first of all I loved the name “point-and-choose” restaurants, and you suggesting it, as I have never seen anyone do this before.. in the very first day of two visiting friends from USA I took them to one of those and they loved it.. yes, not all of them are good and tasty but the one named Borsa -not the luxury restaurant but this self-service version- offers very very good authentic Turkish food.. try eggplant puree (beğendi) with (or without) meat stew on it (tas kebabı).. another one is located on the Asian side, Üsküdar, near the shore, named as Kanaat.. keep in mind, this one only works on cash.. and finally another great authentic food place is Çiya, in Kadikoy.. also Saray Muhallebicisi located in Beyoğlu İstiklal St. and in many shopping malls, offer great food and especially desserts.. my guests fell in love with “kazandibi” and ate it every night until they leave:) also “su böreği” and “menemen” are great alternatives for breakfast..

try eating anything that has eggplant in it, as we do cook it in great varience and really tasty:) if you will try raki, prefer Tekirdağ or Yeşil Efe as they are softer than the other ones, and do not take a double but take a single at your first time.. than you can arrange the water-raki balance by yourself.. in terms of mezes one should definately try eggplant salad, “şakşuka (eggplant with sauce)”, “haydari (yogurt based)”, “pilaki (broadbeans)”, turkish feta (beyaz peynir), “yaprak sarma (stuffed vine leaves)” and melon which suits the raki perfectly.. the turkish cousine has a lot to offer for especially for vegeterians, everyone can enjoy the meal.. for the hot stuff, try “sigara böreği (filo pastry with feta)”, fried calamari and “midye tava (fried mussles)”..

tea is essential especially in the old city, and yes we do love offering tea, but do not force yourself if you dont want to.. many people may also offer you apple tea if regular Turkish tea in its typical glass is hard for your taste.. and if you are a coffee lover, you can also ask for Turkish coffee -which is very strong compared to many other coffees in the world-, and it would also be served happily to you:) what ever you do, do not leave without buying at least a couple of turkish tea glasses and coffee cups, they are really authentic..

do visit Mısır Çarşısı and Grand Bazaar, even if you don’t feel like buying.. you will love the atmosphere..

I also clapped the argument regarding to Topkapi vs Dolmabahçe, as a fan of the latter.. The Harem tour provided in Topkapi also does not give much of a clue.. yet one should definately see the jewellery and if you are ever in the area, a must see would be the Basilica Cistern.. also Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque are very very touristic yet they worth it.. if you have time also the Beylerbeyi Palace on the asian side is a very nice, small palace with very well preserved decorations and furniture..

do stay in taksim area, talimhane and Taksim Square is pretty less noisy.. yet for cheap hostels, you will need to go into the İstiklal St. Use a pair of ear clogs, but do not miss the night life at all.. it is also very easy to go anywhere in Taksim.. the metro line is extended a little bit more and connected to other lines of public transportation, so it is not a big problem.. taxis are good but they might trick you by extending the way, so be careful.. prefer using taxis that are connected to a specific taxi stop (if they have a logo or a name on their doors they are not free riders but members of a taxi stop)

and lastly: do enjoy the view from the bosphorus, not only by taking the tour, (not the big one, as they travel very far from the shore, but look for shorter but closer ones) by also drinking tea sitting in one of the many tea houses on the shore, especially at Ortaköy or Rumeli Hisarı… and definately do not miss a chance to cross from one continent to the other by the bridges.. when else would you do that, right?:)

You leave out some wonders, though, for art and archeology lovers: the Byzantine church Karyie Camii with its exquisite Byzantine mosaics, and the Archeology Museum with its panoramic history of Anatolia. Though I loved many of the mosques, how I missed figurative art. The Ottomans wouldn’t want it advertised, but Turkey was of great importance to Hellenistic art. I also found the walls of Byzantium fascinating. In sum, there seems to be a battle for Istanbul’s soul still at play, and the history of the much older Byzantium can be hard to find amidst the Ottoman monuments.

