Varış! (Arrival!)
What a busy day! Upon arrival in İstanbul at the Sabiha Gökçen Airport, most of the passengers that exited the plane had to endure an hour and a half wait at the airport in İstanbul to clear passport control. Once everyone was cleared to enter Turkey, the wait for the ride to the hotel in İstanbul was not too long. The hotel conveniently provided a ride from the airport to the hotel for a small fee. The hotel scheduled this ride months in advance, and upon arrival to İstanbul, they were calling to check to see if the ride was still needed. A delayed flight and passport control had the front desk at the hotel worrying that plans had changed. Everything was quickly sorted out and the driver was still waiting to complete his assignment. Amazingly, İstanbul is huge and the ride from the airport to the hotel took over an hour, and the entire ride was through the city. No seat belts in the taxi and high speeds made for a white-knuckle ride, but finally, the car pulled up to the hotel, and check-in was a breeze.
The Acra Hotel would be home for the next 3 nights, including 2 nights that were included with the tour. This room had a nice balcony with a great view of Old Town in the center of Sultanahmet. In this photo below, I'm standing on the balcony and greeting İstanbul. The Best of Turkey tour would be starting in several hours, so it was time to get some rest.
Day 1. The tour started at 1:00 pm with a welcome meeting. and several activities to get us started.
Day 2. The only full day in İstanbul.
Day 3. Our last day in İstanbul as we head to Asia and the capital city of Turkey, Ankara.
We meet our guide Yaren Türkoğlu. I'm sure everyone who enjoys a Rick Steves tour claims to have the best guide ever, but we really did have the best guide ever! Yaren was the perfect guide. I purchased the map shown below and Yaren was nice enough to mark our entire tour on the map for me. In addition, every single day of the tour, Yaren provided an itinerary detailing the activities of that day. I've posted each day's itinerary under the appropriate city for that itinerary. The tour started at 1:00 pm with a welcome meeting hosted by Yaren. Throughout the entire tour, Yaren was both our number one point of contact for any and all help if needed and our tour guide at each destination. Yaren provided an incredible amount of detailed history and information regarding every place we visited. On top of all of that, she took the time on the bus to bring us all up to speed on the current political situation in Turkey, recent events and the history of Turkey.
The destinations along the tour are mapped out, literally!
Merhaba İstanbul (Hello İstanbul)
Day 1 - Topkapi Palace - Grand Bazaar - Hagia Sophia - and a group dinner
Museum passes are provided
Yaren gives each one of us a museum pass that is good for the entire length of the tour. This pass gets the group in to every tour stop along the way. As a nice bonus, you can also use this museum pass as you explore on your own, to gain admission into every museum you visit.
Topkapı Palace
A casual and fun walk from the hotel with the group takes us to our first visit - Topkapı Palace. The jewel that took center stage in the 1960's movie Topkapi is on display at the Topkapı Palace. The tour has just begun, and we are already face-to-face with one of the most famous artifacts of all time. The group photo at the top of this page was taken inside the Topkapı Palace.
Views everywhere from the Topkapı Palace
Beautiful view of İstanbul from inside the palace. Beauty inside and outside of this palace. Note the Turkish flag in this photo. The flag is found all over the place in Turkey. For more great photos of the palace and other sights, be sure to check out the gallery at the bottom of this page.
The Grand Bazaar
Another short walk for the group, heading from the palace to the bazaar. Crowded? Yes, of course, it is a bazaar after all. But it was fun, too! All kinds of merchandise everywhere. Some of the merchants did display prices, most didn't. Even if you didn't buy from those with prices displayed, at least it gave you a starting point for bargaining with those that didn't show any prices. Since it was the first day of the tour, it was a great chance to stock up on candy and snacks to enjoy over the next two weeks. It was so much fun, and we stayed at the bazaar until closing time.
Turkish Delight
Turkish delight and other goodies are found all throughout Turkey. Here I'm perusing the options from a vendor with a nice selection of treats.
Hagia Sophia
We walk back from the bazaar towards the hotel for a stop at the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque. Now we're inside one of the world's most famous mosques, er...museums, er...mosques...well whatever it is today, it is beautiful. Right now, it is designated as a mosque and those in charge at the mosque are tasked with keeping this as a place of worship, rather than a tourist attraction. After spending several minutes taking it all in, we were asked to move to the outer area of the mosque. We decided to just move on after snapping a few quick pictures.
Cats and dogs - and more!!!
You'll notice as you browse through this scrapbook, that there are dogs and cats everywhere. They live on the streets but are well cared for and seem to be living a happy life. You'll spot lots of great animal pictures throughout this scrapbook. I love animals and Turkey had plenty of animals of all kinds to see and to enjoy during the entire tour. For more fun cat stories from İstanbul, be sure to check out the beautiful and fun movie Kedi from 2016.
Dog and cat food
They have even installed vending machines so you can buy food to feed the cats and dogs!
Simit
Another snack you'll find everywhere in Turkey is Simit. Much like an American pretzel. It is more of a "salty" snack and not a sweet treat.
Our first group dinner!
Another brief walk and we find ourselves at our destination restaurant. Yaren is helping everyone find a seat at the Albura Kathisma restaurant. after our first day of touring, we are all sitting down to enjoy a great dinner and get to know a little bit about some of our tour compatriots.
İstanbul - İkinci Gün (Day 2)
Day 2 - Spice Bazaar - Istiklal street - Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent - Lunch and Dinner on your own
The Obelisk of Theodosius (Turkish: Dikilitaş)
We started off walking towards the tram for a visit to the Spice Market, but first Yaren provides a detailed history of the Obelisk of Theodosius found in the center of old town. As always, a cat has joined us for this history lesson.
