We had a fantastic 10 night holiday to Turkey and ended up spending it all in Istanbul.
Here are a few tips and experiences we had that may help others travelling to this remarkable city!
It is very useful to join up with Turkish people if possible. They are very hospitable and it is very helpful to get some direction and their perspective on Turkey and life there.
They have a transport card which is difficult initially to obtain, but once you have it, you just top it up & use it on all transport methods - tram, bus, ferry... It is around 2TR per trip (x5 for Rand at this time = R10).
It is almost IMPOSSIBLE to find things - sometimes when they are right under your nose!! To help us, we found an app called Transportist - which is an OFFLINE transit planner - it locates where you are via gps and you can punch in where you want to go and it spits out transportation options & estimated time. Awesome. I bought an extension for Istanbul for R24.99.
The app also services: Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, Sydney, Tasmania, Prague, Helsinki, Tampere, Paris, Toulouse, Berlin, Budapest, Rome, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Auckland, Wellington, Warsaw, Madrid, and a whole lot of main cities in the USA.
It's been many years (about 4) since we last travelled abroad. Technology has improved & having a smartphone (we both have iPhones) proved very useful! -- used 'MAPS' on our phones to drop pins to bookmark of where we wanted to go & then followed ourselves (offline) to them - useful if you want to go off somewhere and then meet later so one can find each other!
Turkey is incredibly safe! People are generally very respectful. We were surprised by how friendly most were. And also by how little English is spoken.
We learned the word 'Saol' which means 'to your health', and is a kind way of saying 'thank you' when exiting a shop (the words for thank you escaped us -- too long!) and it is also a kind way of saying 'no thank you'.
Food is AWESOME wherever you eat. I'm not a big fish fan but actually had some amazing fish(!). Kebabs - look for ones that are cooked with real coals rather than the gas cooker ones.
We didn't end up doing the culinary backstreets tour as the business man we met knows the people who run it and he took us to a whole lot of the places :)
Their yoghurt is really nice... there seem to be 2 brands the one brand tastes like goats milk yoghurt though - I preferred the other one. Fruit was also nice. There's lots of bread - it's eaten with just about every meal... bakeries can be very inexpensive.
Otherwise food can add up quickly -- a simple light meal for two is around R150-R200 and dining anything from R300 up for two people. Wine is VERY expensive - I think we paid around R75 a glass of house wine! a bottle is R425 for house wine (ie: take your own - good idea to buy at duty free and Take wine as gifts (or for personal consumption!)
Even though it's amazing to see, I wouldn't recommend shopping for sweets in the Spice Bazaar - it's a ripoff (and the only place we actually felt really harassed!). Sweet shops are much affordable elsewhere, even on the tourist tram line - there's a place called 'SAID' which we kept returning to. If you like fine and/or antique textiles, we found an amazing shop here with very friendly staff - ask for Volkan.
Best towel shop is evidently Jennifer's Hamam -- we didn't get there (couldn't find it!) but it is raved about. We went to Abula (in the Grand Bazaar) which had lovely stuff & the shop across the passage had more range. There was another shop with a nice range in the Spice Bazaar which seemed fairly priced.
We went to the Suleymaniye Hamam for our Turkish Bath.. we chose that one because we wanted to go in as a couple. You need to book a day in advance online, but if you walk in you should be able to just go.
The Hagia Sophia is amazing. Blue Mosque is mosquey. Topkari Palace is amazing (but you shouldn't go hungover or tired as it is rather extensive!) They evidently open at 7.30am if you want to vests the crowds!
A nice, alternative place to stay is on the Asian side. There's an area called MODA which we spent one night in - we stayed at Moda Apartments which was OK - and actually cheaper than staying in our AirB&B which was probably a little bit too much out of the way in a seafood restaurant hub in Saltanamhet. The Asian side has great restaurants and is very vibey, but not touristy like the 2 European sections.
Negotiating for goods in The Grand Bazaar - one can generally start by offering 50% and working to a mutual agreement from there. Turkish people are proud - make friends and spend time and drink tea if you are negotiating.
There are some quality upmarket shops where you will know that negotiation is probably not on when it comes to smaller items.
LADIES ALONE: DON'T LET YOUNG MEN LURE YOU INTO JEWELLERY STORES EXPECTING THAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR YOUR SHIRLEY VALENTINE EXPERIENCE! ;)
Otherwise take time discussing with the shop owners what you are looking for - they are VERY respectful of when you don't find anything that you want to buy & won't keep you captive.
Parks are few but shady and beautiful - nice to picnic and laze in.
