it turned out that the Harem was only open until 4 PM, so we wouldn’t have enough time to explore it properly, thus skipped it again. We couldn’t buy our tickets for the next day in advance either, so we had to reschedule everything.
TIP: Decide in advance what you want to visit and stick with your plan, otherwise you’ll lose time like we did. If you want to visit Topkapi Palace, I’d suggest you start your day with that, then do everything else. Be prepared though, that it can easily take up half your day! (That’s why we skipped it the first time.)
After this mishap, we decided to go to Balat, because it was the no. 1 item on my Istanbul bucket list, and we wanted to escape all the tourists for the rest of the day and explore a completely different part of the city. If you don’t mind staying among the people though, I’d recommend Sultanahmet and Eminönü for Day 1. (As you’ll see, we explored part of it on the first day, and the rest on the second).
Now Balat was love at first sight for me. We walked through a rather conservative part of town to get there – I was definitely underdressed in my knee-length dress and felt pretty uncomfortable, but we soon got to Balat, and it was everything I hoped for! There’s this picture of Balat of a really beautiful and colorful row of houses all over Instagram and Pinterest, that I wanted to take photos of, so I still don’t know why I thought we would be the only ones with this agenda. I knew we got there even before seeing the houses themselves, as the area was full of people posing for the gram, so after a few snaps, we decided to walk further up the street to escape all this. M took a really lovely shot of me here, though!
There’s an abundance of cool cafes and restaurants in Balat, the most iconic probably being Balat Antik Cafe with its rainbow umbrellas and colorful steps. For our taste it was a bit too much, so we opted for Cooklife and I highly recommend their chai latte! I’m sure you’ll find something to match your taste.
After sipping our tea and coffee in Balat, we headed home as it was a pretty exhausting day, and we still had 3 more to go! On the way home, however, we stopped by Pandora Bookstore, just off Istiklal Street, to look around. I found some real gems, so I was super happy, but boy was it expensive! Still, it’s absolutely worth checking out!
Day 2: Galata, Arnavutköy, Karaköy & Eminönü
I know it sounds like we covered a lot of ground, but we actually had a pretty relaxing day. Of course, there were some things we’d do differently now, but overall it was a great day!
We started Day 2 with brunch at Cafe Privato, so we didn’t even get up early. We already enjoyed our morning walk there, as it went through a really residential area of the city, filled with cool cafes and people sitting outside with their tea, playing chess or talking to each other. Cafe Privato was a recommendation of an Instagram friend of mine (Thanks, Annchen!) for a classic Turkish breakfast called kahvalti. Even a modest kahvalti usually consists of different types of cheeses, fruit preserves, honey, butter, fresh bread and olives, but this was more like everything you can imagine from omelettes and small pancakes to green salads and eggs, on top of everthing else I mentioned above. It was brutal. You have to try it!
Since our breakfast table was overlooking the Galata Tower, we walked around in the neighborhood after brunch, had some Turkish çay at Şirin Fırın (also a place I found on Instagram), did not go up Galata Tower, regretted it later on – but seriously, don’t go up in the middle of the day, the line is crazy long. You could also go to SALT Galata (more on that later), but we did that the next day, as it was closed on Monday.
After our morning walk, we took the bus (22/25E) to Arnavutköy. After 25 mins, we arrived to a complete change of scenery. Arnavutköy is a historic neighborhood on the Bosphorus coastline famous for its wooden Ottoman mansions and seafood restaurants, as well as for housing the campus of Robert College, a prestigious high school. We wandered the streets rather aimlessly, taking it all in, then headed for coffee and some cake at Doorstep. It’s a tiny and charming place, I could have sat there for hours with a book, as a girl next to us did, but we had to get back to Eminönü soon, to catch our sightseeing boat.
Looking back, this whole boat tour was a mistake. Although it was not expensive, we could have spared that 2×10 EUR, as we took a short ferry ride to the Asian side of Istanbul the day after, using our IstanbulKart, but of course, we didn’t know back then that the tour would be a waste of time and money. We rushed back from Arnavutköy, realized we still had some time before we had to be at the pier, so we walked around Karaköy, eventually reaching a park that overlooked Eminönü, sat there for a while, then walked across Galata Bridge to get to the pier.
Since we didn’t have proper lunch, just the cake at Doorstep, we grabbed two fish sandwiches, or balik ekmek from a boat called Derya balikcilik – amazing street food! We chose a Turyol boat tour, and I definitely recommend them if you want this experience – it just wasn’t all new to us, after all, as it took us back to 15 Temmuz Şehitleri Köprüsü, a bridge we’d already seen on our way to Arnavutköy, and places we would see the next day just as well during our ferry ride to Üsküdar. If you want to skip Arnavutköy and the ferry ride to Asia, then definitely go for the boat tour, but otherwise, your time is better spent elsewhere! If you’re already in Eminönü, I would probably go to Süleymaniye Mosque from here.
After we landed in Eminönü, we still had some time before dark to explore the area, so we walked through the Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı), where we bought some delicious pastrami for dinner, then went on Instagram mission no. 2.
A lot of people posted photos of a rooftop overlooking the city, in a perfectly Insta-worthy setting, and as I was doing my research for this trip, I saw that this was a place called Kubbe, and it became a proper photography location with all these props provided, but not free of charge, of course.
