<p>I will have an opportunity to travel to Istanbul next February or March. I will be there before I go to Paris for a few weeks. My cultural dance card is full (Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Chora Church and the Archeological Museum et al.) I will be there for five days and want to know if anyone has hotel, restaurant, or general travel advice. I’ve been to Paris many times, but Istanbul is completely new to me. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Congratulations on going to Istanbul! We visited Istanbul several years ago and I would go back in a heartbeat. One of the most comprehensive websites I found was [Turkey</a> Trip Planner]( <a href=“http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com%5DTurkey”>http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com). It has a ton of information, itineraries, and helpful links for planning your trip.</p>
<p>We stayed at [Hotel</a> Nena](<a href=“http://www.istanbulhotelnena.com/]Hotel”>http://www.istanbulhotelnena.com/) in the old Sultanahmet district. It is not a fancy, boutique hotel, but it is within easy walking distance of the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, and Topkapi Palace, and not far from the Grand Bazaar. There is a street car stop on the main street near the hotel that will take you across the Golden Horn to Beyoglu, the newer section of the city. US diplomatic and military personnel often stay at Hotel Nena, so most of the staff speak excellent English. </p>
<p>We used the street cars quite a bit. They are not expensive and cover more of the city than we could cover by foot.</p>
<p>Some of the smaller, lesser known mosques are more beautiful than the tourist attractions. </p>
<p>For females only:
- If you are female, bring your own scarf. Out of respect, you will be expected to remove your shoes and cover your head when you enter a mosque. While most mosques provide head scarves for visitors, you might prefer to bring your own.
- Also, females shouldn’t wear revealing tops (though I suspect no one will want to wear a tank top in February/March).</p>
<p>Get to Topkapi Palace at 9:00 am when it opens. Ditto the Hagia Sofia. Both places get extremely crowded during the day. </p>
<p>The Archeological Museum is adjacent to the walls of Topkapi if you need to escape the crowds. It is fantastic! The Basilica Cistern is across the street from Hagia Sofia & it is worth the price of admission to see the cavernous old cistern that supplied the water to much of Old Istanbul.</p>
<p>Also make sure to visit the magnificent Dolmabahce Palace in Beyoglu, the newer part of town. This is the palace that literally bankrupted the Ottoman Empire. The Bacarat crystal staircase and chandeliers are beyond description.</p>
<p>The local ferry boats are cheap and dock near the Galata Bridge. One day we had breakfast in Europe, took a ferry across the Bosphorus, and had lunch in Asia! We also took a local ferry for a day trip the entire way up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea. Cost was about $7 for a full day excursion. Unfortunately I think this particular ferry route might be seasonal & may not run in Feb/Mar. Once again, check the [Turkey</a> Trip Planner website](<a href=“Şehir Hatları Bosphorus Cruises, Istanbul, Turkey”>Şehir Hatları Bosphorus Cruises, Istanbul, Turkey) - it will direct you to where you can find the ferry schedule.</p>
<p>Shopping:
- The Grand Bazaar is the Original shopping mall. It is full of aggressive merchants who will grab you and drag you inside their shops. Practice avoiding eye contact, saying “No Thank You” and holding up your hand to stop them. Otherwise, you will spend hours drinking tea and listening to a sales pitch for something you may not even want. That said, allow yourself plenty of time to explore the bazaar, but be careful that you do not get lost in the mazes of streets and alleys!