I’m not dissing your suggestion of the Princes Islands, but a Bosporus cruise is worth doing and I’d hate to see people skip it.

~Vago

2) By all means, go to Topkapi Palace. It is one of the most ineterseting palaces in the world. Sorry you had problems with the crowd , I can totall y understand you.. But if you can arrange the visiting hours, you’ll be just fine. Especially the Harem part is worth seeing, if you can pay the extra 10 Euros to get in.

And see Dolmabahce Palace too.. These two are not comparable, they ara totally different than each other. And this makes them both worth seeing because, they housed the same empire and they’re so close to each other and yet so different.

3) Absolutley right on this one.. Greek cuisine and Turkish cuisine have a lot of common courses. Just like Turkish cuisine and Syrians, Lebanese and Iranian cuisines have a lot of similar cuisines. That is totally normal because these countries actually share borders and above that they belong to the same area..

Every country has different styles to cook those similar courses. My Greek friends adore Turkish baklava (yummmy..) and I adore their version of musakka. Cuisines and friendships, somehow manage to transcend borders…

And you’re totally right again: That tea should be drank!

4)I’m with you on this one. Unless you’re a very fanatic Woodstuck girl/boy, just skip Pudding shop. And if you want to eat real pudding, there is “Saray Muhallebicisi” in Beyoglu, Istiklal Street. Have a “Firin Sutlac” (oven-baked pudding with rice) there, it is gorgeous.

5) The almighty taxi issue… It totally depends on what kind of a traveller you are. If you don’t like to be jampacked with lots of people in a metro car while you’re going to a nice restaurant, by all means, take a taxi. But if it’s okay with you to have a little crowded ride, then go for metro.

But unfortunately there are some places that you can’t take metro, because of its non-existence. You have to get on a bus or take a taxi to those places. Good thing is, most of the parts of the city that you will be wandering about, are very close to each other. So you won’t pay a fortune to taxi rides.

By the way, you can use a bus to go to Bosphorus. (Giovanna I hope this tip helps..) Nearly every bus goes to Bosphorus coastline when you get on it from Besiktas. Just ask “Bogaz?”, or show where you want to go on the map and everyone will try to help you.

6) Point and choose.. This is a very nice name for these kinds of restaurants, congrats.. Because it is really what you do to order, you point and choose.. This is one of the best ways to have a real Turkish food. All are cooked in our homes everyday. don’t go back without trying these. One very good one is in Siraselviler Street (the adjacent street to Istiklal Street in Beyoglu); Selvi Restaurant. Get past the doner stands, you will see it on your right hand side. They always have wonderful meals, I always eat there.

And do try the “meyhane” style dining in Nevizade, Beyoglu or in Asmali Mescid, Beyoglu (this neighborhood is the new star of the city).

The two are totally different things. One is casual Turkish cuisine (point and choose), other is (meyhane) Turkish cuisine especially goes well with raki (anise flavored alcoholic drink that Turkish people want to soak in..). Try them both, you’ll see.

I would advise you to have that long Bosphorus cruise with ferry. Because the cruise itself is a very nice one, you see all shorefront wooden houses (we call them: yali) which are gorgeous, along the way. And the breeze of the bosphorus is like sent from heaven in a sunny day.

I know how pushy those restaurant workers in Anadolu Kavagi can be.. the solution to it is: Don’t eat there and don’t hang around the port too much. There is a very nice place with astonishing views just below the “Yoros Castle” on top of the hill.

You can walk to the castle (very steep road though, you can take a cab too), see the amazing views of Bosphorus combining Black Sea. Then you can walk down to that restaurant, have a lunch or a cold drink.. So you wouldn’t have to deal with the waiters next to the port.

If I get to choose just one thing to do in Istanbul that would be a Bosphorus Cruise. It is such a bliss.

Or if you don’t have a half day for a Bosphorus Cruise, you can have a short tour that starts from Ortakoy.

Or even shorter, you can hop on a ferry from Sirkeci or Besiktas and land on anywhere you want, have a cup of tea there and turn back with a bus, back to Besiktas.

