Our time in Istanbul was incredible. Here was our itinerary:
- Day 1: Arasta Bazaar
- Day 2: Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar
- Day 3: Taksim Square and Asian Side
- Day 4: Basilica Cistern, Sulemaniye Mosque
Day 1: Arasta Bazaar
We arrived at their airport after flying from Rome and got our transportation through Istanbul Shuttle port. We were happy to have someone scheduled to pick us up in a very comfortable van. It even had purple carpet and mood lighting! After over an hour ride to our hotel, we arrived and checked in. The staff at the Golden Crown hotel were wonderful, offering us tea when we walked in and helping us with our bags.
Once we checked in we made our way down to the Arasta Bazarr which was a much less busy bazaar and we enjoyed talking to all the vendors.
We then had a nice dinner at the Mesale restaurant, which had dervish dancers, music, and beautiful seating arrangements. It was a fun experience for our family
As we walked back to our hotel we got our first views of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, which are stunning.
My husband went this evening to get a Turkish bath at the great fortune design hotel which he LOVED. He ended up going back later in the week.
Day 2: Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar
Our first stop of the day was the Topkapi Palace. We got there around 9:45 or so and had just a short wait in line for tickets. We bought the palace + harem and headed straight to the harem because we heard it gets super crowded. We were glad we did because we didn’t have many people in there with us and really enjoyed the harem the most of all during our visit. The rooms are stunning, and all very different. It’s also huge and we were impressed with all we were able to see. By the time we excited there, we could see the grounds had filled up a ton! We visited a few more parts of the property including some of the museums, terraces and gardens before calling it a day around 12:30.
We had lunch at a nice place called Mozaic which was down this really neat alleyway of restaurants.
After that, we grabbed some drinks to help us while we waited for Hagia Sophia. We probably waited 30 minutes or more because they had stopped letting people in (I think it was near the tail end of prayer time). Once the security line started moving it was pretty fast. It ended up being nice because we were one of the first people in and it wasn’t quite as crowded at the beginning. It was truly amazing. We enjoyed that you could just sit on the ground and enjoy looking at the ceiling.
Next up we headed to the Blue Mosque which had a bit of a shorter line that wound through the beautiful courtyard. The inside was stunning and we feel very lucky to have made it here when there wasn’t construction going on. The ceiling is incredibly impressive.
By that time it was about 4pm and we went back to our hotel for a bit of a rest, after of course, a stop to get some Turkish ice cream – the highlight for my kids 😃
In the evening we headed for the Grand Bazzar, thinking going in the evening would be a bit less crowded then when all the cruise ship passengers are in town. It was still busy but was a ton of fun. My kids got to practice bartering and got some good deals. There are certainly better deals outside of the Grand Bazarr, but it’s an experience worth having. You really get lost in there and we enjoyed that.
For dinner we ate at MyTerrace Restaurant, one of the many rooftop restaurants in the area. Beautiful views of the water, more mosques etc.
Day 3: Taksim Square and Asian Side
First stop on this day was to head over to Taksim square. Our goal was to take transportation all the way over to the square and walk back. We didn’t quite accomplish that though 😃 We first took the tram to Karakoy, then took the funicular up (which was really fun). Then we tried to catch the historic tram but we kept getting told no. We thought maybe they only load one way, or were closed, but then we saw people getting on. Either way we were thoroughly confused and after trying a few times, we just decided to walk it. I’m sure it was user error!
We grabbed a Turkish coffee along the walk, stopped in some stores and ate at Dürümzade which was delicious – an Anthony Bourdain recommendation. We finally made it to Taksim Square which was nice, then walked all the way back. My husband loved the vibe of the whole street. I didn’t love it quite as much – very crowded and more modern stores. I liked the more historic areas. But it was an experience. My kids of course stopped for more simit – their favorite food that we got at least 3 times a day!
Once back we made it to Galata Tower. It was kind of expensive to go up in it, so we opted for just my husband and oldest son to go. My younger one was tired of walking and we saw some cute stores around the area so we went shopping then rested at a café for a bit. The views were nice they said, but extremely crowded, kind of scary with people pushing for pictures.
