Hello and welcome to my first blog post of 2025 (technically haven’t finished France at the end of December 2024 yet but hey-ho you obviously weren’t bothered about that!)
Mikayla had wanted to go to Istanbul for some time. Although I had been to Türkiye, a lesser known seaside city of Samsun in 2023 for the Welsh football (link here), I know the biggest city would be very different!
I am going to have a go at significantly reducing the word count, at least for this blog. I have been falling in to the trap of not writing about my trips soon enough due to time constraints (the pub) thus forgetting some good stuff. The initial section may remain quite text heavy but in terms of the itinerary think bullet points, not paragraphs Christopher!
Istanbul is by far the biggest city in Türkiye with over 15 million persons. A few points on this. The country stopped using “Turkey” in 2021. Although the largest, Istanbul is not the capital city of the country – Ankara is, which is more central with under 6 million inhabitants.
Istanbul is famous for many things, but of interest is that, where the city is split in two by the Bosphorus Straight, it’s commonly regarded that one half of the city is in Europe, the other in Asia. I didn’t really see any difference in culture etc between the two. Istanbul was slightly more “Westernised” than I anticipated, similar to our memories of Amman in Jordan.
The trip was good value for money as FLIGHTS during February half-term in Wales were around £75 each from Bristol, Monday to Friday. The Orient Express by Orka Hotels (see NOTE 1 below) was a great location and walking distance (see NOTE 2) to the central tourist hotspot of Sultanahmet Square, costing £60 per night for two with breakfast and use of the sauna and tiny pool in the basement.
NOTE 1 – This wasn’t the HOTEL we booked. We originally booked the Royal Orka Hotel and Spa down the road but due to a ‘security’ issue we were shown to one of their sister hotels two minutes up the road. Looking at the photos I reckon the initial hotel would have been a bit nicer, but it didn’t impact our stay, and was probably more convenient when you consider note 2…
NOTE 2 – I had struggled for a few weeks before visiting with a recurring foot problem that decided to reinvigorate itself on the flight over. I’ll try to mention this as little as possible but to summarise it was the worst pain I’ve experienced outside of home EVER. At the worst it took me 15 minutes to walk 120 meters on day three. Good job the hotel was that little bit closer to the tram! After aimlessly looking for a walking aid for two days we finally had the epiphany of asking the hotel reception where we could buy one, to be told they had a spare crutch in lost property! Relief and FML in unison.
GETTING AROUND was good (foot aside) once we understood how to get a 3-day ticket from the machine. Costing about £20 each I don’t think this was the cheapest option but we made it good value. This covers buses, trams, metro, public boat crossings, trains that go a little further afield and another type of ‘Marmaray’ train I didn’t quite get but similar to the Metro. We didn’t use an Uber once after the airport. Google maps worked OK but didn’t integrate the different methods of public transport as well as hoped.
COSTS on the whole were a little bit cheaper than in the UK. Bottled drinking water very cheap. For £10 in an American fast-food joint you could get loads. Entrance to the sights were significantly more expensive than expected… so much so we didn’t pay for them.
I’ll include more costs further in the post. All in with things like airport parking, hold luggage and the like we were glad to have some change from £800!
Shall we crack on with the intenerary?
Day 1 – Getting to Istanbul
Flew from Bristol late afternoon arriving around 8pm. Already mentioned my foot. Istanbul (IST) airport is bloody ages away from the City and even if I were fit I would have still paid £35 for a 45 minute Uber/taxi.
Changed hotels, by now it was around 11pm so we sacked off tea and had an early night.
There… that was quick, wasn’t it?
Day Two – Blue Mosque and not much else!
After a basic breakfast we obtained some cash from an ATM and figured out the travel pass. Just one stop from our hotel was where to get off for Sulanahmet Square housing the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern.
It was early on we understood I wouldn’t be doing anything quickly today (perhaps all week) but we did wish to see the Blue Mosque, high up on every must-see list. This was also free as long as you can shake off the odd friendly chap in the square with an ulterior motive (i.e. trying to flog you a carpet).
We timed the visit really well, just before the Mosque was closing for tourists during prayer. I was the last one allowed in but that had nothing to do with the four minutes and extreme amount of pain it took to take my bloody shoe off! Although otherwise of course I was happy to do so.
