Frommer's Istanbul Day by Day (Frommer's Day by Day - Pocket) [Paperback]

Emma Levine (Author)

Book Description

Series: Frommer's Day by Day - Pocket | Publication Date: June 23, 2009

Contains fun, interesting, and surprising choices of places to see and things to do when visiting Turkey's largest city

Suggests popular sights around Sultanahmet, such as the splendor of Topkapi Palace, the mystery of Basilica Cistern, the excitement of the Grand Bazaar, the modernity of Beyoglu, the culture of Taksim, the serenity of the Blue Mosque, the beauty of the Hagia Sophia, and the peacefulness of Sahaflar Carsisi

Details spectacular walking tours, vibrant bazaars, unique shopping locations, tremendous dining, lively nightlife, serene mosques, and more

Features special interest tours such as Topkapi Palace, Modern Istanbul, Jewish Heritage, Byzantine Beauties and Istanbul with Kids

Details great neighbourhood walking tours of Istiklal Caddesi, Eyup, Tunel to Karakoy, Fener & Balat and  Eminonu to Sultanahmet

Offers day trips to Gulhane Park, Edirne and Princes' Islands.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

At last, a travel guide that tells you how to see the best of everything—in the smartest, most time-efficient way.

• The best of Istanbul in one, two, or three days

• Thematic tours for every interest, schedule, and taste

• Hundreds of evocative photos

• Bulleted maps that show you how to go from place to place

• Hotels, restaurants, shopping, and nightlife for all budgets

• A tear-resistant foldout map—enclosed in a handy plastic wallet you can also use for tickets and souvenirs

About the Author

Emma was born in Yorkshire, England, and fell in love with Istanbul on her first ‘real’ traveling in 1989, as a student. Since then, she lived in Hong Kong and India and worked as a sports photographer and author, specialising in Indian cricket culture—and always happy to explain the rules of cricket to the uninitiated.
Author of books including A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat, depicting her journey around Asia discovering traditional sports, and writer and presenter of documentaries for National Geographic channel, she is now based in London but still travels far and wide.
Emma is the author and photographer for Dublin Day by Day.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Frommers; 1 edition (June 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470715545
• ISBN-13: 978-0470715543
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.6 x 7.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #741,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Travel > Asia > Turkey > Istanbul

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy to use and convenient, December 7, 2009

By 

J. Golden - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Frommer's Istanbul Day by Day (Frommer's Day by Day - Pocket) (Paperback)

I used this on my honeymoon as my "carry around" book. It was great for thumbing through to see what the must-do activities were in whatever neighborhood we ended up in. We followed several of the Neighborhood Walks to see some road less travelled types of highlights.

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't get burned -- I used it to my deep regret, October 16, 2011

By 

Nigel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frommer's Istanbul Day by Day (Frommer's Day by Day - Pocket) (Paperback)

Just back from Istanbul and consulted several guide books to plan my trip (including the peerless Moon Guide to Istanbul and the Turklish Coast). This one---Frommer's Istanbul Day by Day--seemed the best of the bunch while I was planning my trip. Afterall, it was organized around neighborhood walks in various parts of the city. The maps looked clear and the walks took one , on paper, past interesting sites. However, my assumptions were off base. The walks were horribly planned.

My experiences in the city using Frommer's Istanbul Day-by-day are based on following a few of the walks religiously (read 'stupidly and naively trusting the author') until I realized the walks were terribly misguided and I was missing out on the best things in the city. Luckily I found a friendly garbage can to lighten me of this burdensome load.

Two examples should help clarify my point---

I took the Eyup walk with my wife. The high point (literally) of this walk was the hike up the cemetery hill to Pierre Loti restaurant--wonderful and a must do for any visitor to Istanbul. The walk started here. All of the other guidebooks give directions to this walk to Pierre Lotti, so Istanbul Day by Day did not offer anything new here. What was disastrously unique was the rest of the walk which had my wife and I walking along a dusty traffic-jammed loud dirty street with the promise of arriving at the Theodosian walls (which could have been reached from other directions walking much more pleasantly). This might have been bearable had the walk not sent me against a expressway without a crossing. I was lucky in that it was rush hour and so was able to cross 12 lanes of traffic on foot--holding my hand out like a traffic cop-- because of the congestion. I have never done that in my life ---imagine trying to cross a major freeway--prior to two miles of horrid traffic and noise to end like that---what a walk!

I also, stupidly assuming the one walk was a fluke, took the ferry to Uskadur and did the book's walk there. Again the starting point at the ferry was nice enough but the walk directed me through backstreets, not filled with local charm as promised, but filled with noisy blocks and blocks of used water heater and washing machine vendors--it seemed like a cut above walking thru a city junkyard.

It was then that I threw the book away. I switched to using the Moon guide and the city opened up and became charming and beautiful. The traveler's experience all depends upon who is giving the advice, a friend or an idiot.

Don't misunderstand me ---Istanbul can be a beautiful and enchanting city with lot of great walks but you wouldn't know it from this book. Don't get burned as I did.

One afterthought---most of the positive reviews are based upon the book's abundant maps rather than the actual advice given by the book. The maps turned out to be outdated, especially the subway map...which caused me a great deal of difficulty until I got a current map in Istanbul. It turns out that the best maps are readily available in the hotels and not in the guidebooks.

Be very wary of Amazon travel book reviews unless the reviewer actually tried to follow the book...therein lies the rub, dear Horatio!

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent + Nice Public Transport Map, August 20, 2011

By 

raven "gildir" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Frommer's Istanbul Day by Day (Frommer's Day by Day - Pocket) (Paperback)

I went to Istanbul for a week and I brought two guidebooks (this one and the Rick Steves' Istanbul) and two language books. This book had everything I wanted to see, but I found that the other book was more readable and generally more rounded. I appreciated the maps, which were all quite clear, but when I got to Istanbul I found that I needed something more detailed (with all the small side streets named), so I acquired a full street map. This basically sums to the fact that, for information about the sites, I used a different book, and for information on how to get to the sites, I used a different map. So, overall, I ended up hardly using the book at all.

The one very useful feature of this book, and the only reason I carried it around every day, was the small, clear, and concise public transportation map which flipped out from the cover. I can hardly express how useful this was for getting around the city, but as this was hardly the main thrust of the book, I don't think it should change my rating much.

I do think that some of the "themed" tourist information would be of interest to certain people, but I personally didn't use it.