How to Spend 24 Hours in ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Hey, you're doing it! Hi. Hey everybody, welcome to Istanbul. Who's that behind the camera? İlkay. Okay, let's do it.
Let's do it. Yes guys, welcome back to Istanbul, Turkey, with my girlfriend İlkay, who's Turkish. Merhaba. Guys, today we want to show you what to do if you only have 24 hours here in Istanbul. It's a huge city, kind of overwhelming, and there's a lot to see and do. But if you want to see all of
the must-sees, kind of the can't-miss bucket list items, then this video is for you. So we're getting started right here in Taksim Square. Okay, so Ily, what is Taksim Square? Where are we right now? We are in the European side right now. Taksim Square is kind of the meeting point for everybody. You can easily find some good food here, you can go for drinks at night, and you can walk around. It's nice to see.
This is kind of like the Times Square or Union Square of Istanbul. It's pretty central, kind of you can go everywhere from here. Major transit hub, there's a big metro station and bus station over there. Yeah, you've even got these nice trams that come through, old-fashioned style. But in general, this is the place that I like to start when I have guests coming to visit me in istanbul, because there's kind of a nice path that you can take from here.
So I recommend, if you're starting kind of your one-day tour of Istanbul, start here in Taksim Square, and then we go from here. There's also this big mosque here, right on the square. It looks like an old style, old Ottoman style, but it's actually not old. It was built just recently.
Okay, so beyond that mosque, there's not a ton to actually, like, do or see here, but it's a good starting point. Where you should go from here is right this way, towards İstiklal Caddesi. That's İstiklal Avenue. That'll bring you to the next places on our list. Turkish pro tip! What do we got here? Also they can start with their breakfast with the simit, and you can add some cheese on it. What is simit? What is it? It's just like a pastry.
It's like a, it's kind of like a bagel. Um yeah, but if I say bagel, it's gonna get comments like, from Americans: "This is not bagel!" It's true. It's Turkish. I'm sorry.
Would you like a bag? No, no, no need. Thank you. Guys, right at the entrance to the beginning of İstiklal Caddesi, there's this, EspressoLab.
If you want coffee in Turkey, check it out. EspressoLab is very good. It's kind of like the Starbucks of Turkey. They have Starbucks here too, but EspressoLab is a Turkish brand. Very good coffee, very good pastries and everything. Yeah, we like it.
Let's go in there. I need some coffee. Okay. Alright guys, I got my EspressoLab. I got my nothing.
Yeah, nothing for İlkay. And now we are on İstiklal Caddesi. This is probably one of the most international places on the face of the planet.
Like you will see every type of person from every corner of the globe here. You have people from Europe, Arab countries, Iranians, Turks, Americans, everywhere. Super international.
İstiklal, what do people come here for? Shopping? Shopping and drinking coffee, taste some, like, baklava turkish desserts, and what else? Kebabs, you can find good places here also. But you can find everything here. Exactly. You can find everything here. it is pretty touristy, so we'll talk more about like how to escape from the tourist crowd a little bit later in the video if that's something you want to do. But this is kind of one of those must-see areas.
It's also kind of one of the most European-feeling places in Istanbul, and there's a lot of buildings that are kind of traditional European style. He said hi. Hi! Oh, and here we have the Greek consulate. Just kidding. There's a long-standing rivalry between Greece and Turkey, as you may have heard, but these days it's, I'd say it's a pretty friendly rivalry.
There's also the Dutch and Russian consulates here on İstiklal Caddesi, I believe. Alright guys, so now we've reached the end of İstiklal Caddesi, and we're heading down to the next must-see spot on our list, which is Galata Tower. And now we have reached Galata Tower. You can see it there above us.
Guys, this is definitely, I would say, a great place to come when you come to Istanbul, especially if you only have 24 hours, because up there at the top, you have an amazing view of Istanbul. Now, one piece of advice I would give to you is that if you want to come here and actually go up to the top, then you might want to start your day early, because a long line forms here, and so if you come, you know, later than around mid-morning, you're going to be waiting for a long time. I've been up a few times, and it's totally worth it for the view, and the tower itself is really old. big piece of history here, it's like almost 700 years old and still standing.
When you come here you'll see the ticket booth is an old tram car, and the tickets are currently 30 euros. But also, if you guys don't want to wait for this long line, I think you should go to this rooftop, its name is Firuzende, you can drink your wine and view the sea, and you don't have to waste your time for this line. We saw a fan here! He has fans everywhere. Who am I? You're gonna be famous. If you're looking for the best spot to get an Instagram of you with the tower behind you, we recommend you come right here to this spot. You can see the whole thing behind you.