All Aboard!
Our tour group getting ready to board the tram.
Tram to the Spice Market
All aboard the İstanbul Tram to the spice market. Be sure to do a buddy check on this crowded tram! The entire group loads up onto the tram as Yaren makes sure we are all on board and ready to go. She provides the transportation passes as well as the museum passes that are good for the entire two weeks.
Spice Market Bazaar
The Spice Market is just like the Grand Bazaar, but maybe even more grand, because there are a huge number of vendors inside the market as well as an even bigger number of vendors outside surrounding the market. Inside you'll find spices and more spices. Lots of tour members took advantage of the opportunity and stocked up on spices for cooking back home. I opted to explore outside the market and saw what appeared to be mostly locals shopping for dinner, clothes, accessories and more. See the picture in the gallery below of the huge group of pigeons located just out front of the Spice Market.
Galata Bridge
Lots of people fishing at the Galata Bridge as we walk through the neighborhood heading to the funicular. They are fishing in the Bosphorus, where we would be cruising the next day.
Funicular to İstiklal Street
The group boards a packed funicular for a quick ride up the hill through a tunnel to arrive at the popular İstiklal street.
İstiklal Street
Yaren gave a great speech about this street and what it has meant to her in her own life growing up in Turkey. As seen in this picture, everyone is fascinated with Yaren's story and can't wait to go and explore the street on their own. This stop includes an overload of shopping and lunch on your own. We all meet back at this location after a couple of hours navigating the entire, long stretch of stores and restaurants.
Istanbul Guidebook
Don't forget your Istanbul Guidebook! One of the many great things about a Rick Steves tour is you get plenty of time on your own to explore. You'll want to tear out the relevant pages for the area you are visiting that day and put those in a Guidebook Page Binder. Find those binders here!
Lunch on our own
Lookanta - lunch served cafeteria style.
So many choices
So many offerings at this cafeteria. I can't decide.
Finally, a decision
And here is a sampling of what I selected.
İstanbul souvenir watch
I bought this souvenir on İstiklal street. A nice İstanbul watch from the Swatch store. Love it!
The group boarding the Metro
Our time at İstiklal street is over. Once again, Yaren provides directions and makes sure everyone is departing safely.
Metro (subway) to Süleymaniye Mosque
The group loads onto a fast moving metro subway train. Be sure to do your buddy check as Yaren makes sure we haven't lost any stragglers.
Süleymaniye Mosque
Beautiful Mosque. In this picture, you can see Yaren giving us a briefing on the history of religion in Turkey, both past and present. This is a beautiful mosque, with bright fixtures and stained-glass windows. After visiting the mosque, the group walks back together to the city center, just a few blocks from our hotel. We are free to explore on our own for the rest of the day, including dinner on our own.
A wedding at Süleymaniye Mosque
A wedding party takes pictures outside the mosque.
Group walks back to hotel
Before heading out on our own, the group walks back to the center of old town, passing the İstanbul University.
Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum
With everyone going separate ways for a few hours before dinner, we visit the museum. It is fantastic, with lots of ancient artifacts, carpets, relics, calligraphy and more. A good hour to hour and a half walkthrough allows you to see everything in one visit.
Dinner on our own
Karadenize Aile is a small local restaurant located on a side street across from old town neighborhood. Serves a lot of typical local dishes.
Pizza!
Pizza, or Pide as it is called locally, with some bottle sparkling water makes for a great dinner. If you enjoy this type of food, you will love Turkey, because you can find it just about anywhere you travel in Turkey.
Güle güle İstanbul (Goodbye Istanbul)
Day 3 - we leave İstanbul and take a cruise to Asia. We end the day in Ankara.
Tour bus
We meet our bus that will be our second home for the next two weeks. We also meet our driver, Arif, who'll be with us the whole way. Arif kept the cooler stocked with bottled water the entire tour. The su (water) as Arif called it in his native Turkish language, was a huge hit with the group. The bus takes us to the Golden Horn to meet up with our boat for a Bosphorus cruise.
Our own private boat - Bon Voyage!
The group settles in, and everyone is ready to cruise across the Bosphorus to land in Asia.
Great views and a fun ride
The views are incredible along the entire cruise. The weather was perfect and it was a really fun ride across the Bosphorus. In this photo taken from the cruise, you can see how the past meets the present in modern day Turkey.
On our way
The bus is loaded up and we are on the road to Ankara, the capital of Turkey.
Rest stop
We visit a fun market and take a brief break on our way to Ankara. A few of the group members enjoy some time outside while others are enjoying the candy and snacks inside.
Lunch on the road
We stopped off at this cafeteria style market for lunch. Lunch was on your own, so you could order as little or as much as you wanted, and you could select from a nice assortment of food items., both cooked and served cold. Since it was lunch on your own, you paid for your own meal.
Fuel stop
Another brief stop at a convenience store (aka gas station). This is a nice picture of our tour guide, Yaren, and our bus driver, Arif, waiting to hop onto the bus and continue our journey. Our next stop will be Ankara!
Gallery of Pictures #1
Click on any picture in the gallery to scroll through all of the pictures shown in gallery #1. To return here from the gallery, click ESC on your keyboard or X (found in the upper right corner when scrolling). If you accidentally click the browser back button, you will be returned to the scrapbook home page.
Some of my favorite pictures from İstanbul divided into two galleries, scroll down to see the second gallery of pictures...