The Best of Istanbul in 3 Days! ¦ Istanbul Travel Guide 2024

If you have seen my last video then you would know that I was in Turkey earlier this year and I spent a total of six days in Istanbul. Istanbul is a big city spread across two continents Asia and Europe and even in six days I could only see the European side. How I had planned my stay was to stay three days in Sultanahmet and three days in Daksim so I can cover all popular places without much traveling required. My last video covered Sultanahmet and in this video we are going to explore but first let's try and reach my hotel because I landed in Istanbul one in the morning from Kayseri and we read online that Havaist buses depart from Sabeha-Gorcen airport at 12 30 at last but we came out and we saw some buses ran and found that one of these is going to Daksim. 805 lira and then we will see. Finally at our hotel. I'm gonna sleep now because it's it was a hectic day although a fun day and I'll see you guys tomorrow morning. Morning! So again I'm back in Istanbul and this time we are staying in Daksim and today I'm gonna take you around this side of the bridge but first before anything else let me give you a room tour and hotel tour because this place is very unique. So I booked this place on Airbnb and it looks a little run down from outside but let's go inside. So I found this place on Airbnb and this is very close to Daksim just five minutes walking to Istiklal street but still away from the crowd and the noise. You can book this from Airbnb as well I'll put down the link in my description box but this is a fabulous place to stay at. A unique piece of history built 150 years ago so you can imagine how special this is. Okay if you see the roof around here that's from the original building which was built 150 years ago. So if you look at these tiles they're all from the original building and our lovely host Fatih has restored them. Look at that it's so beautiful. And then I reached Istiklal street which is the main street in Daksim and is always bustling with crowd. Oh wait but I was here before and I didn't show you one sec. Finally we are in Daksim and we can see how many tourists are here because it's mad there's so many people but you'll find all the amenities in Daksim and not Sultanahmet that's like more cafe and historical places. We couldn't find like a little shopping mart over there but over here there's everything. While Sultanahmet still preserves the old world charm, Daksim is the modern part of Istanbul. This street is open 24 7 and you will see citizens as well as tourists frequenting this market all the time. In the past Daksim was a place where water used to be distributed to different parts of the city. How interesting is it like what it was in the past and what it has become today. Right now if you visit Daksim it's only crowded with shops, restaurants, cafes, nightlife, parties and I don't know you if you want to get something Daksim is the place you can find it. We came across this really cool store where there are like uh sneakers that have stuff printed on them and they look really cool like uh custom-made stuff sneakers. I didn't mean to shop but look how many things I got. It's all because of this guy. He's a shopaholic and he makes me shop too. But this stuff's really cheap in here and that is in Istiklal Street. Don't buy anything from Grand Bazaar. The stuff in here in Daksim is cheaper. So this is chestnut which is roasted and you'll find this at every other place in Istanbul. So finally trying this. It's sweet and soft on the inside. I think you should really try this. It's a local street food, really good. It's midnight now and it's time to grab some dinner. And we found this restaurant called Esmer. Great reviews, looks really nice. Going in. Got the best seat in the house. Very nice, very unique. I came into the store and I'm stunned. Look at their collection. Guilty as charged. Just came across this church on Istiklal Street. I don't know the name. Let me find it out. But it is so beautiful. Having the architecture and the stained glass windows. They look fabulous. The arches in the church are so symmetrical. They're so pleasing to the eyes. So if you're walking around, just take a peek and you'll find this church looks stunning. Just have a look. Beautiful, isn't it? If you're walking around Istanbul like I am, you can't help but notice the number of cats in the every single city. So how did so many cats end up living here? So after going through a lot of articles, I found out that Turkey is a Muslim country and in Islamic culture, cats have a special place because they are considered clean and are allowed to enter houses and mosques even during prayers. Even Prophet Muhammad loved cats. So this is where it began because cats were not allowed to be killed or underfed. If you're wandering around Hagia Sophia, you'll also find a celebrity cat called Gli who's 14 years old and has its own Instagram page. And the locals love them too. Cats are well fed and always taken care of even though they are not their pets. I found this place where there are a lot of coffee shops lined next to the street on the footpath and it looks really cool. I'll find out the name of the street and I'll put it in the video. But this is a really cool place