July, 2023

THE SNAPSHOT

Far too fast of a trip, but I absolutely loved my time in Turkey and can’t wait to see more of this incredible country in the future.  This was a bit of a unique situation for a trip for me because it was planned less than a week in advance, AND I had a local who was there to show us around.  If you are planning a trip to Turkey I would definitely recommend spending more time and visiting other parts of the country, but in 6 nights I did get to experience SO much between Istanbul and Bodrum.

My cousin and his wife (who is from Istanbul) showed us around most of the time, and my other cousin and I met them for this jam-packed week.  We visited the highlights of Istanbul and then headed to the South for a few days on the beach in Bodrum.  It was a great mix of city/history/touring and relaxing/ocean/Mediterranean Summer.

THE DETAILS

NIGHT 1

I left for Istanbul on a Wednesday night.  Since I booked the tickets so last minute I did not have a ton of flexibility to select the best ones… but it ended up working out well.  I prefer flying OneWorld airlines and was able to take British Air on the way to Istanbul, although that meant a layover in London (as the only direct Chicago – Istanbul flight is operated by Turkish Air).  I barely made my connection due to a delay out of Chicago, but the times of the flights were perfect for avoiding jet lag!  I slept the whole overnight flight to London but exhaustion REALLY hit me when I landed, so thankfully I had another 4 hour flight to sleep some more.

I landed in Istanbul at about 7pm and then headed to our hotel.  Customs was very quick and although I did buy the tourist visa online beforehand, they never asked for it.  My cousin suggested from the airport taking a shuttle bus to central Istanbul and then catching a cab from there.  It was actually very easy, cheap, and convenient, so I took her advice and shuttled to Taksim Square and then took a cab to our hotel, Royan Hotel Hagia Sophia.  The hotel really exceeded expectations!  It was a great, central location in Old Town and felt like a luxurious boutique hotel.  My cousin arrived a bit later and we just went to dinner nearby at a super touristy spot close to the hotel (definitely worst meal of the trip) then got a great night’s sleep for our packed week ahead.

DAY 1

The next morning, we started off the morning with some Turkish coffee (obsessed) and fresh juice on the rooftop of our hotel, and then walked towards Hagia Sophia to meet my other cousins.  Several sites were closed that Thursday morning so we started off by seeing a few that WERE open, Sultan Ahmed Turbesi and Basilica Cistern, as well as the Hippodrome of Constantinople.  All the sites were very cool and I especially loved seeing the Basilica Cistern.

The rest of the day was spent eating, drinking, and shopping – some of the most important things to do in Istanbul!  We had an INCREDIBLE lunch at Pandeli, which is “elevated” classic Turkish cuisine and a beautiful setting.  Afterwards, we spent a few hours in the amazing Spice Market and Grand Bazaar doing some major shopping damage.  I was in heaven at the spice market buying spices, dried fruit, and nuts and bought some jewelry, Turkish towels, and other souvenirs at the Grand Bazaar that were all great prices.

After we were ready to wrap up our shopping spree, we walked across the Galway Bridge, wandered around the Istikal Street area, and settled at Beyoglu, a cool wine bar, to relax and have a few drinks.  We had a very casual but DELICIOUS dinner at Helvetia nearby so we had enough time to end the day taking the ferry across the river to the Asian side.  We caught the ferry at Karakoy Pier and took it across to Harem.  We did not really do anything on the other side but if you want to spend more time and explore there is some nice shopping and restaurants.  We took the ferry back, went to our hotel, and went to sleep.  It was a great first day and I already fell in love with Istanbul.  It’s a typical European city in many ways with an unexpected calmness and so much interesting history, architecture, and culture.

DAY 2

We started our Friday morning off again with some juice and coffee on the rooftop restaurant and then went straight to some of the sites we were not able to see the previous day: Hagia Sophia followed by the Blue Mosque.  Both were beautiful and shockingly did not take that long to get into / tour.

Next was a very important order of business: a traditional, all out, vegan Turkish breakfast.  We took the tram (which was super easy and cheap, I mean… like 20 cents cheap) to the other side and ate at a very cute place called Kahve6.  I left VERY determined and inspired to recreate this myself for breakfast back home (still a nice goal…).

Afterwards, we spent some time wandering the streets, heading towards the Cisek Pasaj area.  One stop we heard was a must was the old school hotel Pera Palace, so we took a little break there and had coffee on the beautiful terrace overlooking the city.  HIGHLY recommend, or come for a cocktail in the evening.  