Or even more shorter, you can take a small ferry to Uskudar from Besiktas and turn back with the same ferry. It takes 20 plus 20; 40 minutes in total.

If you want to know more about Istanbul: http://www.istanbulextralarge.com
And you can contact me if you want to ask something.. Anything about Istanbul..

1. If you are under the age of 25, DO stay in Taksim. In fact, I wish I lived there! No, you are not going to find a totally silent place to rest your head, but if you are only in this city for a few days and plan on going out and having fun, then stay in Taksim. Plus it is cheaper than the surrounding areas and centrally located.

2. GO TO TOPKAPI!!!!!! I can’t believe you are saying NOT to go to one of the most famous palaces in the world! The jewels are glorious and the harem (though you have to pay extra, which is really stupid) is definitly worth it. I mean, you’re only in Istanbul once, right? You might as well see the center of the Ottoman empire. Dolmabace is cool, but I have been asked before which of the two I would suggest if someone is only going to do only one, and I always say Topkapi. Dolmabace is nice, but you can see its glory well enough from the outside and the inside, while interesting, is not all that great if you have seen palaces in other parts of the world.
If you go to Topkapi at lunchtime or late in the afternoon, when the tour groups are absent, the crowds at Topkapi aren’t actually that bad. It is all about timing! And really, even though you have to pay more to get into the Harem, the tiles are AMAZING.

5. The metro is okay and I do recommend it, but it isn’t THAT great. It will get you some places, but honestly it is not very extensive past Sultanahmed and Taksim and the bus system is extremely difficult to figure out. Also, if you try to take it during the commuting hours, it can be so crowded with pushy Turks that you will have a very stressful time trying to get on. Taxis are cheap and if you do have to go somewhere along the Bosphorus on your side of the city, it isn’t a bad option, especially at night, even though yes, the traffic is HORRENDOUS. But what can you do, this city has WAY too many people living in it who all apparently need to drive cars.

7. I don’t like the “point and choose” restaurants (which in Turkish are called the Worker’s restaurants) because the food tends to be cold and not that great. I mean, it is okay, but not very special. Donor is soooo good (I am kind of addicted…) and all the take-away sweets are great, so by all means do that for noontime meals. And then at dinner, find a lokanta and spend that money you saved on lunch on a yummy warm real Turkish meal. Get meze and drink raki for hours. Or go to a fish restaurant on the Galata bridge. But really, while the “point and choose” places are okay, they kind of lack on real quality whereas donor is almost always good. I’d rather spend 4 lira on donor or a fish sandwhich from near the Galata bridge than 10 lira on a lackluster lunch.
**Try the Durumcu place down the side street across from the mosque off of Istiklal in Taksim.

8. Um, the Bosphorus cruise costs a whopping 20 turkish lira (roughly 10 euro) for a 3 hour tour of the Bosphorus and a stop down at the end next to a fortress and the Black Sea. I would hardly call that “overpriced”. I actually am a fan of this for tourists in the city for a few days. But yeah, you could take a cruise to the Princes’ Islands instead or even just take a ferry across the Bosphorus for a 20 minute ride. It just depends what you want to do. If it is the weekend in the summer, do not go to the Princes’ Islands because they become overcrowded with Istanbulites and the ferry is not fun when it is that crowded.

BUT, good call on the Kofteci in Sultanahmed and the tea thing. DO NOT REFUSE TEA! haha. Turks get really offended and do not understand when you refuse their tea.

Basically, there is a ton to do in Istanbul and you really just have to figure out what it is YOU want to do. I mean, if you aren’t interested in the Ottoman Emprie, but you find the founding of the Republic interesting, well then go to Dolmabace instead of Topkapi. Or if you prefer to relax in a waterside restaurant and not spend 2 hours walking and getting lost, then take a 15 lira taxi to Ortakoy because there is no metro there and those buses can be very confusing if you don’t speak Turkish. But, if you have the time and patience, that walk along the Bosphorus can be lovely.