outside of Istiklal street and we can just go and chill here. It looks so nice and artsy. We are heading to Galata Tower to see that area and just walking through Istanbul's little streets and suburbs. If you can, just get on foot and walk around this area. I'm at Galata Tower. There you go. But again, there's like a massive queue over here for the ticket office. That's the ticket office and this is the queue. It's like going towards a different street. I don't think I have the energy to stand here and take ticket to go upstairs to face another crowd. Got myself to stand in the line to get tickets. We are inside Galata Tower and it's 175 lira for the tickets. It looks really nice and well maintained. You get the lift to sixth floor and then you have to walk upstairs. It was so hot downstairs. This wind is so refreshing. But I'm glad I came upstairs. It's very beautiful. You can see all of Istanbul from here. It's exceptional. The views are fabulous. If you can catch the sunset from here, even better. And it's very very crowded. If you see here, like on every spot because everyone wants the best spot. Everyone wants their pictures. If you're coming up here, be ready for the crowds. It's just very very very busy and sometimes it's just I feel it's a little dangerous because the way is very narrow. So you need to be very careful if you're standing here for photos. We ended this day early with some souvenir shopping and dinner at Istiklal Street because I had a lot planned for the next morning. Today I am again in Istanbul but going a little further away from the city to Princess Island. So Princess Island is basically called Adalar in Turkish and it's it's a group of nine islands in the Sea of Marmara and only four are open to visitors and we are going to the largest of that which is called Buyukara. I'll tell you all about it but first have to catch a ferry from Kabataş Ferry Terminal and then head over to Buyukara. Let me get on the ferry and then I'll tell you all about how to get here and how to get there. So to get to Kabataş you have to take a tram from Taksim. We did not take a tram, we took an Uber straight from our hotel to Kabataş Ferry Terminal and at the tram stop you just walk like behind the tram stop is the Ferry Terminal and from Kabataş you take a ferry to Princess Island or Adalar. Also there are ferries departing from Eminönü, Beşiktaş and Uskudar from the Asian side. So this is the ferry terminal that takes you to Adalar. Adalar is basically the Turkish name for Princess Island and there are four. Buyukara is the farthest away so it's going to take us about one and a half to two hours to get there. You can also visit the first three islands Hevelada, Burgazada and the last one I forgot the name of which are like a little closer to Istanbul and takes lesser time but Buyukara is the most famous one and the biggest so we have decided to go there and if we used Istanbul card which is and I think it took 21 lira for like to get there hopefully we'll have enough to come back. Just got onto the ferry and if you see behind me that side that's the Asian side and we are on the European side. Oh snacks! Well let me try one. The challenge is that there are no cars over here so there are no motor driven vehicles only electric cars, electric taxis and bicycles or you can walk on foot. Earlier there used to be horse driven carriages but now they are banned as well which is a great thing but yeah if you're here make sure you you have to walk or you have to take a cycle like anyone else over here which is pretty pretty cool. So I got this bicycle for myself and we are at Sahara Bicycle Rent-A-Bike. Goes out for 10 lira but it's high season. This is where things took a bad turn for the day. I don't have any footage of cycling because I literally had a breakdown out of frustration, cried and returned the bicycle. It's safe to say I'm not the best cyclist but this was not my day as well. So just spent about one two hours in Princess Island, Buyukara. It's a beautiful island, there are so many beautiful little streets and alleys however what I found out that riding a cycle bicycle here is difficult because there are a lot of crowds and like as soon as you get out of this main center everything's going up and it's not that easy so if you want to navigate around here you have to either take one of those bus tours which has a long queue like a massive queue of people and we were around that spot for like two three times and this line had not gone ahead because the buses were all gone for the tours. Apart from that you can walk but it's a massive island so we saw the the walk to the topmost point it was about two and a half kilometers which was one hour and it's very hot so we did not do that. Things are a little expensive over here because it's an island. It's a nice island but it's just not my day maybe. We are heading back to Istanbul and maybe going to check out some other places and also because I did not want my day to end like that I still had half a day left and if princess island didn't work out I wanted to see something else so I took a bus to Balat and we have reached Balat antique cafe which is this cafe is really cute it's so colorful and this is the place where there are the umbrellas on the street it's a very small