48 hours in Istanbul

After a pretty easy flight with Wizz air from Gatwick and a relatively pain free transfer to the city (which took around an hour as there was thankfully no traffic), we arrived at our hotel, the Sultania in the evening. A great hotel, located in the heart of Sultanahmet, small and authentic with really friendly staff. The hotel has a lovely rooftop restaurant with great views of the Bosphorus, so we decided to have our dinner here on the first night. Although there are soooo many restaurants, bars, small takeaway joints locally, it wouldn’t have been hard to find somewhere that evening. 

The time difference in November is 3 hours, and for just a 48-hour trip, we decided to try and stick to the UK time as this made everything easier…plus it meant we weren’t up too early in the morning!  So after a leisurely breakfast we took a stroll through the chaotic streets, which are shared by pedestrians, many many vehicles and the local trams. We walked towards the Bosphorus, over the bridge and then back towards the New Mosque (Yeni Cami) and the Spice Bazaar.  In the afternoon we joined a small food tour, which took us on a ferry over to the Asia side of the city. This area, whilst similar in style to the Asian side seemed to be filled with more locals than tourists. We tried a number of different local delicacies including Lamachun, Pide, Turkish Cafe, stuffed mussels, Pickle Juice and of course Kepabs. Some very tasty, others less so…

The following day, instead of being part of a tour, we decided to explore on our own. First off we headed to the Basilica Cisterns, an impressive underground cistern, made of up amazing columns dating back to the first century…

We then strolled towards the Blue Mosque, another very impressive example of exquisite architecture and a place of calm. We couldn’t go inside as it was closed for prayer, but we managed to walk around the outside and outer courtyard which in itself was beautiful. 

From here we headed to the famous Grand Bazaar. Apparently there are around 4000 stalls (shops really), located within a maze of small streets (all under the roof). The usual wares were there…leather goods, handbags, fake trainers and t shirts and of course plenty of spices and Turkish delight! We’d been told on a number of occasions (and read) that the goods were quite a bit more expensive in the Grand Bazaar than on the stalls nearby, but we wanted to experience the place nonetheless…it was actually far less chaotic than I thought it was going to be. 

For lunch we stopped in a local bakery for some more ‘pide’ yum 😋 and the went to another cafe for some coffee and cake. There are so many places to choose from to eat and drink, it seemed a shame to just choose one place…

Anyway, that was pretty much it, our 48 hours had come to an end. The transfer back to the airport was a bit longer, due to the traffic in the early evening, but we made it to the airport in time to look around the ‘enormous’ departure area…

I’m a nutshell…would I recommend Istanbul? Absolutely, 100%. Such a great city, lots to do and see, great people, really good value and I felt really safe too!