Istanbul

The currency is the Turkish lira (₺), and prices age quickly here: high inflation changes the numbers fast, so confirm them before relying on them. In mid-2026, çay costs ₺25–50, a simit ₺15–25, a lokanta lunch ₺200–400, a sit-down dinner with a drink ₺700–1,500 per person, and a double room in a three-star hotel €60–110 a night, all approximate. Cards work almost everywhere, including taxis and stalls with QR payment, but keep cash for markets, tips and neighborhoods outside the usual circuit. Change money at a döviz bürosu in Eminönü, the Grand Bazaar or Beyoğlu, which work without commission and with small spreads, never at the airport. The biggest budget item is the major monuments, which charge foreigners in euros: Hagia Sophia around €25, Topkapı around €55 and the Basilica Cistern around €38 in 2026. Museum Pass İstanbul is valid for five days from the first entry and covers participating museums, but not Hagia Sophia. Tip 5% to 10% in restaurants and round up taxi fares; some places already add service to the bill, so check before tipping a second time.

Airports on two different continents

The city has two airports, and they sit on different continents, which changes the route to your hotel. IST (Istanbul Airport), opened in 2018 on the European side, sits about 40 km from the center: the M11 metro links the terminal to Gayrettepe in about 25 minutes, where you switch to the M2 toward Şişhane and Taksim. Havaist buses go directly to Taksim, Sultanahmet, and Kadıköy in 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes, depending on traffic. SAW (Sabiha Gökçen), on the Asian side, has been served by the M4 metro since 2022, which reaches Kadıköy in about an hour, and by Havabüs buses. By taxi, IST to Sultanahmet runs somewhere between ₺1,100 and ₺1,600 and takes 45 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.

Istanbulkart: one card for more than one person

One card works for everything, and that is the city’s best news. The Istanbulkart cost ₺165 in February 2026, is rechargeable and can be used by more than one person. It pays for itself in a few rides, and transfers within a short interval cost less than separate trips. The network has eleven metro lines, the T1 tram (Kabataş–Bağcılar), which stops in Sultanahmet and Eminönü, Marmaray, which has crossed beneath the Bosphorus since 2013 and is the fastest crossing, the metrobüs on dedicated lanes, and urban ferries whose fares vary by route and which accept Istanbulkart. Two funiculars tackle the hills: F1, from Kabataş to Taksim, and Tünel, dating from 1875, the world’s second-oldest urban underground railway. In taxis, insist on the meter or book through BiTaksi or Uber, which dispatches an official taxi. Cycling is impractical because of the hills and traffic, but Beyoğlu, Galata and the historic peninsula are walkable.

Violent crime against tourists is rare, and in Istanbul people walk around at night. The real risks are to your pockets and from smooth talkers: pickpockets on the packed T1 tram between Sultanahmet and Eminönü, on İstiklal and on the ferries at rush hour, and the bar scam, in which a friendly stranger invites you to a friends' place and the bill arrives in the hundreds of dollars. In taxis, check your change and the meter, which sometimes shows the night rate at two in the afternoon. Women traveling alone get around normally, but verbal harassment happens on empty streets late at night; Kadıköy, Beşiktaş, Moda and Nişantaşı stay busy until well after midnight. Avoid political gatherings in Taksim Square and Beşiktaş, because demonstrations are dispersed with tear gas and transport in the area shuts down without warning. The structural risk is earthquakes, from the fault that runs under the Marmara, and knowing where your building's exit is comes recommended by the city government itself. Emergency: 112.

In mosques

Take off your shoes at the door, cover shoulders and knees, and for women, hair; loaner scarves are available at the entrance. Mosques close to visitors during each of the five daily prayers, with a longer closure at Friday noon.

The tea they offer

Accepting a çay in a shop or workshop doesn't obligate you to buy anything, and turning it down doesn't offend. The glass opens the conversation rather than advancing a deal; to decline, hand on chest and a “teşekkürler.”

Whoever invites, pays

Splitting the bill evenly is rare among Turks, and asking to split embarrasses whoever invited. Offer to pay once, accept the refusal gracefully, and invite next time.

Where you haggle

Bargaining is expected for rugs, leather, jewelry and souvenirs in the Grand Bazaar: start at around half the first price and accept the tea while you negotiate. Outside it (markets, pharmacies, restaurants, shops with price tags) prices are fixed, and pushing doesn't go down well.

Atatürk isn't part of the joke

Mustafa Kemal's portrait hangs in every government office, school and shop, and insulting his memory is a crime under Law 5816 of 1951. Domestic politics, the Kurdish question and 1915 are topics to listen to without offering an opinion.

In someone's home

In someone's home, take off your shoes at the door and put on the slippers offered, and arrive with sweets, fruit or flowers, never empty-handed. Don't praise an object too much, because your host may want to give it to you, and turning it down afterward is hard.

