Destination Guide : Istanbul

Istanbul was the first destination during our year of travels where we really felt like we were stepping out of our comfort zone. We spent our first three months of travel in new, yet familiar destinations, e.g. Great Britain, Croatia, Hungary, Greece. I don’t personally know anyone who has traveled to Istanbul, even though it really isn’t off of the beaten path.

It was also the first place that we visited that was a “Level 3: Reconsider Travel” according to the U.S. State Department. Seeing that warning shocked us a bit. We did some research and realized that was an advisory for the entire country of Turkey. And while areas near the border of Syria are unsafe, travel to Istanbul was considered relatively safe at the time we visited. Istanbul has unfortunately had a number of terrorist attacks in the past decade. It’s important to do your research to understand the current climate in Turkey before traveling.

All of that being said, we absolutely loved our time in Istanbul. We visited beautiful, historic locations. Ate meals full of spices. And the kids attracted so much attention. Turkish people love kids. T couldn’t walk down the street without getting his hair ruffled by locals.

Here are our favorites from 8 days in ISTANBUL!

STAY

First, did you know that Istanbul straddles two continents (Europe and Asia)? It’s one of only a handful of transcontinental cities. Pretty cool! Ok, geography nerd rabbit hole complete.

I highly recommend staying in Karakoy, a neighborhood that is a great mix of traditional and modern. Karakoy is located directly across the Golden Horn from the historical center of Istanbul, still on the European side of the city. We stayed three nights at a great Airbnb in Karakoy that had a view of Galata Tower. Unfortunately, the owners no longer have it listed. The owners were so sweet and their hair salon was only a few doors down from the Airbnb. T got his pre-Japan haircut there!

We spent the other five nights at Hotel Alilass, a boutique hotel located in the Sultanahmet district and walking distance to many of the city’s most popular tourist sights. We loved this hotel for the decor and the friendly staff. It’s owned by two sisters and chatting with them and getting their recommendations each morning was a highlight. Also, their breakfast was my favorite! Simit, a bagel-like bread, yogurt, fresh fruits, and vegetables. And of course, delicious Turkish coffee and tea. Our kid’s favorite part? The hotel had cats, and kittens, in their courtyard. Our kids spent a minimum of an hour each day playing with the kittens. They even named them (Pandy, Hunter, and Facepaint) and Olivia will still occasionally burst into tears because she misses them!

GETTING AROUND

The ferry is hands down the best mode of transportation in Istanbul. You can take the ferry across the Golden Horn to and from Karakoy and Eminonu (the tourist sight filled side) and also across to Kadikoy, the Asian side of the city. We also took many taxis and Ubers. Warning: the driving norms in Turkey are wild! Drivers switch lanes often or, simply, just drive in two lanes. We also had two mishap filled taxi experiences with drivers getting lost and flat tires. (One day I will share them in a Travel Mishaps post.)

THINGS TO KNOW

If you’ve traveled to a predominantly Muslim country, you will be familiar with many of the “new-to-us” practices. In Turkey, 98% of the population is Muslim. It was the first predominantly Muslim country that we visited, but not our last! It’s important to remember to dress appropriately, especially when visiting landmarks. Appropriate dress usually means shoulders covered and pants or full-length skirts. Istanbul is a big city and you will see people in all kinds of dress. But, in our opinion, it’s best to dress respectfully.

Unlike in Morocco, you are able to visit the mosques in Istanbul as a non-Muslim. Mosques are closed during prayer times and make sure to brush up on the dress code before visiting. The Blue Mosque, for example, has a strict dress code and they will provide women with a head covering before you enter.

You will also hear the adhan, the call to prayer, five times each day. While you don’t need to do anything special when the call to prayer is occurring, it’s best to remain respectful especially during these times. But generally, you will see people carry on with their day. Throughout our travels in Turkey and Morocco, we came to really appreciate the routine of hearing the call to prayer. We would pause to listen to it and note what time it was. Our kids would hear it and say “oh it’s lunch time!” or “it’s the getting dark one now!”.

Drinking Alcohol - In addition to dressing appropriately, alcohol is limited throughout Istanbul, especially in the Sultanahmet neighborhood and near mosques. But compared to Marrakech, alcohol was much more abundant in Istanbul.

EAT

FOOD IN THE SULTANAHMET DISTRICT - During our five night stay on the Sultanahmet district, we ate basically the same dishes every meal. We love kebab, so we definitely weren’t complaining. But in this neighborhood it is really hard, impossible maybe, to find restaurants of other types of cuisine. The traditional dish to try is Testi Kebab, a kebab dish cooked and served in a clay pot. In dramatic flair, your server brings over the clay pot and cracks it open at the table. The kids loved this! We also enjoyed pideler, a boat shaped pizzaesque dish similar to Greece’s peinirli. And every meal began with Turkish Lavas puff bread. We all loved this bread that balloons while baking to the size of, well, a balloon.