Before it closed, we trammed BACK to the other side to see probably the most impressive site of the trip, the Topkapi Palace.  The grounds are unbelievable and MASSIVE and you could truly spend all day there, so I honestly was kind of glad we did not get there until the late afternoon and had a closing time to kick us out by.

The palace closed around 6 that evening and we were so excited to go to a hamam (Turkish bathhouse) afterwards.  So, here are some PRO TIPS on the hamam experience… a few pieces of false advertisements that we received to avoid: 1. They are not all the same and 2. You DO need a reservation (well, to the good ones at least).  We went to one that was recommended called Cagaloglu Hamam (that looked beautiful inside) but they were full so we quickly found another one back on the other side of town that had 2 spots available.  As soon as we entered, I could tell this one was not as nice as the first we had tried… but was still excited for the traditional scrub experience.  All in all, this particular place was quite weird but I would 100% recommend going to a hamam while in Istanbul.  They have more touristy/upscale ones at the nice hotels, or you can go the more local route like we did.

By the time we finished it was pretty late so we tried to find somewhere good for dinner.  Restaurants close much earlier than I expected in Istanbul, so almost 2 hours and 4 restaurants later… we stumbled into a place that ended up being exactly what I wanted called Astek Meyhane.  There are TONS of meyhane restaurants that serve traditional Turkish food and are a must while there.  They stay open very late and I think we were the only Americans in the restaurant.  We sat for several hours drinking wine and eating tons of small plates (and a few additions our friendly table neighbors offered us).  It was a crazy dinner hunt but SO worth it for the meal.

Until… the middle of the night when my cousin was struck with food poisoning.  

DAY 3

Unfortunately my cousin was struggling all morning trying to get through her food poisoning, but we made it out and got to the airport for our short flight to Bodrum.  Once we landed we grabbed a cab that took about 45 minutes to get to our hotel in Yalikavak, Elementa Boutique Hotel.  It was a perfect, boutique hotel with a Greece vibe overlooking the water.  It is not right on the beach if that’s what you are looking for, but does have a very nice pool and outdoor restaurant with included breakfast.

I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the pool, then got ready for dinner at an INCREDIBLE place called Limon Gumusuluk.  It was so nice meeting my cousin’s wife’s family and having a beautiful dinner overlooking mountains with wine and so many mezze.  PRO TIP: make sure to go at sunset.

After dinner we walked around the adorable town in Gumusuluk that has tons of restaurants and little shops and had some more wine by the water.  Perfect night.

DAY 4

We woke up to another beautiful day in paradise and had a slow morning with the full Turkish breakfast spread at our hotel and lots of Turkish coffee of course.  Then we headed to my cousin’s family’s house and beach club for the day which was amazing.  We relaxed and swam all day, and if you don’t have access to a beach through where you are staying I would definitely recommend going to a beach club somewhere for the day – there are many!

That night we had dinner at the Yalikavak Marina and walked around in all the nice shops on the water.  It was a true relaxing, vacation day.

DAY 5

Before going to Bodrum, I was set on spending at least one day on a boat so this is exactly what we did on our last day.  Some things to note before selecting a boat trip… there are some that are insanely touristy pirate party boats so if a giant pirate head/frat foam party on a boat is your vibe, go for it.  Otherwise, proceed with caution.  I saw many boat tours on Viator and Tripadvisor that looked great and take you to multiple spots throughout the day, feed you lunch, and are extremely affordable ($20-$30/person).  We ended up thankfully switching to one last minute that morning that we found down by the dock that left out of downtown Bodrum.  It was such a fun day, hanging on the boat and swimming at so many different beautiful stops.    

The boat didn’t return until early evening so we took a cab back to the hotel, had a drink by the pool, and got ready for dinner.

Our final dinner was one of, if not my favorite, meal of the whole trip for both the atmosphere and the food.  We went back to Gumusuluk and were searching for a spot on the water and ended up at an INCREDIBLY beautiful place, Mimoza.  We got a table right on the water and had a delicious spread of mezze (and fresh fish for my cousins).  It was such a nice final meal to end the trip.

DAY 6

Travel home day! For my route home, I flew from Bodrum to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to Chicago.  It was nice not having to fly back through Istanbul on the way back.

WOW looking back I cannot believe how much we did in only 5 whole days… I am in love with Turkey and can’t wait to go back and explore more and was such a special trip with my cousins, meeting their Turkish family, and seeing where she grew up.