Istanbul tourism has taken a bit of a hit in recent years with the terrorist attacks and ss recently as February 2018 (this was written late Feb), the UK has posted a high terror threat for Turkey. As is generally the case, it’s much ado about nothing, particularly when it comes to Istanbul city. If you’re worried about safety and terrorism, no need to be, at all. As usual, the media have put panic into peoples mind. Anyway, there’s nothing to worry about when considering Istanbul tourism and it’s one of the safest cities I’ve been to and apart from one crazy guy in the park approaching me with his umbrella, I had no worries at all. There’s always one crazy park guy in every city that I’ve been to so I didn’t think much of it. The Turkish people are really friendly, welcoming and I had no problems feeling safe and no stage did I feel at all in danger.
Octopus Card – Get yourself the equivalent of an Octopus Card, which you can use on public transport. One of the dudes at the W Hotel Istanbul gave us his, and you can use one card between two people. On the tram it’s one fare and you only have to tap it to get on, not going off. The trams come every few minutes so you never have too wait long. Whoever the fella’s are running Istanbul tourism, they should make people aware how easy it is using the public transport there.
Where to Stay – I Stayed at the W Hotel Istanbul, which is in a bit of a trendy part of town, away from the main tourist area which has most of the major mosques and other things to do. It’s about 1.5km walk from the tram station, fine for a day or two but when you’re staying there 6 days it gets a bit tedious walking back and forth to your hotel. If there was no traffic you could get from the W Hotel to Sultan Ahmet in about 10 minutes, but the traffic is an absolute nightmare along that road, even outside peak times. If you want to be nearby (walking distance) to most of the top things to do in Istanbul, don’t stay at the W Hotel, pick somewhere in Sultan Ahmet. If you don’t mind the walk and a short tram ride, and want to stay away from the tourists, then the W Hotel Istanbul is a good choice. It’s in a nice area with loads of bars, cafes and restaurants nearby. You can check out more about the W Hotel Istanbul here.
Food – I had enough Donor Kebabs and fish sandwiches to last me quite some decades. There’s one place a few minutes from the W, that is extremely popular (like people lining up popular) that you should have a try of. Photo below and location here. When you’re down by Galata Bridge, get yourself a fish sandwich. About 10 Lira (HKD$20) and not bad. Not what I’d call absolutely mouth watering, but pretty good. Basically just a fish and some lettuce in a baguette style bread thing. The food here, even at decent restaurants, is dirt cheap. I don’t think one meal cost us more than a $150 Lira (about HKD$300), and that was including beer, Raki (basically Turkish whiskey that tastes like Aniseed).
I got stuck into the Raki (getting stuck into any alcohol means about 2 glasses for me!), and it goes right to your head (they don’t tell you that in any Istanbul tourism literature!). Tastes alright though and definitely worth a try if you want to get off your face in as short a time as possible. There’s donor kebab shops all over the place, and loads of burgers, pizza and those bread type dishes. I must admit the first thing I did when I landed at HK Airport was mow down some Xiao Long Bao.
Whether. Honestly it was a bit cold and miserable for most of the time but that meant no crowds and very few tourists, so I was happy to put up with a bit of the cold in return for not having to wait to get into anything I went to. In the weekend it got a busier, probably with more locals out and short stay tourists from nearby countries and cities. It was about 5-10 degrees and in the wind, with no sun, it felt about half that. The one really good day we had I could have worn a t-shirt in the sun, but other than that you’ll need to dress up warm if you’re going in February. It’s not really ideal for Istanbul tourism but again, it means less people, which I’m always into.
Airport Traffic – traffic in general is not that great in Istanbul, particularly on the east side coast of the European side (the road which goes from Sultan Ahmet and heads along the Bosphorous to the Black Sea). I arrived at 6:30a.m in the morning and took about 30 minutes to get my hotel. However, I foolishly left around 6p.m to head to the airport early and spent an hour getting there. We went the long way, I thought the taxi driver was having me on but a quick look at Google Maps told me the shorter way was going to take an hour and twenty minutes! Make sure you leave with plenty of time.
Ataturk Airport is alright, getting in was fine, I only had a carry on so didn’t have to wait for baggage and getting through immigration took a few minutes. Leaving, when you go through immigration, the passports dudes will throw your passport back at you and ask you to find the page with your stamp you got when you came in. It’s funny, it doesn’t matter how nice people are in any country, all the assholes seem to work at passport control!
One thing I wished I’d done was see a soccer game. It was going to cost over 100 Euro and was on the Asian side (there’s a stadium near the W Hotel but there was no game on during our stay) and in the end we gave it a miss. If you do go, you can’t just roll up to the gates and get yourself a ticket. Organise it through your hotel and you need to make sure you get some kind of ID Card, apparently in an effort to reduce hooliganism.
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