Inside the Mosque was impressive. I have a tendency not to be too extravagant with the description of religious buildings… Jeez I don’t want to think how many Churches I’ve been to as an unreligious person… so I hope the pictures can do the work for me here.
After finding a stable place to re-shoe-up, it was time for a recovery sit down, one of about seven thousand today. The benefit on this occasion was a mid morning snack featuring a 50p cob of sweetcorn with salt. I miss them already.
Fun fact: It’s hard to see it in any of my photos but today there were still piles of SNOW dotted around from a recent downfall. Snow in Turkiye?!? (albeit February). There’s a joke somewhere about assuming frozen Turkey was more a December event but let’s not….
Following our short trip down the road to the Mosque we decided to try our luck on the Metro, primarily to do something where I could primarily sit down! Our planned itinerary was already unravelling on the first full day so we chose to visit an area on the Asian side of the City and a football ground that is currently home to Jose Mourinho, namely Fenerbahce. Google Maps told me there was a bus that would take us closer to the ground but I really couldn’t be arsed.
It was approaching late-lunchtime now and being a little at a loss, noted a large shopping mall near a stop returning to our hotel, so chose there. We had something called Arby’s. Obviously American but cannot say I have come across the chain before. It was below budget and filling and gave me enough energy to get back to the hotel via a visit to the supermarket.
That evening was embarrassingly void of anything interesting. A huge reason of writing these blogs is to force me to actually do stuff, but on this occasion the evening was spent in the hotel room watching the football on TV, ad-hoc visits to the shower to rinse my feet in cold water and a kebab from Uber Eats.
Day Three – Galata Tower and Bosphorus Boat Tour
The morning of Day 3 was when I mentioned earlier, it took my 15 minutes to walk 120 meters to the tram after leaving the hotel. By the time we travelled three stops to Karatoy station, the second course of Zapain for the day must have kicked in as we trekked for around 40 minutes uphill (usual pace 15-20 mins) to reach Galata Tower.
Not so fun fact: Writing this, I’ve just clocked a funicular (uphill underground car) that would have taken us to the top, with the tower a very short walk downhill. Absolutely taking the piss there.
The Tower would have provided really good views of the Bosphorus, the Sirkeci and Sultanahmet districts where we were staying and beyond. However, we just could not justify the £30 each ticket price to walk up a load of stairs behind 100+ schoolchildren.
Instead we did something we very rarely do. We sat down outside a café bar, had a slow paced fizzy beverage, enjoyed the sunshine and watched the world go by. Delightful. Almost like we were on holiday!
Descending the hill was actually more difficult for me than uphill, as we chose a very busy path with many shops and tourists, add steps, too many vans driving both ways and cobbled streets. By the time we reached the bottom, back at the tram stop, we decided that I’d tram back over the Galata bridge whilst Mikayla made a dent in her step target for the day (yeah rub it in, hun).
The benefit of this though, is that I had a comfy seaside seat for ten minutes watching the fishermen and the restaurant staff trying to shepherd folk in to their establishments. On a side note the amount of jellyfish visible in the water was something I haven’t seen before. Eurgh… The bridge itself was quite fascinating. Was it built to house all of these buildings on top of the water / under the bridge? Or were they a new addition?
For lunch we had this really disappointing kebab not too far from the hotel. A miniscule portion of meat compared to home and more expensive. I had every intention of having kebabs for at least 50% of my meals but this would be just my second and final one of the the trip. A real shame as I had been pescatarian for all but a couple of weekends this year.
Kebab misery aside, the probable highlight of the trip is up next!
For a bargain price of £22 each we added ourselves to a daily boat tour. When booking one may raise an eyebrow over the departure location, it’s in a petrol station, but nevertheless the ship was there promising us a meal, entertainment and audio guide.
It was a strike of fortune that we were seated right in the corner to enjoy our own personal chit chat and genuinely weird but perfect way my wife and I get on.
The food was good, but excellent if you consider the overall cost.
For something similar near anywhere central you would pay at least the same and without the boat tour. I’ll put my neck out and say that even if you have one night in Istanbul it’s worth doing.
LINK HERE to our booking on Viator. I’m nowhere near mainstream enough to use #ad, so it’s just my opinion.
The trip itself aside from the good food was also very pleasing. The tour travelled north under one bridge and close to the next that connect the two sides of the city.