And speaking of Instagram, if you want to stay connected during your time here in Istanbul, stay connected with your friends and family, stay on the internet, then I highly recommend that you sort out your mobile data situation before you come here. And these days, the best way to do that is with an eSIM. So before eSIMs, you basically had two options for staying connected with mobile data while you're traveling abroad. The first was to use your home internet plan using roaming data, which is just super expensive, so I don't recommend that. And the second option was to buy a physical SIM card in the country that you're going to.
I used to do that all the time, but it can be a ton of paperwork, long lines, and it's just like another thing to worry about after you get off a long flight, so not ideal. Luckily, that is where the sponsor of today's video comes in, which is Airalo. Airalo is the first and leading eSIM store on the market and they offer plans in over 200 countries and regions, meaning you'll be covered pretty much wherever you can go. They're also a completely digital solution, which means you can actually install your eSIM before you even leave home and then have your internet all set to go the moment your plane touches down in your destination. It's such a huge time saver, and honestly, having used Airalo myself for years now, I can't tell you how much peace of mind it gives me to know that I'm gonna have a solid connection right when I get to wherever I'm going. To get started, all you have to do is download the Airalo app on your phone, check out the different plans and choose the one that's best for you, and then with just a few more taps you'll have it all set and ready to go.
If you guys want to give Airalo a try on your next trip then click the link down in the description below and use promo code DougB3 for $ 3 off your first eSIM. Hello guys, now we came to drink something hot. I prefer to drink salep. It's really good, I love it. You should try it when you come here. Douglas don't want to drink it, but it's fine.
I love it. And I've got Turkish tea, which you should also drink. Alrighty guys, now moving right along, we are headed down the hill now from Galata Tower.
Now, there's a couple ways to get down to where we're going. If you want, you can walk down the hill like we're doing. There's a lot more nice shops and little handicrafts and, you know, stuff to see along the way here. But if you want to do a different way, then you can take the funicular, which is like a tram thing but on a hill. And it's up back a little ways the way we came, kind of at the end of İstiklal.
You can go in there, they have ticket machines, you can use cash or credit card, get yourself a ticket, and it goes like every five minutes. It's kind of a fun way to get down the hill. Alright, we have made it down. A little bit chaotic out here, but we are trying to find our way to the bridge, which is just over there.
Hello, welcome! Hello, welcome! We're going to Galata Bridge, right? Here is galata bridge. Now, we're still on the European side, and even though we're crossing this bridge, we're still going to be on the European side. This is not the bridge to get to the Asian side. That's a much longer bridge, you can't really walk across it, it's for cars.
Most of the things that we're showing you in this video today are on the European side. And that's kind of just generally true. Most of the things you want to see from a tourist perspective are on the European side. However, the Asian side is amazing as well. It's actually where we live, and we're going to talk more about it towards the end of the video.
There are always a lot of people fishing on this bridge, and actually, underneath the bridge... They're cooking them! Yeah, they're cooking the fish. There's restaurants on the actual bridge, like real built restaurants. So if you walk on the lower level, and you can also go down with these stair things in the middle, you can find restaurants that are cooking up a lot of fish. Fish sandwich or fish wrap. Exactly.
Fishing is forbidden here. Okay, so as you can see, once you've come to the other side of the bridge, there's a lot of these little restaurants set up selling fish sandwiches, and all sorts of stuff, and guys outside trying to get their customers into the restaurants. Alright guys, so we've made it over to this area where you've got Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar.... But first, we're stopping for a quick bite at… what's this place called? Şehzade Cağ Kebab. Şehzade Cağ Kebab.
Thank you. Two Coke Zeros, one soup, and two portions of cağ kebab. Wow, look at her. See, I told you she's real Turkish. So this place is very good.
Guys, to be honest, around here there are a lot of tourist trap restaurants, like you see the place with the pictures outside, with the pictures of every dish, and there's like a guy outside trying to get you to come in. This place, not like that. This is a real place, Turkish people are coming, very famous and very good meat. Thank you. Alright, and it has arrived. Chef İlkay, why don't you show the people what this looks like.
Of course. It comes, one portion comes with two skewers. Yummy. And we should make some dürüms. Make our dürüms? Dürüm is like a wrap, so you can take this lavash bread. I'm getting ready. It's good. Go ahead. Show us how it's done.
Let me grab some lavash. I'm gonna scoop like this. I prefer to eat with onion... like that. And
I'm gonna add some salad. Like this... and get some bite! How is it? Alright. So we're going to eat up here, and then we're
heading to Hagia Sophia. Alright. So we are on our way to Hagia Sophia. Very good. And you can see a lot of old Ottoman architecture behind us. Hello! Hi, how are you? Good, how are you? Yeah, so this whole area is very, very historical. Hundreds and hundreds of years.
Before it was Istanbul, it was Constantinople, and before it was Constantinople, it was Byzantium. Don't say Constantinople anywhere... Yeah, don't say Constantinople here.
