Customer Reviews

Istanbul (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

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Length:: 0:19 Mins

If you're only going to buy one guide to Istanbul, this is the one.

The principal reason is that Istanbul is a city of great architecture, which D-K's cut-away diagrams ideally showcase. You can quickly determine where you are within a building and which features you have not yet seen.

For us, the most enjoyable attraction in Istanbul was the ferry ride up the Bosphorus, which ends at a charming village near the Black Sea with excellent restaurants where you have lunch before returning. There are commercial tourist boats that make this trip, but we much preferred the public ferry that cost approx. $10 round-trip -- one of the great travel bargains of the world. The discussion about it in this guide is quite good.

Some things not covered in the book:

* When we asked the concierge at our hotel for the best place to change money, he said "The Grand Bazaar, no question." Indeed. In addition to a narrow spread between buy and sell, there is no commission (other commercial money-lenders not only charge a large spread, but usually tack on a 4% commission). The local merchants all use the money-changers there, and according to the concierge, exchange rates for the entire country are set there. Alternatively, you can use ATMs, which appear to be ubiquitous.

* Among the best bargains in the Grand Bazaar are gold and silver, which are sold by weight with a reasonable mark-up, as opposed to the 400% markups commonly charged by American jewelers. Each jeweler has a gram scale where he weighs any given piece, and then prices it accordingly, based upon the price of gold that morning. The gold, by the way, appears to universally be 22 karat, worked in India. Because Indian workers are paid $15 per month, labor is not a material element in the price. A jeweler I spoke with priced a bracelet (pre-bargaining) at $650, when the price of the gold alone was $525. He was highly competent and straightforward in answering my questions, as were most of the merchants I dealt with. Similar savings seem to be available on diamond jewelry, although I did not consider myself competent to judge the quality of the stones and thus, did not buy anything.

* Rug merchants appear to be somewhat less reputable and certainly more insistent (one becomes tired of hearing their ubiquitous "hallo"). If they ask which hotel you're staying in or when you're leaving, simply respond "Why do you want to know?" One rug merchant, who is married to an American woman and is himself quite americanized told me that many of the merchants import rugs from China and then represent them as being from Turkey or Iran. As with diamonds, it pays to know what you're buying.

* Cab drivers are often dishonest. Know how much you should pay for a given trip and carry a lot of small bills and coins, so that you can pay exactly. Do not expect change. You may receive old lira (the Turkish lira was steeply devalued several years ago). Make sure the driver starts the meter when you get into the cab. The rate after midnight is 50% greater than before. The meters state fares in Turkish lira, but drivers may try to charge you in dollars or Euros; state clearly that you will pay them in lira when you get into the cab and demand that they turn on the meter. Still, the (honest) rates are quite reasonable, especially since tips are not expected.

* The food is excellent, good ingredients and wonderful spices. Explore or ask your concierge. The best place we found, on the advice of our concierge, was the Magnaura Cafe Restaurant at Akbiyik No. 27 in Sultanhamet, tel: (0212)518 76 22, three blocks from the Haja Sofia. UPDATE 3/09: Better yet, just across the street the Albura Kathisma Cafe, Yeni Akbiyik Cad. No. 26 Sultanhamet. This street is full of good, reasonably priced, restaurants.

* Be prepared to awaken at 6:00 am with the Call to Prayer, which is blasted from loudspeakers on the minarets of the mosques. It doesn't last long, but it will awaken you. I was not able to sleep through it, a problem that I rarely encounter. A video of the Call to Prayer, taken from the park between Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque, is included in this review (Be sure to turn up the sound).

* Three must-sees that we regret having missed: (1) the Chora Church, (2) the Palace Cistern, and (3) the old city walls.

UPDATE [3/09] On a second trip we visited all three; well worth the effort. Additional recommendations: (1) the Spice Market (2) Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque, a lovely smaller mosque near the Blue Mosque with beautiful tiles, and (3) the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (aka the Little Hagia Sofiya), now a mosque and one of the most calming places of worship I've ever been in.

All things considered, it's a great city.

For a really useful pocket-sized guide: Top 10 Istanbul (EYEWITNESS TOP 10 TRAVEL GUIDE)

For a less functional but more beautiful and sophisticated guide, try Knopf Guide: Istanbul (Knopf Guides Istanbul and Northwest Turkey)

Visitors with a serious interest in the city's many historic sites will enjoy Imperial Istanbul: A Traveller's Guide: Includes Iznik, Bursa and Edirne by Jane Taylor. Not only is Ms. Taylor a knowledgeable historian, she also frequently displays her wonderfully dry British sense of humor. While not promoted as such, the book can easily serve as a walking guide to the city.