We ate at a handful of restaurants with, essentially, identical menus. Rumeli - a cafe down a small, very popular street filled with sidewalk dining (Ticarethane). We also had similar meals from Mihiri and Divella. Most of the time with small kids, we would just order takeout from these two spots and eat dinner at our hotel. We also enjoyed a lunch at Kybele Hotel and Restaurant.

Easily the best food in Istanbul can be found in Karakoy and Kadikoy. You have not truly seen Istanbul until you venture to these two areas.

GUNEY (Karaköy) - Recommended by our Airbnb host, we ate at least two meals here and enjoyed both. Their spinach pideler was especially delicious. We also heard great things about Helvetia and Karakoy Lokantasi in the same neighborhood.

CIYA SOFRASI (Kadikoy) - Turkish food in a great setting and a menu that strays from the standards fare of the Sultanahmet area.

I also visited a series of restaurants on a food tour of Istanbul’s Kadikoy neighborhood. It’s was a whirlwind tour, so I can’t remember what I ate at each but I know that they were good. We visited the following restaurants:

• Semsur Cigkofte - Cig kofte is made with raw beef or lamb and wrapped in lettuce. It is full of spice and flavor. Served to go in this takeout only spot, it makes for a great snack or appetizer before heading off to your next place to eat.

• Lokmata - bite-sized fried dough with a big history. As the story goes, the Sultan’s palace cooks were ordered by his mother to make thousands of these to announce the birth of his son. Traditionally, Turkish families also make a salty version of these to pass out to neighbors after the death of a loved one.

• Kanca - a small, neighborhood cafe. A local, off the beaten path spot.

• Among a handful of other food spots, we also visited a store only selling fermented foods traditional to Turkey (so delicious!) and ate mussels from the Bospherous. Midye Dolma is a popular street food of mussels, rice, and lemon juice. You can find them sold as a snack all over Istanbul. But my guide, and anyone who has studied food safety, recommends not to eat them from a cart because they can easily make you sick. I’m fairly certain that the restaurant where we ate mussels from was Kadikoy Midyecisi.

And, of course, you have to snack on a Simit as you walk from site to site.

DO

FERRY & SHOPPING - I could spend all day riding the ferry to each area of the city, exploring neighborhoods, and shopping at small stores. Istanbul, especially the Karakoy area, is made up of blocks of the same type of shop. There will be a stretch of electrical stores. Maybe 5-8 all on the same street. Then you find a stretch of pharmacy and medical supply stores. The retail layout is so different from the U.S. where typically stores are established away from their competitors. It’s so convenient to shop for a specific item in Istanbul. Need an electrical item, you know exactly what street to head to! There are also so many wonderful book stores and home stores to peruse in the Karakoy area. Definitely carve out a day or at least an afternoon to stroll and shop here.

GRAND BAZAAR - And, of course, the mother of all shopping in Istanbul happens at the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market. While we didn’t buy anything at the Grand Bazaar, we definitely needed to wander through this maze of a market and take in the experience. If you want to learn about our favorite haggling tips that we learned from locals, head to this post of ours.

TOUR - There is so much history in this city, it would be the perfect place to join a Free Walking Tour or hire a guide. My food tour guide, Burcu, also does a local guides of the Kadikoy area where she is from.

BOSPHORUS CRUISE - Our hotel set up this cruise so I’m not sure of the company name, but we enjoyed it, mostly. Seeing the Great Horn (an estuarial inlet) was exciting. From the boat we could see little neighborhoods and it made us want to return to Istanbul and stay further out from the city for a long stretch of time. But mostly the kids lost interest pretty quickly and we had no idea that the cruise would be over three hours. We didn’t prepare for the chilly weather once the sun went down and definitely didn’t bring enough snacks. Also, we didn’t spot any of the famous Bosphorous dolphins. In the end, a simple ferry ride might just have done the trick to be able to see Istanbul from the water.

UMBRELLA STREET - Totally Instagram worthy, yet as you bypass so many selfie takers, you will find some unique restaurants to dine.

HAMAM - For us, a visit to the hamam is a must-do experience in a Muslim country. Head to our blog post that outlines the hamam experience, here.

WHIRLING DERVISH - We didn’t see the show, but I would have loved to have seen the Whirling Dervishes and their mesmerizing spins. Next visit!

SEE - There is truly so much to see in Istanbul. I didn’t do much research before booking our stay here and I was overwhelmed, in a good way, by the number of places to visit. We only hit the main tourist attractions so we left Istanbul wanting more!