portion and everyone wants to take pictures over here so make sure you're coming here with your mind prepared that there will be people but it's still lesser than what I saw in Taksim and Sultanahmet area oh my god the crowd there was crazy compared to that over here it's still better there are lesser people than that but this is very popular so you will find people we just ordered some cold coffee over here you can actually have some food they have a good cafe and a massive cafe um but this is very pretty very very pretty Balat is such a beautiful little suburb in Istanbul I mean the architecture is really nice the mix of old and new and it was it used to be a bad suburb actually then they renovated it colored the houses and now it's all pretty pretty popular amongst instagrammers because you can get a lot of photos in here like you can you can see it the number of people here taking photos but this is a nice worth visiting detour from Istanbul's main points you can still see here some of these houses they are old and almost about to die like they might collapse very soon these are all wooden houses and then these are the new ones that are cemented but this is such a beautiful mix of architecture old and new so once you have checked out the colorful houses and the cafes and everything make sure to come down to the street where there are all of these antique shops and check those shops out some of them have very incredible stuff and we have reached Taksim Square from this store called Hafiz Mustafa it's very popular and apparently their baklava is very good so let's see if it is actually good or not if you're here you should definitely come and try this it's right on Taksim Square you you can't miss this shop and it's so yum not really sweet just like the right amount of sweetness lots of cheese and pistachio baklava is yum but it's a lot of sweet for me and if you are someone who loves sweet stuff you'll love this place we're trying all the pistachio baklavas they have that walnut flavor but the pistachio ones are very tasty good morning last day in turkey and tomorrow we are leaving and we i was contemplating whether i should do dolmabahce palace or not but then my last night i decided i should do it because this is a marvelous place of architecture and history and i really wanted to see this place uh we didn't so we are doing dolmabahce palace we are here at around one uh the crowd is not that bad just standing in the line to get uh our tickets uh and then we'll go inside uh but it's sad that i'm leaving turkey today tomorrow uh last day i wish i could see more stay more uh but yeah i'll definitely come back but let's enjoy our last day the ticket price is 300 lira and it's open from 9 till 6 in the evening ticket offices close at 5 30 so keep that in mind you can get audio guides in dolmabahce palace for free of cost along with your ticket but you need to keep your passport id card driver's license as a deposit or if you don't have that 100 euro or 100 us dollars i didn't have any of that so couldn't take the uh audio device that was the palace the main palace and wow it was incredible if you're coming here do not miss dolmabahce palace i i can't believe myself i was about to miss it now we are going towards harem and i'll try and show you that as well i like i just shot whatever i could over here it's very strict inside the guards keep on saying no photos no photos so i just sneaked and put some photos and videos for you guys but wow it's incredible you have to come and see it to understand how beautiful it is that was the end of a dolmabahce palace tour i think i spent about two two and a half hours in there and this palace is worth it take your time take the audio guide make sure to bring your id or passport with you and you will be sorted for a few hours you'll love it it's so beautiful the architecture and the history is stunning so we are walking all the way from kavitaj to galata port to see if we can find any bosporus cruises because we did not plan this trip any to any extent i don't know why i left bosporus for the last day now we are at khadikoi side and no looks like bosporus cruises don't go from here either if you want to catch the cheap bosporus tours which is like done by local tourists you need to come to eminanupir and there are bosporus cruises going every day we just paid right at the entrance and this bosporus leaves in 20 minutes come up to get some seats but yeah if you want to do it in a budget this is a good one eminanupir towards get the tickets on the spot 40 to 50 100 euros this point of view looks beautiful i mean i can see all the big big mosques the asian side the european side around me and it's beautiful and definitely recommend doing the later tours this one started at 7 40 the heat is low i just saw the sunset and this is the perfect one that was the end of our tour pretty good pretty cheap i mean i just paid five dollars for myself for this tour which was which lasted one and a half hours i think it was a good value for money if you want to do a bosporus tour which is within your budget within a budget and you don't want to spend much you just want to see the sceneries come to eminanupir and take one of these tours they depart every i think 45 minutes and it's pretty cool pretty nice