In total there were 22 audio guide points on the tour, showcasing everything from history to bridges to islands to palaces to fortresses on the way. I did actually save the app to share in more detail but in the interest of keeping this shorter – go see it yourself.
The entertainment on board also deserves a mention. Traditional music and dances with a belly dancer chucked in for the Dads. I’ve got a great photo of said dancer having a wonderful time time with my wife but I’m keeping that to myself. Or for divorce proceedings…
We were privileged to have gone on a tour on the Nile in 2022 shortly after I proposed to Mikayla with similar entertainment on board. So for this reason, I paid more attention to the sights and audio guide. And the baklava for dessert!
Go on. One more photo of a bridge.
Oooh shit I nearly forgot a fun fact!
Fun fact: The Bosphorus Bridge, known officially as the 15 July Martyrs Bridge built in 1973 to aid transport of goods and commute spans over 1.5 kilometres joining the sides of Istanbul. At the time this bridge had the 4th largest suspension span in the world. To locals back home in Wales , imagine the Severn Bridges but with NO support in the middle! Impressive eh? The equally impressive Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge further north is very similar (50m shorter) and built in 1988.
In total the tour lasted around 3.5 hours. I stress I’m not affiliated in any way but we had a 3 course meal plus bread and salad, music, dancers, a long boat ride on the Bosphorus, free soft drinks and we’re sat right by the smoking area (I’m a smoker and had a bad foot remember) ALL FOR LESS than entry to Galata Tower that we visited in the morning.
Day Four – Hagia Sofia, Grand Bazaar and Taksim Square
I assumed somewhere selling suitcases and bags would also sell walking sticks? Is this apparent in the UK or just me? But no joy for our first three days here. This morning it had got to the point I couldn’t stand up straight, so I asked the hotel reception where to buy such a walking aid, for them to pull out an actual crutch from lost property!
WHY DIDN’T YOU ENQUIRE ON DAY TWO YOU IDIOT…
Apparatus in hand, literally (lolz), we set off. Day Four would have been a write off without it.
We headed back to Sultanahmet Square (day 2) to visit the other mosque known as the Hagia Sophia. This surely is the tourist hotspot as it was the first time on the trip we experienced a queue of obvious non-locals. Fun fact, it used to be a church and still has some nods to Christianity inside. I found that bizarre.
The tour guides around here are a pain in the arse. They may help you jump the ticket queue (it was quiet when we went so would’ve saved us five minutes) but would have been overpriced. The entrance ticket itself was quite expensive at around 20 quid but you did get a really good audio guide with that.
Top tip: The Hagia Sophia was a good visit and worth the money. You could pay about 50% more to go downstairs i.e. walk on the green carpet, but we felt that was upselling from the ticket office and everything is visible from the tier we were at. The audio guide and walk took around an hour which I thought was the correct amount.
After a good rest outside sat in the square and a newfound determination, we wanted to tackle the Grand Bazaar, a few stops along the tram route. I expected this place to be absolutely heaving and to not necessarily enjoy our walk around. You can imagine my surprise when we entered the well lit and spacious market floor. I was expecting narrow alleys bustling with people including pickpockets but this was more akin to a shopping mall – even the stall owners were not as pushy as I expected.
We purposely waited to visit here to pick up a routine Christmas tree decoration and a magnet for Mum, with success. I’m admittedly crap at bartering and didn’t have much complaint about the traders first offer of £5 for a small Aladdin like lamp that will genie itself into a decoration with some poetic licence. We did however manage to get him down to £4 but apart from the ‘experience’ of bartering (meh) it wasn’t really worth the hassle for such a small purchase?!
Exiting via the west side as there was a recommended kebab shop I saw online, this is where the streets did get very tight and busy. This area is surely still considered the market area but I’m guessing the rent is considerably lower!
In total we continuously walked for about half an hour as the kebab stall didn’t really take our fancy, until we got to the outskirts of the market. For lunch we had Burger King next door to the disappointing kebab shop we visited yesterday.
Back at the hotel I did entertain some self-guided water ‘aerobics’ in the small pool to hopefully assist recovery- it didn’t.
After a productive morning we reviewed what was left to do and decided to make a slow paced visit to Taksim Square about half an hour away on the tram and up an underground funicular.
