4 days in Istanbul
Hello there, I recently spent 4 nights in Istanbul with my mom so let me show you how we spent this time to make the most out of it.
On our actual first day, we arrived around 2pm at our hotel so we just spent the rest of the day getting a first impression of the city. We had dinner underneath the Galata bridge, where they have quite a lot of seafood restaurants and the food was honestly pretty good, but of course a bit overpriced because of the location.
Day 1
Topkapi palace – Sirkeci train station – Üsküdar – Kuzguncuk – Beyoglu
We booked a 2hr walking tour on guruwalk, which allowed us to see the city from a local’s perspective. The walk started at the Topkapi palace, where we visited the free areas like the gülhane park and I must say this place was really a nice little getaway from the bustle of the city. We then headed to the sirkeci train station where once the orient express arrived and learned about its history in the free railway museum attached to the station. We took one of the public ferries to Üsküdar and visited the Mihrimah sultan mosque. This was the first ever mosque I visited, and eventho it’s quite small, it’s for sure worth a visit, especially because it’s not crowded like some of the other mosques of Istanbul. Afterwards we were wandering a little through Üsküdar where our guide showed us his favorite restaurants and then he dropped us off near the maiden’s tower. We decided not to take a boat over to the tower and just look at it from the shore, but I’m sure there’s also a lot to see and learn if you decide to go there. What we did learn about the tower, is that there are a lot of different legends about a girl who once had to live there all by herself, isolated, out of fear that something would happen to her. I really hope she at least had a happy ending, after spending years in a tower in the middle of the water. Luckily, this was not my destiny, so we were able to walk around Üsküdar more before eating lunch. We decided to eat filled Kumpir, which is an oven baked potato with melted cheese and you can choose different toppings, at a place called hemhal cafe. This was my first time trying this dish and it was soo good (I’ll add a picture below). We then took a bus to Kuzguncuk to see the famous colorful houses. There are a lot of cafés to take a little break and if you’re feeling adventurous, there’s a zipline closeby, overlooking parts of the city and the bosphorus. After this we returned to beyoglu to have traditional Turkish dinner at a restaurant called Babel cafe and restaurant, I chose vegetarian Manti and my mom had Kibbeh. After our dinner, we took the tram down to the water and just walked alongside it to our hotel. This part near the water was called Galataport and was super modern, there was like a seaside walk, bars, restaurants and overall a very lively area for, I guess, young adults, to go out in the evening.
Day 2
Blue mosque – Grand Bazaar – Balat – Eyüp teleferic
After breakfast we headed straight to the blue mosque (which is free to enter) and eventho there was quite a long line, we didn’t have to wait long. It definitely is worth a visit with its huge building, beautiful architecture and such pretty murals. We actually decided not to visit the Hagia Sophia mosque due to the ticket prices, which are 25€, but if you want to visit it, you can easily combine it with the blue mosque since they’re really close to eachother. After the blue mosque, we headed to the grand bazaar for some carpet hunting and actually found a perfect one (I know, there are probably better places for this, but we liked the one we saw). That was the only thing we bought there, because I felt like the things were either quite trashy or really expensive, and I didn’t really like anything I saw. We had baklava at the famous Hafiz Mustafa, which I wasn’t a huge fan of, maybe my expectations were just too high, because it’s so hyped on social media, but I think there are for sure better places to eat it (we had some close to the Egyptian bazaar, I can’t remember the name, and it was way better than Hafiz Mustafa). We were just walking through the area and discovered some cistern in the topkapi park which is free to enter.
After that we took a tram to Balat, which is a really beautiful neighborhood, so take some time to just walk around. We had dinner and then headed to the eyüp teleferic. It’s like a 5 min gondola ride that counts as public transport, but be aware, that the line may take some time. You can also walk up the hill, which doesn’t take longer than 20mins (we were waiting at least 1hr in line). Up on the hill you will have an amazing view over the city with a panorama café. If you decide to walk back down, you’ll arrive in a very lively area with cafés, street vendors and lots of kids running around (at least when we were there in the evening). We followed the smell of freshly baked goods and ended up in a store called Akmanoglu Firini, where we got some different kind of cookies? I’m not sure how to describe it, but I’ll add a picture below and they were so delicious. We walked along the water back towards the city until it got dark and we took a bus to get to our hotel.
Day 3
Cihangir – Basque cheesecake at galata tower – Topkapi palace – Üsküdar
We started this day with little to no plan, that’s why our stops are not really close together. We walked from our hotel to Cihangir, because I heard they have some great vintage/ thrift stores. Unfortunately, we didn’t check the opening hours before, so when we were there in the morning, all the stores were closed (if you get a chance to visit some of the stores there, please let me know). After this a little disappointing start in the day, we ate a basque cheesecake with chocolate sauce, that you see all over social media, near the Galata tower, which was very sweet of course, but surprisingly good. We then took a little break at our hotel, before heading to the Topkapi palace again. Originally, we were not planning to buy tickets for it, because they were 50€ and that seemed a little expensive just to visit a palace. But let me tell you, that money was well spent, we spend 3.5 hours in there and we could’ve stayed even longer. There’s so much more to see than you would assume, there are a ton of different buildings that get more beautiful the further you get inside, there are different showcases with clothes, weapons, kitchen utensils and much more from the Ottoman empire, and of course you have multiple gardens with beautiful plants and fountains. As if that wouldn’t be enough, you can also look over the Bosphorus and the city, since the palace was built on a hill with the purpose to be able to overlook Istanbul. When we left the palace, it was already almost dinner time so we took one of the ferries to Üsküdar to eat fish dürüm. I think there are better places to eat this dish and this was definitely not one of my favorites due to the missing sauce (I know that’s the original Turkish way to prepare this dish but for me, it was a little dry). After dinner, we walked a little uphill to have a nice view over the city during sunset and this was so worth it, it was really pretty. Before the sun fully set, we took our ferry back, to at least have part of the ride during sunset.
Day 4
On our last day we just had a few hours before heading to the airport, and we used that time to walk over to the Süleymaniye mosque, which is open and free to visit and I would really recomment it if you have some more time during your trip. After that, we just had a drink on one of the rooftop cafés around the mosque (I don’t recall the name, but there are so many and the drinks we had were honestly not the best, so I won’t add the name) and enjoyed one last view over the city.
I believe this was a good overview over our Istanbul itinerary and I really gotta say, book that trip! Istanbul is such a beautiful city, every neighborhood has something else to offer and you can easily spend a couple days there without getting bored.It has a beautiful mix of history from the Ottoman Empire and of course countless mosques, but also new/modern areas that are really nice to visit. I especially liked Istanbul’s food scene, which might not be the cheapest, but there are so many different local and international things to try, there’s something for everyone.
The only part of Istanbul that I didn’t like of the ones we visited, was basically the area between the Galata bridge and the Grand Bazaar, there are just a ton of different stores selling, what seemed to be quite cheap and trashy products and it was also super packed, so I didn’t really like that vibe, but not a bad area, just not for me.
I hope you liked this article about our Istanbul trip, see you soon 🙂