We actually splurged on the Istanbul Muze card which gives you access to 10 museums over the course of 5 days. The price was steep (right now it’s $49.50) but it does mean that you don’t need to wait in lines at each site. Also, at most places children 8 and under were free which means we didn’t need to pay an entrance fee for both kids. We did need to show our children’s passports as verification. (In Turkey, you need to carry your passports and visas on you at all times anyways.) So was the Istanbul Muze card worth the price? In the end (at least for 2019 prices), I realized that we could have bought a Topkapi Palace and Hagia Sophia combination ticket and just bought individual tickets for the other places as needed. Overall, we would have saved money.

Here are the landmarks that we recommend seeing (in this order of priority):

TOPKAPI PALACE - A harem from the 15th century? Yes, we want to see that! Topkapi Palace is large and grand and everything that you hope the headquarters of the Ottoman sultans to be. My favorite spot? The elaborate kitchens!

HAGIA SOPHIA - What a tale this building could tell. The Hagia Sophia was once the largest Christian Church of the Eastern Roman Empire. (There are still mosaics of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and other Christian figures.) Then the building became a mosque after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire. Then, it became a museum in the 1930s under the presidency of Atatürk. And in 2020 (after we visited), it became a mosque again, officially named the Hagia Sophia Holy Grand Mosque. From the year 360-2021, this building remains a point of controversy. (Both Topkapi Palace and Hagia Sophia made our 41 Tourist Attractions that We Actually Loved.)

BLUE MOSQUE - This was the only active mosque that we visited during our travels. We visited the Blue mosque during our last morning in the Sultanahmet area and I’m so glad that we didn’t skip it. Especially since we weren’t able to visit mosques while visiting Morocco as non-Muslims.

ISTANBUL ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM - Archeological museums (and ethnographic museums) are our family’s favorite type of museum to visit. This one is wonderful yet after just visiting the National Archeological Museum in Athens, we wished that it had more collections to see. (Athens’ National Archeological museum is one of my favorite museums in the world. You can read about it in our Destination Guide : Athens.) They have a few pieces that history buffs will be impressed by, including the Alexander Sarcophagus and the Sarcophagus of the Crying Women.

MOSAIC MUSEUM - I was so excited to see these mosaic pieces. They are beautiful but the museum is very small and we only spent about 10 minutes total here. This is easily a pass if you’re looking to save money.

PLAY

One day I look forward to returning and venturing further outside of the city to other parks and outdoor landmarks. We loved visiting the gardens and playgrounds in Gulhane Park near Hagia Sophia. You could find us there most afternoons or on a break from homeschooling. There was also a playground in Karakoy across the street from Kilic Ali Pasa Hamam. Unfortunately, most of the equipment was in need of repair and there was broken glass around the playground. In hindsight, we needed to get further outside of the city to see some of the wonderful playgrounds of Istanbul. For our kids, some destinations are simply not playground destinations. Istanbul was one which for our kids meant extra ice cream trips.

Our kids would have loved a trip to the Rahmi M. Koc Museum, a collection of old cars, planes, and other transportation exhibits.

TREAT

Grilled corn eaten in the gardens of the Hagia Sophia, Turkish delight from a shopkeeper, street carts filled with Turkish pastries. Istanbul is full of treats! But, no competition, the best one is Turkish ice cream. Called Dondurma, this type of ice cream is made with mastic and salep, which gives it a chewy, harder texture. While the kids loved eating it, this type of ice cream is especially suited for ice cream tricks! Look up Turkish ice cream sellers on Youtube and I dare you not to laugh while watching videos. Pure enjoyment. Tip: watch the seller before you go. Not all are as amazing as our favorite guy (he was located near the Grand Bazaar). Head to our Instagram page where I will post a video of our favorite ice cream seller who we visited at least 5 times!

RUN

Istanbul makes for a pretty fair running city. Yes, there are stray dogs everywhere, but the major roads along the waterfront make for some easier running paths. Trent spent his solo time running around the city, sightseeing along the way.

DRINK

As I said before, alcohol options are a bit limited in Turkey. Although many places sell Efes beer, even within the Sultanahmet area. We put our regular beer and wine budget towards enjoying Turkish coffee and tea. Trent loved the coffee and I loved the decor at Tiyop Cafe in Karakoy.

We also celebrated 3 months of travel and the end of our time in Europe, with a cocktail, and some sodas, at Snog Roof Bar. They have a good craft beer selection and an even better view of all of Istanbul.

Have you traveled to Istanbul? If so, leave us your favorite places in the comments. Especially if you have a playground that your children loved. We gotta share those playground tips with this community!