- The Egyptian Spice Market is fascinating. We brought home brass pepper grinders and bags of aromatic peppercorns as gifts.</p>
<p>Have a wonderful trip in both Istanbul and Paris. I would love to tag along in your suitcase!</p>
<p>Just came back from almost 3 weeks visiting w/ DD, who lives in Istanbul. (We only spent about 6 days there; the rest in Cappadocia and on the South Mediterranean Coast). Get a copy of Rough Guide to Turkey, Let’s Go, and Rick Steves Turkey. Borrow the Pimsleur Turkish language learning CD’s from your local library, and listen to them and practice until you have the first few lessons learned. It was very helpful for us to know how to ask if people spoke english, how much things cost, where the bathroom was, etc - and it helped make a connection with the Turkish people we met. It’s a crazy place with incredible density!</p>
<p>P.S. Sorry, no hotels to recommend; stayed in DD’s 6th floor apartment in working-class neighborhood! Restaurants - ate at lot of kebap and donner and didn’t pay attention to the names of places, since we had our own budget-conscious-tour-guide shepherding us around! ;)</p>
<p>thanks both of you! Just the sort of information I needed!</p>
<p>I would have loved to go to Cappadocia and the coast, but a Turkish friend advised us that if we only had 7 days, we should focus on Istanbul rather than spending precious time in transit to other areas. It was good advice. But I still plan to visit Cappadocia and some of the Med coastline (Ephesus, Kusadasi) some day. The “Revelation Trail” fascinates me.</p>
<p>@anxiousmom: where did you stay in Cappadocia and on the southern Med coast?</p>
<p>A few more tips: Istanbul straddles the continents of Europe and Asia. “Anadolu” = Asia (derived from “Anatolia;”) “Rumeli” = Europe (derived from “Rome” and the Roman Empire). If you have time, I recommend checking out the imposing fortress Rumeli Hisari, where Mehmet the Conquerer staged his seige on the Byzantine city of Constantinople in 1452 before conquering it, changing its name to Istanbul, and establishing the Ottoman Empire. </p>
<p>If you are interested in a more academic history of the city, check out [Istanbul:</a> The Imperial City](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Istanbul-Imperial-City-John-Freely/dp/0140244611/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279714596&sr=1-1-spell][u]Istanbul:”>http://www.amazon.com/Istanbul-Imperial-City-John-Freely/dp/0140244611/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279714596&sr=1-1-spell) by John Freely. Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize with his novel [Istanbul:</a> Memories and the City](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Istanbul-Memories-City-Orhan-Pamuk/dp/1400033888/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279714568&sr=1-1][u]Istanbul:”>http://www.amazon.com/Istanbul-Memories-City-Orhan-Pamuk/dp/1400033888/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279714568&sr=1-1) which parallels the deterioration of his wealthy bourgeois family with the slow decline of a city that was once the heart of the vast Ottoman Empire, but I found it slow and “melancholy” (“hüzün,” his word).</p>
<p>The Turkish language shares some phonetics with German. Vowels with umlauts are pronounced the same as they are in German. In fact, many residents of Istanbul speak German as well as English because they were Gastarbeiter in Germany.</p>
<p>No info. about Istanbul, but S1 spent time in Mamaris on the Turkish coast during a Mediaterranean deployment with the Navy. He also went to Isle of Crete, mainland Greece and Italy but thought Mamaris was the most beautiful with the mountains right up to the sea.</p>
<p>We really liked the Hotel Zoe, which is just a couple blocks from all the old city attractions. It’s old, and moderately priced - not fancy, but has a great little courtyard for breakfasts and a rooftop deck with sea-view, great for a glass of wine in the evening. </p>
<p>You’ll run into all kinds of people trying to sell you a more expensive boat trip, but the public ferry is just as good and much cheaper. You can get off at the end of the line and have lunch, or hike up to the castle on top of the hill.</p>
<p>So many great restaurants, but their names escape me. I could research and let you know if you decide to make the trip - feel free to pm me later.</p>
<p>On the coast, we enjoyed Fethiye as a home base, but chartered a sailboat. That’s how we really got a feel for Turkey outside of bustle of Istanbul.</p>
<p>
[quote]
@anxiousmom: where did you stay in Cappadocia and on the southern Med coast?<a href=“I%20don’t%20have%20my%20guide%20books%20here,%20so%20my%20spellings%20may%20be%20off!”>/quote</a> We took the Meram Express overnight train from Istanbul to Konya, visited a museum there, then took a bus to Goreme in Cappadocia. The Meram Express cost the equivalent of $40 - yes, $40, for a 13.5 hour train ride in a double sleeper air-conditioned compartment complete with desk, locking door, little frig with water, hazelnut biscuits, crackers and cherry juice, and fold-down bunks with sheets, pillows, etc. I LOVE overnight trains… That trip we took without DD to translate for us. DD accompanied us on the South Med coast for a 6 day adventure. We flew Pegasus airlines (very cheap and modern) to Dalaman, then traveled along the coast using the local buses. (Bus system in Turkey is incredible - a whole network of public and private buses of many sizes, all connecting. But scary driving - there was not a single bus driver we had that did not TEXT while driving - and those coastal roads are scary, with no shoulders and cliffs right there!). We visited Kayakoy - a ghost town of abandoned stone houses, climbed down Butterfly valley near Faralya (scary climb - took me 2 hours!), Kas - went sea-Kayaking, Phaselis - went horseback riding, Antalya - visited Termessos ruins - incredible place… learned to love the Turkish squatty toilets and standard breakfasts… hot hardboiled egg, green and black olives, chai, greek yogurt and honey, salty cheese, tomatoes and peeled, sliced cucumbers, bread, then more chai! :)</p>