Istanbul is a magical, crazy place with its share of eccentricities. As a tourist, you may find that not every experience in the city is straightforward or easy. Keeping some things in mind can help you get by and can go a long way in avoiding headaches, overspending, and lost time. Here are some Istanbul travel tips to maximize your enjoyment of the city.
Avoid cabs whenever possible
I can pretty much give this advice for any city, but it’s especially true in Istanbul. I’ve read horror stories about taxi drivers not using a meter and charging insane prices and even dumping off riders in the middle of nowhere for refusing to be extorted. I can’t think of anything that would ruin a trip to Istanbul faster than taking a taxi. Luckily, if you plan well, you can easily avoid this by using public transporpation and prebooked transfers.
Know what to expect when you get an airport transfer
One surefire way to ensure a smooth experience getting in and out of the city is to book an airport transfer through your hotel. These range from €50-60 depending on whether you’re traveling to/from Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen Airport (SAW). The transfer experience might feel kind of dodgy but it’s a system that works. You may be used to having someone waiting with your name on a placard, but in Istanbul you have to check in with one of about a dozen companies at the departure terminal who have a list of booked transfers and then wait up to 15-20 minutes for a driver to come. It’s a little harder to maneuver but gets you where you need to go, especially if you’re arriving at some odd hour when taking transportation would be difficult.
Take advantage of Istanbul’s great public transportation
Speaking of getting into the city, there are two metro lines that serve Istanbul’s IST and SAW airports, the M11 and the M4 respectively. During your trip, you can also use the metro, the tram, the buses, and even the ferries with individual tickets or a transportation pass. There’s nothing cooler than being able to take a scenic ferry in the middle of the day to get where you need to go. Who needs an expensive dinner cruise on the Bosphorus when you can hop on a ferry every 15-20 minutes with a transport card?
Rather than buying single or multi-use tickets, you should get an Istanbulkart, which you can preload with a balance to use as needed or load an unlimited pass for 1, 3, 5, 7, or 15 days. It’s important to note that this card can be used by up to five people, so the bigger your group, the more you get out of your unlimited pass. The biggest advantage is being able to avoid making a line at the ticket machines to buy a ticket or top up every time you ride.
Avoid the urge to stay in Sultanahmet
I fell into this trap and I’m here to explain why you shouldn’t. Yes, the first time you visit Istanbul, you’re going to spend a ton of time in Sultanahmet at the mosques, Topkapi Palace, etc. But it’s also the most grossly overpriced area and full of people looking to lure tourists into their restaurants, shops, and cafes. It makes for a very expensive trip and very unpleasant day-to-day experience. I found Kadıköy, on the Asian side, to be the most laid back, affordable, and enjoyable. Even Beyoğlu would be better as long as you don’t stay too close to the craziness at Taksim Square and Istiklal Street.
I’m sure you’re wondering, won’t I waste a lot of time traveling back and forth to Sultanahmet if I stay elsewhere? Dear reader, I had the same thought. But here’s an alternative thought… where do you want to have most of your meals and go out for drinks? If you want to only go to super touristy restaurants serving different versions of the same thing for 3 to 4 times its value (think, kebab for $20), then Sultanhamet is for you. But if you want to enjoy brunch at a local spot before heading into city center for some sightseeing and ending your night at some world class restaurant or a chill bar, then stay literally anywhere else. Your wallet will thank you.
Keep in mind that VPNs are blocked
If you want to work or catch up with your favorite show while you’re on holiday, you might be unpleasantly surprised to find that your VPN doesn’t work in Turkey. Even though it’s not illegal per se, ISPs in Turkey block many VPNs, preventing you from being able to connect. Some techier folks may have a workaround, but if you’re just an average user, you may just want to avoid needing to use it at all.
Expect double security at the airport
That conventional advice about getting to the airport 2 hours before a domestic flight and 3 before an international flight is more important in Istanbul than in most places. That’s because you’ll have an extra hurdle in addition to checking in, going through passport control, and going through security. As soon as you enter the airport, you and your luggage have to pass through an initial security scan before you can check-in for your flight. Lines for any or all of these processes can be long so plan ahead, especially if you’re flying on a busy day of the week.
Plan to buy a SIM card (maybe)
I’ve had free internet abroad for as long as I can remember. I’ve had great service everywhere from Cambodia to the Sahara Desert. But for some reason, in Turkey, my cell service was just not connecting. Though you can buy SIM cards everywhere, I’m not a fan of physical cards, so I bought an eSIM. This way I could also keep my regular number for calls and texts but have fast roaming internet. I will use this opportunity to plug Saily as I am an affiliate, but genuinely only because it really came in handy in Turkey. As a reader of my blog, you can get 5% your first order with the promo code: Special5.
Get ready to drink tea and eat baklava until you can’t anymore
Turkish hospitality is really something. It’s not uncommon to get freebies in Istanbul restaurants, whether you want them or not. Most commonly, you’ll get tea and baklava at the end of your meal, but sometimes you’ll also get free balloon bread and some dips before your meal. It’s impolite to turn it down, so stay for a while and enjoy it. It’s part of the experience of dining out in Istanbul.
Credit cards are widely accepted but digital wallets are not
It’ll be handy to carry some cash for small shops, street vendors, and tipping even though you should be able to use major credit cards almost everywhere from museums to restaurants to public transportation ticket kiosks. However, if you’re used to using contactless payments using Apple Pay or Google Pay, you’ll have to pull out your wallet and use a physical card. Contactless payments are not enabled for digital wallets in Turkey.
Use Turkish lira even if euros or dollars are accepted
Many ATMs in Istanbul dispense other currencies like Euros and US Dollars, but you’ll get killed on the exchange rate. Take out only Turkish lira, even if those other currencies are sometimes accepted by hotels, restaurants, and other services in the city. Anyone who accepts foreign currency will probably also give you an unfavorable exchange rate.
Keep a currency converter close at hand
Partly because of the frequent use of Euros, a common way to get ripped off in Istanbul is to be quoted the price of something in Euros – which you’re likely to be familiar with – but charged the corresponding price in Turkish lira – which you’re probably less familiar. This doesn’t just happen at shady establishments but even at ticket booths for some of the city’s major attractions. They’re hoping you won’t notice the difference in cost, but if you constantly check given prices, you’ll be able to ask them to correct a discrepancy and you’ll probably find they’re charging you for an add-on you didn’t want or ask for.
Know how to buy tickets to Istanbul’s major attractions in advance
One of the most confusing and frustrating things about visiting Istanbul for the first time is trying to visit all of their beautiful mosques and museums. There are hundreds of websites selling tickets and most of them are not official avenues, and official ones are extremely hard to sniff out. Some of the government websites to sites like the Hagia Sophia link you to Get Your Guide where there are a mess of bundled skip-the-line tickets.
This is a topic that’s far too convoluted to discuss here, so I created a separate guide for getting tickets to specific Istanbul attractions here.
Suffice it to say, the most important thing to know is that you should plan in advance what sites you want to see so you can figure out what is the most cost and time-effective way to get tickets. The last thing you want to do is get fleeced by some shady third-party travel agency or waste hours of your trip waiting in lines to buy tickets.
I hope these Istanbul travel tips make your trip as smooth as a beautiful ferry ride on the Bosphorus.
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