Tips for Istanbul trip?

Hunt
Thu, 15 Oct 2015 12:50:13 +0000

We had no problems in restaurants (although we paid in cash–supposedly some people have problems with their credit cards being copied). We stayed near Taksim, so I don’t have a restaurant recommendation for Sultanahmet.

As far as scams, the taxi meter may have a “magic button” that jumps up the fare while the driver obscures the meter. Then, when you give the driver a bill (say, a 50 lira bill), he will use sleight-of-hand and show you a 5 lira bill and claim that is all you gave him. Both of these happened to us on the same cab ride–and he didn’t take us to the right location. Another taxi had a “broken” meter, and we agreed on a reasonable price. I suspected another taxi of taking us the long way, but after a few more days in Istanbul, I’m not sure about that. We had much better luck with taxis obtained for us by our hotel, so that’s what I would recommend if at all possible.

The shoeshine scam (which I was warned about in general terms, but still fell for once) is that a shoeshine guy will be walking in front of you, and drops his brush. When you helpfully return it to him, he aggressively starts shining your shoes and then demands money. For what it’s worth, I got a pretty good shine, and paid him much less than he demanded. We encountered several more dropped brushes that we ignored. I really dislike this scam, because it takes advantage of your kindness.

The only other thing was to be sure to ask how much small things cost, to avoid being overcharged or given the wrong change.