About Istanbul Trip

Istanbul Trip is an independent travel guide dedicated to Istanbul and the Turkey highlights you can realistically reach from it — the Bosphorus and its neighbourhoods, Cappadocia, Ephesus, Pamukkale, the Princes' Islands, Bursa and Gallipoli. Our mission is to plan the trip you actually want, honestly: which Hagia Sophia, Topkapı and Museum Pass tickets are genuinely worth it, which Bosphorus cruise is more than a tourist boat, how mosque dress codes really work, and which "day trip from Istanbul" is a true day trip and which one quietly means a flight and an overnight stay.

Our approach

Every guide, itinerary and recommendation on this site is built on first-hand research. We name real neighbourhoods (Sultanahmet, Karaköy, Kadıköy, Balat), real markets (the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar), real experiences (a proper hammam, a sunset Bosphorus ferry, a Cappadocia balloon flight), and we quote real prices in Turkish lira with USD and EUR equivalents. We give honest assessments of tourist traps — the airport taxis that refuse the meter, the unofficial "skip-the-line" resellers, the restaurant touts and forced service fees, the carpet-shop "tea" routine. If something is genuinely not worth it, we say so.

What we cover

Istanbul Trip covers the city and its region in real depth: the historic peninsula (Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace, the Basilica Cistern, the Grand and Spice Bazaars, Süleymaniye, Chora/Kariye), modern Istanbul (Galata Tower, Beyoğlu and İstiklal, Karaköy, Dolmabahçe), the Bosphorus shores (Ortaköy, Beşiktaş, Üsküdar, Kadıköy, Balat, the Maiden's Tower), the day-trip-able Marmara region (Princes' Islands, Bursa, Gallipoli, Troy/Çanakkale, Edirne) and the wider Turkey circuit other guides treat as bullet points — Cappadocia and Göreme, Ephesus and Pamukkale on the Aegean, and Antalya on the Mediterranean.

How we earn revenue

Istanbul Trip is a free resource. We earn commissions when you book tours and activities through our affiliate links with GetYourGuide (partner ID LDXYA0P). This costs you nothing extra and helps us keep our guides free and up to date. We do not run our own tours, we have no financial relationship with hotels, restaurants or tour operators, and we have no Booking.com / Expedia / Airbnb affiliations. GetYourGuide commissions are our only revenue stream — which is why we can be honest about which cruises, tours and day trips are worth your money. Read our full affiliate disclosure.

Available in 8 languages

Istanbul Trip publishes in English (canonical), Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch and Polish. Istanbul draws travellers from across Europe and the Americas, and most English-language Turkey blogs simply ignore non-English readers — so we publish full, native-quality translations rather than auto-translation.

Contact

Email: agencexen@gmail.com

Hosting

Infomaniak Network SA, Geneva, Switzerland