Customer Reviews

Time Out Istanbul (Time Out Guides)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just returned from 4 days in Istanbul using a hot-off-the-press copy of this guide and cannot recommend it highly enough. Given the layers of history and multitude of sites this city has to offer many guidebooks seem to forget to detail the modern life of the city. The Time Out guide has far and away the most up-to-date information about the present day life and cultural activities of this stunningly beautiful, vibrant and surprisingly hip city. Keep in mind that Istanbul has changed a lot in the past few years and if you are interested in the latest restaurants, nightlife, hotels and shopping options in addition to the traditional historic sites tour-route, this will be a great primary guidebook for you. The book is filled with a lot of current photos and interesting sidebars and highlights that are very helpful in narrowing down the multitude of possible ways to spend your time.

Time Out gives you an insider's view of the city from an expat-resident perspective and though its listings are much more opinionated than standard guidebooks, this is a very good thing. The additional info you'll get on everything from standard tourist sites to off-the-beaten-track hammams will help steer you in a direction that best suites your personal aesthetic, comfort level and style of travel. The guide is very well indexed and organized so it's easy to locate the information you need while you are out and about. I found the section on Bosphorus ferries and day trips out of the city particularly useful and much more in depth than other guides. Be sure to pick up a copy of the monthly English language Time Out Istanbul magazine as soon as you arrive for event schedules, music listings and articles on what is going on in the city while you are there as it provides a seamless "update" to the guide itself.

The maps in the back of the guide are fairly detailed, but are printed on several pages. If you plan to do a lot of walking, particularly in areas outside the central historic Sultanahmet district, I would recommend supplementing this guide with a more detailed city map such as the Istanbul Map (Travel Reference Map) as this city is a maze of back alleys and winding, unmarked passageways and it's a bit difficult tracking down shops and restaurants using the included maps. If you like history this book provides an intelligent and well written intro and an excellent list of recommended reading. Use this guide to build the day's itinerary, choose restaurants, shopping venues and activities and then add a little Freeley (John Freely's Istanbul) and recent Nobel prize winner Orhan Pamuk (Istanbul: Memories and the City) to your in-flight reading list.

If you want a hip, insightful and savvy guide to the lively city of today, this is a wonderful guide that will not steer you wrong. If you are doing the standard loop of historic sites in old Istanbul, then many other city guidebooks provide perfectly adequate coverage as well. Beware that many country-specific guidebooks to Turkey provide rather thin coverage of the city itself.

I just went to Istanbul without much time to plan the trip so i made up for it by buying almost every guidebook available. This was the stand-out, for general information, for places to go and for the fabulous maps at the back. If you're only getting one guide, get this one. It's the first time I've purchased a TimeOut Guide, but I'll be looking at them first for my next trip.

We used this guide on a recent trip to Istanbul, and by contrast used the Lonely Planet Turkey guide outside of Istanbul (Izmir and Selcuk). The contrast couldn't be greater: while Lonely Planet thinks that comprehensiveness is a virtue -- including hotels and restaurants that are in fact trash -- Time Out only lists places that you really *should* go to. Time Out's signal-to-noise ratio is incredibly high. We only regret that we didn't have time to see all the sites that Time Out recommended.

One travel note: after grabbing coffee at Pierre Loti Cafe, overlooking the Old Galata and Ataturk Bridges, we ambled down the hill to a mosque that Time Out described as the third-holiest site in Islam. We took off our shoes and my girlfriend covered her head with a scarf; we then stood at the back of the mosque at prayer time. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The moral for me is: follow the book's advice, but allow ample time to wander off the beaten path.

Was just in Istanbul for over a week. The friends I traveled with and I all picked up different guidebooks to share, and Time Out was one of them.

Pros
-Best maps by far of the 6 guidebooks we had. We used it to walk pretty much everywhere since we all like walking.
-Good map of the subway system
-Very good restaurant recommendations in all price ranges. My friends and I have high confidence in the recommendations now. We ate at random places the first few days and then tried three recommended restaurants in our price range over the next few days. Time Out's recommendations were all significantly better than the restaurants we've found on our own. We stumbled into one restaurant which was overpriced and mediocre and later found out that Time Out had listed it as such.
-Thinner and lighter than most guidebooks. Easy to carry around
-Good pictures. Colorful pages
-Divided into easily navigable sections (e.g. accommodations, sightseeing, bars and cafes, restaurants, nightlife, food, miscellaneous useful information)

Cons
-A few fees, tramway stops, and one address were slightly outdated as of March 2009, but none of the errors caused huge problems for us
-Doesn't explicitly point out which sites are more significant or more worth visiting - can be difficult to figure out what to see for those with limited time
-Not the best source of detailed information on history, culture, religion, architecture. Best supplemented with other guidebooks

Spent about a week in Istanbul and neighboring places. Overall satisfied as travel companion but not extremely impressed.

Plenty of information on restaurants (especially pricey ones), cafes, clubs, etc... but less focus on touristic places and hotels. Average on general info (how to get in and out of airport, tips, currency, etc). History and other background information is not its strength. Not so much on excursion outside the town (Good info on Bosphorus cruise and islands nearby but there are a lot more around IST). I guess this is exactly what we should expect from Time-Out, which is mainly for entertainment of the locals.

If you visit the city to "enjoy the city" rather than enjoy tourism and driving around the area, this is probably the book for you. For "enjoy the city" purpose, I think this book, with a lot of up-to-date information by probably local active contributors, is hard to beat.

i think this must be the best guide for istanbul. Although the maps could have been more detailed

This edition is labeled "2007," which means that the content was probably compiled in 2006, and for this reason, some of it is simply out of date. For instance, in the entry for Topkapi Palace, it states that to see the Harem, you must wait for a tour group that departs every half hour and get herded around the rooms. This simply is not true. I paid my 15 YTL entry fee, and I was immediately allowed to wander around at my own pace. And notes such as the one that a particular tram "was out of service at the time of writing, but should be up and running sometime early in 2007" is hardly helpful to a visitor midway through 2010. Of course, as with all guides of this type, several of the recommended restaurants no longer exist.

This guide offers a good, relatively concise history of Istanbul, as well as informative asides about culture, history, and customs. The entries on the sites are a few paragraphs long, and they give a good overview, although not in-depth details. Those who are interested in things beyond the tourist track can find information about nightlife, film, music, the performing arts, sports, festivals, and gay & lesbian venues. It includes map of specific areas, although none are detachable. The background content is excellent; the tourist aspects are so-so.

I got this guide because it was slim and easily packed. It was great to pinpoint the must-see sites; however, once I was there, I quickly tossed it aside. It has good information to prepare for the trip, but it didn't help all that much while I was there.

-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

Turkey is well known for her hospitality. And we the Turks welcome people from all the world. Tourists love our music, culture cities and food.
You will enjoy this book. It gives you a complete idea of what you will see in Istanbul. I live in Istanbul and I know what the writer of this book is writing about. Come to Turkey and we will receive you with a big smile.