Turkey
When booking a flight with Turkish Air, Wilhelm and I decided to extend our trip and spend 3 days in Istanbul. I hope to return one day and explore the rest of the country! For now, my advice and guide are limited to Istanbul.
Istanbul is truly one of the most incredible cities in the world. If all you have are three days, like we did, you will still get the opportunity to explore.
Getting around in Istanbul
Public transport is excellent in Istanbul. Besides walking whenever we could, it’s easy to catch a metro, bus, or boat to your destination.
At the airport train station, buy a transport card: Istanbulkart. You can use one card for multiple people. The card itself costs 50 lira. We ended up using about 300ish Lira during our three-day trip. These cards are valid on the city bus, boat, and metro lines. You’ll pay a single fare when you enter (rather than blip in and out). That means that on a single journey, you may need to pay multiple times if you transfer.
Rides typically cost between 10-30 lira.
It’s a long walk to the metro from the airport! Use the yellow machine on the left to get the Istanbulkart.
Metro
The metro is the fastest way to get around Istanbul and it has 4 lines. There is also the Marmaray commuter rail line that runs under the Bosphorus Strait, connecting the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. In our experience, the metro ran on time.
Boat
It’s so much fun to commute using a boat! You can get from the Asian and European sides of Istanbul quickly in a boat.
Buses
Because we enjoyed (and were prepared for ) a lot of walking, we only used the city bus once on the Asian side. The card machine is at the entrance of each bus. However, on a crowded bus (like the one we took), we entered at the back. Although we didn’t know what to do, locals sent their via other passengers to the front of the bus to be blipped! I’ve never seen anything like this—this shows how safe and great public transport is in Istanbul.
You can easily and cheaply bus between the airport and Taksim Square in Istanbul. Check out the timings here. We used the Havaist bus company one way. Check out all the bus options to/from the airport here.
Money in Turkey
We could use a mix of cards and cash in Istanbul without issues.
Scams in Istanbul
I feel like with scams, you don’t know until it’s over that you were scammed. These people are smart. I suggest sticking with your instincts. If you don’t want to buy anything, tell them over and over you’re not interested. Don’t be nice and say “Okay, I’ll see it later” or something like that. Be firm. During the worst scam we were fooled by in Ghana, the scammer was so proper that there was even a website about his money scams—perhaps you can do a Google search to see if something is fishy. If we had done so when we were scammed, we would have seen that this guy was a scammer.
I only mention these instances because I had a couple of people ask me if I experienced any scams in Istanbul.
Shoe Scam
We were walking on the street, and a man who had a show cleaning kit with him purposefully dropped his brush in front of a (slow) moving car when he crossed the street. Wilhelm picked it up and gave it to him. To “thank” him, the shoe shiner kept insisting on giving a free shoe cleaning. He didn’t want it but the guy was very pushy so we gave in… After the 20-second clean, the shoe cleaner was demanding money and telling other people on the street that we weren’t paying… I think we ended up giving like 20 Lira but we only realized after that it was a scam.
Carpet Shopping
Our friends who were visiting Istanbul at the same time as us told us there was a guy in line at one of the mosques who gave some advice about how to manage the line. Then, he invited them to his shop afterward. They told him “We will see,” and the guy was waiting for them after visiting the mosque. They ended up going into his carpet shop and wasted about 40 minutes. This is a no harm done situation and not exactly a scam, but it seems this could happen where you’re intimated into buying something.
