Gonna be there for about 10 days with a friend of mine. I'm interested in the history and museums of the area, and he's interested in the markets, architecture, and the food. Would love to get some insights into both the city and some (safer) things to do in the general area.
It's very crowded and full of scammers, the museums are very expensive the markets are free to enter and full of colorful things for sale like spices which I would assume the coloring is from things like lead or other poisonous adulterants. Enjoyable but wouldn't go back
If you buy a Museum Pass it’ll get you in to a bunch of the museums and historic sites in Istanbul for a lot cheaper than if you paid admission for them individually: https://muze.gen.tr/MuseumPassesThe neighborhood of Kadikoy is pretty nice, it has a lot of bars and restaurants, and you can get from Kadikoy to the old historic part of the city via subway or ferry boat.
I will be visiting Turkey soon which will obviously include Istanbul. One thing that put a bad taste in my mouth was when I had a stopover at the Istanbul airport and they were charging like 1t6 euro for one slice of pizza, a mcdonalds meal was like 25 euro fucking near blew my mind. Obviously it's an airport and it will be expensive, but surely inside the city isn't like this right? Also how much time is enough to give Turkey what it deserves, there are obviously cities outside Istanbul and on the coastline. What are they like?All I want from my Turkey visit is to eat these fucking 24/7 each day with a fuckload of meat.desu I would only be able to give it like 4-5 days with my job, would this be enough? also how are the hostels in Istanbul.
>>2728237Taksim seems to have the cheapest lodging in the city, including some cheap hostels. Not too difficult to get there, you take the airport metro to Gayrettepe and then the M2 metro from its own Gayrettepe stop to Taksim.Personally I decided to skip the city; getting a passport stamp for only one night in a country seems a waste of passport space.
>>2728206Thanks for the tip! The museum pass is definitely gonna be a life saver, even if we only go to 3 or 4 museums. For everyone else,Is the Grand Bazaar worth it to find anything good (mainly looking for rugs or art) or is it all tourist trap pricing? I know you have to haggle, but how overpriced are they usually?
>>2728448It's a Grand Souvenir StoreThe place is dead, the only thing real there are the hole in the wall teashops serving touristware stall owners with constant tea deliveries. Turks are all tea addicts.Outside the structure itself and towards the Eminonu coastline the bazaar gets realer. They still all know how to fleece tourists but most of it will be spices, tobacco and counterfeit clothing. I've no idea where you'd go to get a rug for a fair price, sorry.