Alright guys, and we have arrived. You can see the Hagia Sophia behind me there, through the trees. Across the street from here is the Basilica Cistern. That's what all those people across the street are lined up for. Now, to be honest, I've never actually been in there, even though I've been living here for like, over two years now.
But there's always a crazy long line. However, apparently it's very nice, and it's like an underground cavern with water in it. Have you been in there? Yeah, I've been.
How is it? It was nice. Yeah, I mean, you should go inside, but it's too much line always. I have to do it someday. Alright, Hagia Sophia. since we have ilkay, a real turkish lady with us, i want her to just take a few minutes and give us the brief history of this place. Just kidding.
Guys, you maybe have heard, it was originally built as an Orthodox church, then it was turned into a mosque by the Ottomans, and then for a long time after the Republic of Turkey was formed in the early 20th century, it was a museum for years and years and years. And then, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, still the president, turned it back into a mosque. So it's a mosque again. And for a while we were actually excited because it meant, oh it's not a museum anymore, they won't charge admission to get into it. It's a mosque, it's a place of worship.
However, just a few months ago, they decided, even though it's a mosque, we're still going to charge... Are you a YouTuber my friend? I am. Oh really? Yeah. American? How are you doing? American. Which part? New york. Oh, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, where? No, I'm from Connecticut.
Oh, very nice. She's from where, Russia? Turkey. Oh, you're Turkish? Yes. I also live here. She looks like Russian. Well, I think she's uh, she's Balkan actually.
Oh, you make video for me. Yeah. Very nice. My, my nickname is John Travolta. Yeah, I could see it a little bit. Anyway, nice to meet you. Where in Istanbul do you live? Kadıköy. Ah, Kadıköy, very nice. Take care! Bye bye, thanks.
Okay, so... That is a great example of a person that you should pretty much look out for around here, because they stand around and they kind of make small talk with you in English, asking where you're from, they'll guess your country, or they'll try to give you like some little advice like, "Hey my friend, you have to go to the line over here, this place is closed..." These guys are trying to sell you something. 100% of the time. The only reason he didn't go into the spiel there is because İlkay told him she's Turkish, and I said in Turkish I live here.
They will come and try to sell you something, bring you to a carpet shop, get to an antique store, or something. Those guys are never there to actually help you, just so you know. As I was saying, it was a mosque, it was free admission, but just a few months ago they decided, nah, let's just charge admission anyway for non-muslims. So most non-muslim tourists are going to have to buy a ticket to get in here. It's like 25 Euros.
You can get a 50 Euro ticket if you want to skip the line. Pretty expensive if you ask me, but in my opinion, paying at least the 25 Euro price to get in and see the inside of the Hagia Sophia is worth it, especially if you're gonna be here once and you only have 24 hours. It's beautiful inside, and it's really worth it. By the way guys, when you come into this huge plaza, probably the most touristy place in all of Turkey, when you first enter you're gonna see a line there, like inside those gates in front of the Hagia Sophia. That is for the worshippers, the muslims who are going in there for free to actually pray. If you're coming as a tourist and going to buy a ticket, you're going to go past the Hagia Sophia and around the right side of the building.
That's the tourist entrance. Now, next place that's very important here is right behind us in the other direction. That is the Blue Mosque, also world famous. Let's go check it out. 1965... I'm just joking.
So guys, to find your way to the entrance of the Blue Mosque, you're going to start over there by Hagia Sophia, wrap around the side of the Blue Mosque right to here, and on this side right over there through that gate, you can enter. The Blue Mosque is still free for everybody. The only times it's closed during the day are during prayer, and you can find those prayer times on the internet.
But most of the day, it's open for everybody. They have even, like, scarves or head coverings for women. And men, if you're wearing shorts, you need to wrap something around you.
But they have all of that available right at the entrance, and it's free. So you can just walk right in, they'll give you what you need. And it's a beautiful, beautiful mosque. Very different from Hagia Sophia, by the way. And this is the only free thing in Turkey. This is pretty much the only free thing in turkey, it's true.
Now we're headed to the last spot, which is the Grand Bazaar, known in Turkish as "Kapalı Çarşı". İlkay, Miss İlkay? So what kind of stuff can you buy in the Grand Bazaar? Actually, whatever you want, you can find in here. Like, some presents for your family, you can get some Turkish delights... Actually they have good ones here. All fake
bags and, like, t-shirts and everything, you can buy it. Yeah, not many people know this, but Turkey is actually number two, after China, for producing the most counterfeit, fake luxury stuff in the world. Number two! Woohoo! When you go into the Grand Bazaar, there's like a ton of entrances, there's no one main entrance.
It's a huge, sprawling complex that's hundreds of years old, and it's all covered. So, for example, guys, here's one of the entrances, just one of many. You can see, "Kapalı Çarşı," Grand Bazaar, and you go in here.