Three days in Sultanahmet without taking the ferry

Spending three days in Sultanahmet without ever taking a ferry. A third of the city lives on the Asian side, where people eat and drink away from the tourist circuit; Eminönü–Kadıköy takes 20 minutes and has its own public transport fare. It is easy to put off the crossing because it looks like an excursion, but it is transport.

Bringing cash to the ticket counter of major museums

Arriving at the Topkapı or Basilica Cistern ticket counter with lira in cash. Since August 2025, the major museums and monuments only accept card or Istanbulkart, and anyone without either goes back to the end of the line.

A taxi without the meter running

Getting into a taxi without the meter running, accepting the excuse that it's broken, or paying with a large bill without announcing the amount out loud. Call one through BiTaksi or Uber, and check the bill you hand over.

The friendly guy striking up a chat on İstiklal

Accepting the invitation of a friendly man who strikes up a conversation in English on İstiklal or near Hagia Sophia and suggests a bar nearby. The check arrives multiplied, with company you never asked for, and arguing gets you nowhere.

A hundred meters of climb between Karaköy and Taksim

Underestimating the slopes. On the map, Karaköy and Taksim look right next to each other; between them there's a 100-meter climb. Use the F1 funicular or the 1875 Tünel, both covered by the Istanbulkart.

Merhaba (mérrabá)

Hello

Teşekkür ederim (teshekiúr edérim)

Thank you

Ne kadar? (nê cadár)

How much does it cost?

Hesap, lütfen (hessáp, liútfen)

The check, please

Afiyet olsun (afiét olssún)

Enjoy your meal

Anlamadım (anlamadúm)

I didn't understand

The three bodies of water

The city is organized around three bodies of water. The Bosphorus runs 31 km from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, about 700 meters wide at its narrowest point, and splits the metropolis into a European side, home to about two-thirds of the population, and an Asian side. The Golden Horn, a 7.5-km estuary, cuts through the European side and separates the historic peninsula, with its seven hills of Sultanahmet, Beyazıt and Fatih, from the Genoese slope of Galata and the plateau of Beyoğlu.

The slope and the growth heading north

Almost everything is a slope: streets climb and drop between sea level and around 100 meters the whole time, which is why the city has funiculars, public stairways and a cable car. Growth has followed the bridges and highways northward, eating into the Belgrade Forest and the basins that supply the city's water.

The poyraz and the fault line underneath

The climate is transitional Mediterranean, with hot, humid summers and gray, windy winters; the north wind, poyraz, can close the strait to shipping, and the North Anatolian Fault runs under the Marmara, a few kilometers off the southern shore.

Written by its own residents

Istanbul is one of the cities most written about by its own residents. Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 Nobel laureate, is the entry point: in “Istanbul: Memories and the City” (2003) he names hüzün, the collective melancholy of living amid the ruins of an empire, and in 2012 he opened the Museum of Innocence in Çukurcuma, a real museum built from a novel. Before him, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar wrote “The Time Regulation Institute” (1961), about the collision between Ottoman time and modern time, and the poet Nâzım Hikmet, jailed in the 1940s and later exiled, became a staple of popular song. Secondhand bookshops cluster in Beyoğlu and Kadıköy.

1970s Anatolian rock

In music, the city produced 1970s Anatolian rock (Barış Manço, Erkin Koray, Selda Bağcan), the popular songs of Sezen Aksu, who carries half the national repertoire, and fasıl from the meyhanes, played live between tables with clarinet, ud, and kanun. In film, Nuri Bilge Ceylan shot the urban winter in “Uzak” (2002), and Turkish-German Fatih Akın mapped the music scene in “Crossing the Bridge” (2005). The Istanbul Biennial has run since 1987 in buildings loaned by the city, Istanbul Modern got a new Renzo Piano building in 2023, and the Archaeological Museum holds the so-called Sarcophagus of Alexander, from the 4th century BC.

Soccer sets the week's rhythm

Soccer shapes the week: Galatasaray and Beşiktaş are on the European side, Fenerbahçe on the Asian side, and matches between the first two and Fenerbahçe are derbies played across continents. Religion marks the day in another way, with about 3,000 mosques issuing the call to prayer five times, the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate in Fener since 1601, synagogues in Galata and Balat and Armenian churches in Beyoğlu. The night runs late: meyhanes serve until one in the morning, the bars of Kadife Sokak and Karaköy carry on after that, and sidewalk tea comes out at any hour, even at four.

“Istanbul: Memories and the City”, Orhan Pamuk (2003)

Childhood memoir set in the Nişantaşı of the 1950s and 60s, and the naming of hüzün, the melancholy of growing up amid the ruins of an empire. It explains the city's mood better than any guidebook.

“1453: The Holy War for Constantinople”, Roger Crowley (2005)

A narrative of the 53-day siege, Orbán's cannons and the Theodosian Walls, told from both sides. After reading it, the stones of Sultanahmet gain a timeline.

“Kedi” (2016), by Ceyda Torun

A documentary following seven street cats through Karaköy, Cihangir and Kandilli. It's the most accurate portrait of the relationship between the city, its courtyards and the animals no one owns and everyone feeds.