For a more Nuts N' Bolts tour guide on navigating the city on foot: Rick Steves' Istanbul (Rick Steves)

Recommended reading: John Freely's Istanbul

Recommended viewing: Byzantium: The Lost Empire, Topkapi, the Supercities VHS tape Istanbul], and the Teaching Company course The World of Byzantium-The Great Courses (24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)(6 VHS TAPES)

DVD to avoid: Globe Trekker: Turkey

UPDATE (02/18/2012): The Teaching Company has just released a superb DVD, "The Great Tours: Greece and Turkey, from Athens to Istanbul" by Professor John R. Hale of the University of Louisville that features three half-hour programs on Istanbul that are as good as they come. Although the list price is $255, their programs are regularly sold at 70% off, i.e., $69.95. If you're going to that part of the world, buy that program.

The maps are the most useful of any of the Istanbul travel books I have seen; although this book gives history and analysis, it is not too in depth, as the Knopf book can be, so that you lose sight of where you are. The tours laid out in this book contain references to small cafes and shops and restaurants that none of the others do. Portable enough to carry with, the drawings of such sites as the AyaSofia are excellent; it is pretty to look at, educational, useful and easy to carry. The current version is very up-to-date on one of the most fascinating cities anywhere. Excellent book, wonderful city.

My wife and I recently went to Istanbul for a week with this book and Lonely Planet Turkey. This was by far superior for all of the sightseeing elements of the tour. The book is readable, clear, and provides pictures of many of the major landmarks and buildings of Istanbul so that you know what you're looking at; it also provides maps to major sites like Topkapi Palace and the Blue Mosque so that you can orient yourself. There are several interesting sidebars on Turkish history or customs that are fairly interesting.

The only drawback to this book is that is has only a cursory review of most of the restaurants and (especially) hotels in Istanbul; this is the only place where I felt that Lonely Planet was better in any way.

That said, I nearly bought a second copy of this book because my wife always was looking at it and I got tired of looking at the maps and text written upside-down. If you are only going to buy one guide for Istanbul, make this the one.

While Amazon my promote buying both, the guide to Turkey contains much the same information as the Guide to Istanbul. Istanbul at a Glance is slightly shorter in the Turkey guide, but the Turkey guide contains area by area descriptions, the Traveler's Needs and Survival Guide sections as well as street maps. The information is great, but I didn't need it twice.

This was our first trip abroad. We loved Istanbul and we loved this guide. It's perfect for the tourists who want to see the sites. If you want to get into the grit of the real city, you better know someone. No book could help that because of some of the dangers. We were lucky to have a friend show us the city as a whole, and the book was perfect for seeing the sites. I do wish the book had the following helpful tip.

Go to the Grand Bazar to see what it is like. But do not buy anything there. You can find things cheaper at the Spice Bazar and throughout the rest of the city.

This is one of the best guide books I have ever read! SO easy to leaf through it and find exactly what one is looking for. The maps are well drawn and easy to navigate, and the photograph make the whole experience complete. I loved most the chapter on foods and drinks to be tasted in Istanbul. Will be a great guide to take along on my trip there.

I had never used this series of guidebooks before, so I did not know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised during my recent visit to Istanbul in June of 2007.

The main selling points of these DK guides are the superior maps and illustrations of tourist attractions. Major museums, mosques and palaces are shown in detail, with drawings and photos of the interior and exterior, as well as nicely illustrated historical tidbits. For doing the touristy things like visiting major attractions and taking pictures, this guide is great.

I am not sure how good this guide is when it comes to restaurants and nightlife. I did not explore that side of Istanbul as much, and what I saw did not impress me much.

Overall, I think I would have preferred a guide geared more towards active young people with a slightly cynical edge - this guide seemed to present everything as pretty and somewhat sterile. From what I saw, Istanbul definitely has an interesting culture that this guide did not fully capture.

Overall, good guidebook, and highly recommended. Read it ahead of time to know where the main sites and activities that interest you are located. Then do some more research online for good hotels to stay in - online reviews are more up to date.

Although on the heavy side, I have bought a number of the "eyewitness travel guides" because they are easy to use, and have great pictures - which is very important to me indetermining which places I want to visit, what food I would like to try and so on. The maps are ok, but do not include all the sites in the book. I tried to get the "streetwise" map for the trip because they are awesome, but they don't publish any of Istanbul. Although the guide isn't perfect it is better than the competition - I recommend it.

I am from Istanbul and I cal tell you this guide is fantastic. Before you visit my country Turkey read this guide. It is accurate and colorful.

We went to Turkey and this book was the best guide for us. We had a very short time to get ready and this told us everything we needed to know. Culture, food and the way to dress in a Muslim country.Plus,the must see sights. Remember some Mosque and palaces are closed one day a week.