5 days in Istanbul. Not-the-usual-touristy stuff?

[sahilz]

Hi all,

Looking at the past searches, it seems quite a bit of folks have been to Turkey, and Istanbul in particular.

Me & wife, will be spending 5 days in Istanbul in late March. Are there any off-the-beaten-path things anyone can suggest to do? I have gotten a Rick Steve's book, looked through turkeytripplanner.com and couple of other websites.

However I am trying to find out what is the non-toursit activity to do in Istanbul or nearby areas.

I don't intend to stay overnight outside of my hotel, but I think I can manage to get a bus/rent a car to go around.

One of the things I have heard people do is to get the black sea coast.

I will appreciate any thoughts and suggestions.

[southnam]

I was in Turkey for 2 weeks a couple years ago. Only stayed in Istanbul for 2 days though and toured around other areas and stayed in Antalya mostly. But for sure get a Turkish bath... not the chinzy types you can get at hotels and resorts but ask around and go for a real local shop.. one that makes you feel sorta scared because it's no frills etc.. Anyhow, they are cheaper when you go to where the locals would go. Wow you never realize how much dead skin you have until you get scrubbed down.
I found it fun just walking around at night and picking up snacks at stores, eating in little cafe's adn restaurants. I stayed by the Blue Mosque so lots of tourist unfortunately.

[Simaahoy]

Never been to Turkey but I think this will help you out http://www.lonelyplanet.com/turkey/forum

[Xyralia]

I was there last year around the same period you want to go. The most helpful tool was turkeytravelplanner.com. We stayed in Istanbul for 1 week and Antalya for a few days. We stayed at Hotel Niles and actually met the author of the website eating breakfast there one morning. The included breakfast buffet was excellent and was served on their roof-top café which offers a nice view of the Sea of Marmara. It was within walking distance of the touristy stuff in Sultanahmet. The staff was great and their English is good.

I booked my flight with Swiss Air and there were some LCD screens for each person and we could play games/watch movies. I tried a language learning game for Turkish and it was pretty cool. I learned the basics on pronunciation, numbers, days of the week, months, seasons, tourist questions etc. They way they build phrases is totally different than ours so it's not that easy to make long sentences but it was nice to learn the basics. Most places in touristy Istanbul have English speaking staff tho.

HSBC atms carry Euro, Turkish Lira and USD. There were also some ING atms but i didn't try them. Bring earplugs if you wanna sleep in the morning as call to prayer starts pretty early (5-6 am)! Your wife should bring a scarf to wear while visiting Mosques but she doesn't need to wear it the rest of the time, the Muslims accept our culture and are not offended at all. Remember to remove your shoes if you do visit a Mosque.

Since i didn't really do any non-touristy stuff in Istanbul I can't really help you all that much. I did enjoy a ferry-boat "cruise" on the Bosphorus that starts around 10 and stops at many towns on either side of the Bosphorus to pick up and drop people. The Bosphorus splits Istanbul between it's European side and Asian side. Around noon, you get to the last stop, on the Asian side, and get a 3 hour break on shore. There are some ruins at the top of the hill (they were fenced off when we went - for archeological digs) and you can eat at one of the numerous restaurants by the coast. So you get to see what Istanbul looks like from the water and get to visit Europe and Asia on the same day.

I also enjoyed eating and watching the show they put for you when eating Testi Kebab (sounds like Tasty Kebab when they say it ). It's cooked in a terra cotta vase-like dish covered in aluminum foil. When they bring it over to the table, the server holds it upside down and taps the top part so the food drops to the bottom and eventually pressure builds up and the top pops off! They usually make a nice show of it. Saw it done in a different restaurant before I ordered it and the show was similar in the other. It's basically your choice of meat cooked with vegetables, spices and a sauce (more tomato based i think, not gravy-like).

The temperatures were on average between 15-20C during the day while we were there and it usually rained at the end of the day (never rained all day) when it did rain.

Have a nice trip! =)

[southnam]

I was at Hotel Niles as well. Nice breakfast spread indeed and the view is fantastic.