I like beautiful places, but I’m not a fan of having the same shots as everybody else, unless it’s something really iconic. I also read, however, that there’s a rooftop next to it where you can just walk up and take photos without all these shenanigans, so we went anyway to check it out. If you are looking for Pak Pide Pizza Salonu, you’ll stumble upon the steps that lead to that rooftop, and from then on, the floor is yours. We got there just in time for golden hour, and it was simply breathtaking!
You can take beautiful photos of Süleymaniye Mosque, or turn right and you’ll see the Galata Tower. Oh, and you can have a front-row view of what’s happenig over at Kubbe – they feed the seagulls to always have them in the photos, so there was a serious bird poop danger that we on the other rooftop could mostly avoid.
Mostly, I say, because M got some on his head nonetheless – oh, the perks of having a persistent girlfriend like me!
We topped the night with some nargile/hookah/shisha (water pipe) and the most amazing apple tea I’ve ever had at Erenler Hookah. There were only a few women around, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable, and the guy calling me lady everytime he talked to me totally made my day!
Day 3: ‘Second chances’ and going to Asia
This was such a beginner’s mistake, but who would’ve known? I, I should have known, of course, but we thought there would be no problem going to Topkapi Palace on a Tuesday. Guess what, it is only closed on Tuesdays! Ha.
We decided, since we were pretty great with our sightseeing the past two days, and had only Asia in mind for Day 3, that we could start with either Topkapi or Hagia Sophia, and decided we preferred Topkapi Palace. We even got up early to check when it opens, just to realize it’s not gonna open that day. Don’t do this at home, kids, prepare for a visit like normal people! We were a bit devastated, since we could have gone on Day 1 with a little bit more organized schedule, but hey, at least we have something for the next time, along with the Galata Tower!
Since the Hagia Sophia was open, we choose the museum as our main sight for the day. Before that, however, we started off with breakfast at Cuma – amazing kimali yumurta and pancakes at a place where you could spend your whole day with a laptop or just reading a book. My dream life.
After breakfast, we walked to SALT Galata to finally check it from the inside. The security guard even remembered us from the day before! SALT Galata is a former bank building with stunning architecture, featuring a gallery, a cafe, a library and the bookstore Robinson Crusoe 389. It’s a lovely place and I really loved how the library was designed! Among so many other things in this itinerary, the inspiration to visit SALT Galata came from my friend Ana (@_smallthings_inlife_).
A few notes on Hagia Sophia: definitely didn’t regret going inside! Yes, it’s incredibly touristy, and yes, since part of it is under renovation, it was hard to take perfect photos of the interior, but seeing photos of it won’t do justice anyways. It took my breath away and I was totally overwhelmed seeing so much history in one place. Definitely squeeze it in your itinerary!
After all this, we grabbed some döner at Maranda Döner, and got on the ferry at Eminönü Pier headed to Üsküdar. The ferry ride itself was pretty comfortable, and it was definitely hard to leave the warm insides of the ship since we had a pretty windy day.
Welcome to Asia, I thought to myself – it was our first time ever. I was actually a bit sad that we didn’t have more time for the Asian side, because much of modern Istanbul is there, but that’s why I’m sure we’ll go back in a few years – there’s so much left to see! During our flight to Istanbul, we chatted to the woman sitting next to us – she was actually examining our Hungarian travel guide to help us decide where to go and what to see, such a nice gesture! – and she told us that in Üsküdar, we should check out Ismet Baba Fish Restaurant if we are craving some fish. We were full with our döner, so we didn’t go in the end, but I’m leaving it here as a reminder for ourselves as well, because I’d love to try it one day.
We walked around for a while, and ended up at the stairs overlooking Kiz Kulesi or Maiden’s Tower. Here you can sit outside on pillows with traditional Turkish patterns, and sip your tea – in my case, apple tea, because I just couldn’t get enough of it. As I said, it was pretty windy, but the tea warmed us up instantly, and the men working at the bars frequently walked around asking whether we wanted more. It’s definitely a peaceful scene, and I can’t stress this enough – take a book with you everywhere you go, because you will want to stay for hours! Which you should totally do.
After an hour or so, we had to go back though, as it started to get dark, and we had to pack for our flight back home the next day. To celebrate our last night in Istanbul, we went out for dinner and cocktails at Cafe Smyrna Cihangir – such a lovely and cozy place!
Day 4: Saying goodbye – Görüşürüz, Istanbul!
There was not much to do on the day of our departure, as we had a pretty early flight, so we just packed our stuff and went to the airport. I don’t know if I wrote about this before, but I absolutely love spending my time at airports. I used to love it for the shops, but now I mostly enjoy it for the people. There’s always some instance of the kindness of strangers, just like this time at Starbucks. I was waiting for M to get our coffees, when a woman sat down across the table. I was thinking about how we would all fit here once M is back, but once he sat down next to her, the woman pulled out a small package from her bag that turned out to be homemade scones and offered to share them with us. When she saw we were a bit reluctant to eat something a stranger offered, she said ‘Mama, mama!’ – pointing to the scones, making gestures of eating by hand, and she didn’t have to do or say more.
We fell in love with Istanbul for many reasons, but especially for its people. Can’t wait to be back!
End of story, guys! Thank you so much if you made it to this point, I know I was rambling a lot, but I really wanted to provide the full picture and be as detailed as possible to help you plan your own trip to Istanbul, and hopefully let you do it without all the mistakes we did! Let me know how it goes in the comments below!
xo, L.