I fell in love with Istanbul when I spent four months living there back in 2009. Since then, whenever I could, I brought my family to visit the city. Several times in the last 10 years, whenever we fly from Europe to Indonesia, I choose a longer layover in Istanbul so we could spend a day in the city. Once we spent a day in Hagia Sophia, and once in Basilica Cistern. The other times we just walked around the city and had lunch, before returning to the airport for our connecting flight.
This year we finally decided to spend several days in Istanbul. Since it was in the middle of a school year, the kids skipped school on Friday because we flew from Brussels on Thursday evening. Needless to say that over the last 10 years and traveling between continents, Turkish Airlines had become my kids' favourite airlines, so their fantastic journey had already begun on the flight.
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| Hagia Sophia |
As a capital city of four Empires at some point - the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Latin Empire and finally the Ottoman Empire, it is a city with rich history and many monuments. This could get tricky when planning itinerary with the kids because they might not want to visit too many historical sites and museums in a day. Luckily, Istanbul offers much more than that so it's rather easy to fill the days combining history and other things that could keep the kids interested.
Public transport has been rapidly developed in the past years, so renting a car is not necessary. Trams and underground metro are easy to figure out and very practical. Although you can buy tickets from the machines, there is really no need for it. You can just tap to enter the stations and pay with contactless cards - one ride costs 50 liras (around 1 euro). If taxi is your preference, Uber works very well in the entire city.
Day 1: Relaxing Turkish bath, yummy street foods and the Historic Peninsula
Since we arrive on a very late flight on Thursday, I decided to start the next day with a special treatment: Hammam, the ritual of Turkish bath. I took the girls to the beautiful Cagaloglu Hammam that has been in service for the last 300 years and our ritual started with 15 minutes hot room, followed by 10 minutes of scrubbing and 20 minutes of massage in bubbles and foam, on a heated marble surface. We ended the bath with hot tea and Turkish delight which the girls enjoyed very much.
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| The lobby of Cagaloglu Hammam before we entered to the spa area |
After Hammam, we hovered around the neighbourhood and tried every single street food we saw: roasted chestnuts and corn, simit (similar to bagel, encrusted with sesame seeds) and borek. When we finally settled for a proper lunch, we had different kinds of kebabs and baklava for dessert. Of course, we had a second dessert, the famous Turkish ice cream.
You could definitely combine Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque on the same day. We skipped Hagia Sophia which we had visited before, so we headed to the Blue Mosque after lunch. There is no entrance fee to the Blue Mosque, but you need to be dressed appropriately for a mosque, because it is also an active place of worship - head cover for women, no bare shoulders or shorts for both men and women. If you don't have your own scarf, you can borrow one at the entrance. Its official name is Sultanahmet Mosque, but it is better known as the Blue Mosque for its rich blue ceiling in thousands of iznik tiles.
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| Ceiling of the Blue Mosque |
Across the Blue Mosque is Hagia Sophia, built in 537 BC as a church during the period of the Eastern Roman Empire and was converted as a mosque, and much later, as a museum. My personal favourite in the neighbourhood is the Basilica Cistern, an extraordinary underground well from the Eastern Roman times built under a former basilica. Over 300 marble columns hold the water reservoir, one of which has a Medusa head carved on.
Just to point it out, the historic peninsula is located on the European side of the city. We decided go to the Asian side for dinner in the evening. If you want to go too, there are several ways of getting there, by train or by car/taxi via the underground tunnel beneath the Bosphorus strait, or via the bridge over the strait.
Day 2: Shopping at the Bazaars, Beyoglu area and Bosphorus boat tour
After street food euphoria on the first day, we dedicated second day to shopping. We took the kids to the Spice Bazaar first, knowing my younger daughter is crazy for spices and dried fruits. It is rows of colourful stalls and stands, all things fragrant and tasty from herbs, spices, teas, dried fruits... We tried many things, and my daughters kept coming back for more dried fruits. The Grand Bazaar was our second destination. It is bigger and home for silk, carpets, teapots, lamps and all kind of momentos. Mind where you enter or head, because the Bazaar has 22 gates, 4000 shops and countless alleys.
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| Dried fruits and tea blends at the Spice Bazaar |
As we walked towards Galata Tower, we crossed the Galata Bridge over the Golden Horn. Along the bridge the kids enjoyed watching the local gentlemen fishing with buckets full of caught fish, which, the stalls just beneath the bridge freshly grill to make traditional fish sandwiches called balik ekmek.
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| Fishing men at the Galata Bridge |
On the other side of the Golden Horn, Beyoglu is vibrant and full of bars and cafes. We started at the Galata Tower - which my kids call the Rapunzel tower, that has an observation floor that gives incredible panoramic views. We climbed the hill and took the Kamondo Staircase in its Art Nouveau architectural style and we walked the whole Istiklal Street with its European-style buildings. If you don't want to walk the 3-km of the street, you can also take the famous old red tram from Galata Tower to Taksim Square.
For the evening, we took the dinner cruise on the Bosphorus, where we spent a couple of hours enjoying sunset and the magnificent views of the city from the water.
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| The view of Beyoglu, from Eminonu where we boarded our boat |
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| Dolmabahce Palace from our boat |
Day 3: Tour the Palaces
Although Topkapi Palace is located just behind Hagia Sophia, I decided to dedicate one special day for it. I figured touring too many museums and palaces in one day to be too exhausting for the kids. We headed to Topkapi after breakfast on the third day, and bought the entrance tickets on the spot. From all Topkapi's rich collection, my kids' favourite was definitely the imperial wardrobe that holds collections of ceremonial garments and textiles of silk, fur and velvets. The treasury of jewels was magnificent and impressive for the kids, too, but the building of the sacred relics was too crowded and overwhelming for the girls. We spent hours in the palace, its courtyards and gardens, so we decided to have lunch and call it a day.
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| The garment collection |
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| The view from the Palace |
If you have the time and the energy, try to visit Dolmabahce Palace at the waterfront of Bosphorus, that houses hundreds of rooms, lavish baths and luxurious interior.
All in all, three days are definitely to short for Istanbul. But since it was all we could spare, we tried to fit it all and had a wonderful time. If you could stay for the whole week, I would suggest taking the ferry and visit the Princes' islands in the Sea of Marmara just off Istanbul, which is an archipelago of nine islands completely closed to traffic.
