Istanbul

  • Istanbul – 4 days of shopping, exploring and eating

    ByJason

    Intro

    As a reward for finishing his GCSEs, my wife suggested I take our eldest away for a few days. I gave him a few ideas and suggestions, but nothing seemed to be his thing, so I told him to have a think and come up with some suggestions himself.

    A few days later he says wandered in and said “How about Istanbul?”

    That one wasn’t on my bingo card of places he’d come up with at all. I’d always been keen to visit Istanbul for a while, but i’d just not got round to it yet.

    “What is it about Istanbul that appeals?” I asked him. “A city that spans two continents? The Blue Mosque? The Hagia Sofia? Cruising along the Bosphorus?”

    “I’ve been watching YouTube and it seems that you can get some good knock off clothes really cheap over there” he replied.

    Istanbul it was then…

    There was plenty of history, some incredible architecture, amazing food and probably too many cats there to be honest. But if you ask my son what he remembers most from the trip, it’ll be haggling like a local over a puffer jacket in a back street shop that i’d probably never be able to find again.

    Istanbul turned out to be a great city to visit. It feels like a big European city and then suddenly you are in a back street and the call to prayer transports you somewhere totally different. Every street seemed to have another story waiting around the corner. It was the perfect destination for our first father-and-son city break and thankfully, we managed to fit in far more than just shopping.

    Getting There

    We flew into Istanbul Airport (IST) on the European side from Luton (LTN) on Wizz Air. Flight time was about 4 hours. We’d pre planned for a shopping spree and flew out with a 20Kg suitcase which had a smaller one in it so we could bring back plenty of swag.

    After we’d landed I checked Uber for the time and cost to the hotel, but it was showing nearly 2 hours and about £40, so we went with plan B which was buying an Istanbulkart. I’m normally pretty sceptical about getting these type of cards as they aren’t always worth the hassle, but the Istanbulkart is a really bit like an Oyster card (remember them?) and well worthwhile.

    I’ve written a little article here (insert link when done). You can use 1 card for up to 5 people, and we used it to get from and to the airport, on trams and the ferry over to the Asian side.

    We were staying near the Galata Tower so for us it was the M11 metro line to Gayrettepe, then change to the M2 line to Sishane. From there it was a 10 minute walk to our hotel. You can pretty much see the Galata Tower from the metro exit.

    Where We Stayed

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    Things To Do

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    Food & Drink

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    Running In Istanbul

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    The Magnet

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    Would We Go Back?

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