I’ve flown through Istanbul airport before, but I’d never ventured into the city. Not for lack of trying, either – I’d been on a flight that could have qualified for a stopover tour, but I hadn’t been able to find it in the airport, and there was no luggage storage in the airport. Plus, that was before the metro reached the airport so it wasn’t exactly straightforward to get to the city. Regardless, I was very excited to change that with this trip!
I stayed in Sultanahmet, basically down the street from the Blue Mosque. As far as proximity to all of the quintessential Istanbul sites, this was perfect! That said, it was very busy and very chaotic – I think if I was going back to Istanbul, I would pick somewhere that was a little bit removed from the tourist sites, now that I’ve gone to them, because the more enjoyable part of the city was wandering through the smaller, less touristy neighborhoods and having coffee at the various cafés. My other pro tip re: the tourist sites – they are really busy during the day, but all that traffic drops off as it gets closer to dinner time, so if you can be flexible about your own itinerary, I would highly recommend looking at 6 – 8 pm as some of the best times to see some of the most well-known sites.
That’s what I did with the Hagia Sophia – I’d walked by it a few times and seen lines around the block, but when I was coming back from dinner there was no line! It was so cool to walk through with almost no one else around. The bottom level is reserved for its use as an operating mosque, while the top level is for tourists who want to come see the space. It’s a beautiful mosque, and the amount of history that’s taken place in this spot is unreal.
One of the coolest aspects of Istanbul, and of Türkiye as a whole, is the fact that it straddles the Bosphorus Strait and sits at the crosshairs of Europe and Asia! Most of Istanbul is on the European side, but it’s easy to take the ferry over. I spent a whole day taking ferries, first to Kadiköy and then to the Princes Islands. The views from the ferries are awesome and I had a really nice time exploring those areas.
My favorite of the major sites I went to was Topkapi Palace! It’s a massive complex and the tile work was gorgeous. While there were a ton of people there when I went, it was easy enough to avoid some of the longest lines and explore what didn’t require a massive queue – I still didn’t see everything, but what I did see was pretty spectacular. My only regret was that I should have planned out food a little better, because I didn’t have enough for breakfast and ended up having a cobbled together lunch of potato chips and juice because I didn’t realize how big of a complex it was when I grabbed my ticket.
The other major Istanbul site that was at the top of my list was the Basilica Cistern, for a kind of embarrassing reason? I’d read about it in a Dan Brown book, if you must know. His novel Inferno is partially set in Istanbul and there’s a scene set in the cistern that made it sound super cool. It made the whole city of Istanbul sound super cool, honestly, but the Basilica Cistern was the place I’d never heard about and then I looked it up and Google showed me some pictures that looked incredible. So I went after dinner and walked around. It was built in the 6th century and, while it used to be a major source of Istanbul’s water, it’s now a tourist attraction, so they project colored lights in there and there are several art exhibits. You don’t need a ton of time in there, but I’m glad I went to see it!
Most of what I did in Istanbul, though, was just walk around the various neighborhoods. Karaköy was fun, especially once I got off the main boulevards and found some smaller streets full of boutiques and cafés. I went into a couple mosques that weren’t the ones you know about by searching “what to do in Istanbul” online. I ended up in Galataport at one point, meant for cruise visitors but also an interesting little planned area along the Bosphorus. I saw lots of street cats.
I had a really nice five days in Istanbul! I’ve been wanting to visit for such a long time, and it definitely delivered. Istanbul is one of those hubs that I expect to fly through a lot more now that I live on the East Coast, and I’m glad I’ve gotten a chance to finally get out of the airport and see a little more of it.