Past that, we walked across the Galata bridge. Super fun to watch the fishermen off the bridge, all the restaurants, floating and non floating. Really amazing sensory overload for us.
That evening, we had booked a private architecture and culture tour through Airbnb on the Asian side of Istanbul. We wanted to visit the Asian side but were afraid if we did it on our own we wouldn’t do it justice. We were so glad we booked this tour. We grabbed the ferry to head over which was super cheap and a fun boat ride with amazing views. When we got over there we met our guide. He walked us through Kadikoy and Moda, explaining the architecture of the area, some of the culture of the various neighborhoods, had some nice talks about history as well. He is a professor at a local university and studies urban planning so we had some really good discussions about our own countries reluctance to create efficient public transportation or ’15 minute cities’ where everything is close by. Very different than most of the US and was fun to discuss! We tried some coffee, walked through old bazaars, saw a waterfront park and more.
Once done we walked back to the ferry and got our own sunset cruise! Turns out, no need to book an expensive Bosporus cruise, just hop on the ferry for $0.50 around sunset 😉 Beautiful views of the skyline.
Also, by this time, we were well on our cat counting journey – my kids LOVED counting how many we saw. Stay tuned to the end for final count.
Day 4: Basilica Cistern, Sulemaniye Mosque
On our final full day, we went to the Basilica Cistern in the morning right before it opened. We had a bit of a line to wait in. Note – there were guides offering to help you skip the line, in which they lied about how long the line is and were charging quite a bit of money. You certainly do not need a guide for this 😊 It was a little pricey honestly. But – the place is amazing. It’s truly incredible to see with all the lights changing colors and imagine this being built 1500 years ago.
After this we walked towards the spice bazaar doing some more shopping along the way where stores were a lot cheaper. We got a bunch of final souvenirs we had our eye on. We visited a mosque right by the spice bazaar which was beautiful and not crowded.
Then we visited the Sulemaniye Mosque. This was one of our favorites. Partially because it is stunning, partially because it wasn’t nearly as crowded as others, but it also had amazing views of the city since it was so high up and it also had a great park like setting around for kids to run in the grass.
We grabbed lunch from another rooftop location right next to it called Mimar Sinan which had incredible views and delicious food. My kids enjoyed that they had cheeseburgers, something they were missing after 2 weeks on the road, and my husband and I got their Turkish ravioli. We were up there during the call to prayer which was really special overlooking the water and hearing it being announced from so many mosques close to us.
On the way back for a rest and to pack up our clothes, we stopped once more at the grand bazaar and also the old book bazaar. This was a hidden gem, kind of tucked away from the crowds. So many book shops. My son was on the hunt for Harry Potter written in Turkish and found it pretty easily. One funny thing though – he wanted book 2. It was listed as 75 lira, which we paid, didn’t negotiate. Then we walked out into the courtyard to play with some cats for a few minutes. After about 5 minutes the man from the shop called me back in – I was thinking he was trying to sell me another book. There was certainly a language barrier, but he kept saying 110 lira. I said, I already paid, he said it’s 110. I pointed to the sticker on the book that said 75. He then removed the sticker and replaced with a new one 😃 I instead asked if book #1 was 75 and he said yes so I traded it out. I have no idea what happened, but it was kind of funny.
For our last evening, we walked down to Sultenahmet square for a bit to see the obsilisk, then had an amazing last meal at Ararat Restaurant, another rooftop restaurant. It was a bit early, maybe 5pm or so, but it wasn’t crowded up top at all. We got a view overlooking the Bosporus as well as Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Really couldn’t have asked for a better view. The food was great too. Our kids got pide and we each got a chicken dish. Mine was the favorite, chicken stuffed with spinach, tomato and with a cream sauce made from figs and pistachios. —–Never had anything like it before but it was incredible. After we paid and were about to leave they asked us to stay and brought us out baklava and tea so we could stay a bit longer and enjoy the view. They were wonderful.
That was about it – as we had a 4:30am pickup time for an early flight so we went to bed pretty early
Final cat count was 153 and we had an incredible time. Istanbul was the highlight of our trip and a place I would recommend to anyone.