There's a metal detector, but it does nothing. okay, okay. No video. No video allowed...
but only in the few feet where he can see you. So once you guys are in here, like i said, it's all a covered market. You can see the roofs above here. And once you're in here, you can kind of just explore and wander anywhere you want to go. We're in the leather part right now, where you can find any fake leathers. Fake leather, real leather...
By the way, with fake stuff there's different levels of it. Like you can have a really crappy cheap fake, and you can also have a really high-end, like looks almost identical to the real one kind of fake, and that can still be hundreds of dollars which is still much cheaper than the original, which is thousands of dollars. But they can still be pricier than you might expect. I want bag! And here we come into the main complex.
You can see the nice ceilings. They're kind of painted with this nice design. And now we're here in the gold section. I gotta get you out of here.
Don't look too close. I want it! Just kidding. Rolex. Jewelry. Everything. By the way, it goes without saying that everything in this market is negotiable.
I usually say my rule of thumb is to take their starting price and go to 25% of it, and maybe you can settle at like 30% to 50% of their original price. But any kind of like knock-off item, or antique, or anything like that, 100% you gotta negotiate. Alright guys, and here it is, this is my favorite section of the Grand Bazaar, it is the antique market old bazaar. In here you can find things like Soviet war medals, you can find Saddam Hussein watches, the watches he used to give to his generals, but if you want to get those, it's way better to just sign up for one of my Iraq trips, and come with me to Iraq. You get a better price and you get it from where it came from. So check that out.
Alright, and here is my favorite shop. Hello! Hello sir, how are you? How are you? Fine, how are you doing? Nice to see you. Nice to see you too. How's everything? So-so.
So-so? Yeah. Oh, okay. Hello.
Hello, welcome! He's always talking about you. This is my favorite shop here in the old bazaar. So what's your specialty? I have, like, miniatures, some recent stuff, like the last 50 years, 60 years stuff.
I've found some seriously unique treasures in here. What is the name of your shop? Like, if people come here, how can they find you? Time Antique. Time Antique.
Highly recommend it. Thank you so much. Nice to see you. Go Fenerbahce! Alright guys, so you basically get the point. You can find anything and everything here, and even once you get out of the Grand Bazaar, like, all of the streets for blocks and blocks surrounding here are gonna be selling more stuff.
So this has got to be one of the biggest shopping districts in the world, I would say. Now the last challenge of visiting this place is finding the exit. Yeah, I don't know where. You kind of have to just walk in a straight line until you hit the end of it. I think this way. Look how big this place is.
You come to another hallway and it just extends as far as you can see in both directions. If you really can't find the exit, one thing you can do is actually just use Google Maps and put wherever you're going after this into it. This Grand Bazaar is so big that Google Maps actually works in here.
Like, they treat it like streets, even these avenues through the bazaar. Where you exit from the Grand Bazaar can really kind of dictate where in the neighborhood you end up when you come out, because it's so big. If you're going to the ferry terminal or something, put that in Google and then walk in that direction even while you're still in here, because if you don't, you're going to come out really far away from it. We did it! We did it. We found the exit.
We found the exit. And the call to prayer is ringing out. Sunset. Now, if you have some extra time, which, it's dark now, but we started kind of late, so, you know, if you're following this itinerary and you start in the morning, you should have plenty of time left in your day for a little bit more. And that's where these ferries come in.
These ferries are treated the same as any other kind of public transport in Istanbul. Same as a bus, same as a metro, so they're really great. You can use the metro card to get on here. And they can take you to where we're going, which is the Asian side. And so if you do have extra time after you've seen the must-see things over here on the European side, then I would highly, highly recommend that you go and check out the Asian side.
So far in this video, we've been on the European side the whole time, and it's a very touristy area. It has all the must-see things that you gotta see when you come to Istanbul, but it's very touristy. There's like, you know, scammers and guys trying to get you to their shops and stuff. Sometimes I worry that people come to Istanbul and they only experience this area and they think all of Istanbul is like that. It's really not.
Highly recommend you go to the neighborhood of Kadıköy, which is where we live. Kadıköy is great. It's kind of like Istanbul's Brooklyn. Kind of hipster, trendy neighborhood. By taking the ferry, you're going to get a really nice view of the city.
You can see the whole city, it looks really good at kind of a macro level. So the ferry is a lot of fun and also very useful. Alright guys, and we have made it back to Kadıköy, here on the Asian side.
Maybe we'll make another video about Kadıköy sometime soon to show them what to do on the Asian side, if you have some time. By the way, if you want to see the locations and kind of the route we took in this video on a map, then you can check down in the description below. I'll put a link to a Google Map where I have all the locations in order. Stay tuned because we want to make a lot more videos in Turkey very soon. Is that right? Yes, of course.
Evet, tabii ki. Yes, of course. So anyway, other than that, thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one. Thank you. Bye bye.
2025-02-06 02:26