The square was the largest area we had seen and you’d think here is where they could hold big events such as concerts or a TV showing of Türkiye’s third place finish at the 2002 football World Cup. Tonight though it was very quiet and not much going on. This did further highlight the centrepiece of the square – Taksim Mosque. I don’t know whether it was atop a hill or strikingly lit up in anticipation to celebrate Ramadan, but to me this was the prettiest of all the many Mosques we passed yet it didn’t appear on many sightseeing to-do lists. I understand you can go in if you wish.
We sacked off the idea of visiting another football ground as Mikayla was starting to feel a bit worse for wear so called it a night.
Day Five – Basilica Cistern, Footy stadiums and commute back to airport
What started off as being a bit lethargic the night before turned into something a lot worse the morning after for Mikayla. Not very good timing as it was a) the only morning I actually felt a bit better with the foot and b) the day we would travel home. This was really sad considering how much she had to put up with me throughout the week.
With some disappointment and guilt I made my way, on my own, back to Sultanahmet Square to visit the last major thing we wanted to see, being the underground Basilica Cistern. On this occasion I did splash out on the £30 entry fee, which in hindsight was very expensive for the experience.
To avoid being as confused as I was at one point expecting some Church like dwelling… a basilica is basically a large oblong hall and a cistern is receptacle for holding water, like your loo at home.
Initially built between the 3rd and 4th Century, the Basilica provided a water filtration system for nearby important buildings during the Byzantine period followed by the Ottoman times.
It was a very large area covering nearly 10,000 square metres, featuring over 300 nine-metre marble pillars.
The audio guide was useful without presenting anything incredible. Aside from the area as a whole I guess, the main attraction were two column bases featuring the head of Medusa. These were apparently oriented sideways to avoid her gaze that would turn you in to stone. Yep, people believed that.
In popular culture, the site has featured in 007’s From Russia With Love and a few other films, however my first thought was how much it would fit in to an Assassin’s Creed video game. With method behind the madness, the guide did confirm that it featured in the Revelations instalment.
With the tour being wrapped up quicker than expected and with Kay having no reason to want to check-out until the last possible minute, I took it upon myself to take an hour-long trip from the Basilica Cistern to visit football ground number two, belonging to Besiktas – probably the most central of all teams in Istanbul.
Remarkably this was a stone throw away from where we caught the ferry but I was none the wiser in the night time.
As time wasn’t really in my favour I simply walked around the arc of some of the stadium and through the club shop. I don’t think I could have been tempted by a £70 shirt even if they had my size! Out of the 3 grounds visited this was the most poignant as their current manager is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who was by far my favourite player growing up.
Back at the hotel it was time to leave with our suitcase and two backpacks. I did hand my crutch back to lost property which was a schoolboy error in hindsight.
We never envisaged that this leg of the trip would be so bad to regret passing on a £35 taxi, but a combination of the distance, busy-ness, cost and illness(es) really made this hard work.
The one highlight was a stop off outside the Galatasaray stadium, completing the trio of largest Turkish teams. This in itself though added an extra hour to the commute.
We think it cost us about 20 quid in tickets as our 3-day pass had expired and was unlikely to be used on the airport leg anyway. And the last part of the journey via metro was standing room only!
This meant that by the time we finally arrived at Istanbul airport (itself huge) we were well and truly spent. We still had three passport/security checks to navigate and pick up some tobacco from duty free before we could finally rest and wait for our flight to board.
If tiredness had a monetary value, only when I got home did I realise I spent £23 on a McDonalds at the airport on one meal and extra fries. #hownottolife kids….
To finish, here are a few things we didn’t do for a number of reasons, but you may wish to consider.
- Kiz Kulezi or Maidens Tower – a building locate off shore in the Straight
- Topkapi Palace Museum – about £30 each entry
- Dolmabahçe Palace – about £30 each entry
- Day trip to Bursa – we initially booked this tour but cancelled due to the reviews
- Day trip to Troy (as in the movie) – a long way to travel in one day and £90 each if I remember correctly
- Ataturk Stadium, where Liverpool and Man City have both won Champions Leagues. About a three hour round trip on public transport as it’s some way outside of the City!
If you have any more that you feel should be on that list, give me a shout!
Thanks for reading!
How Not 2 Life 