I know its quite abit further away than say a ‘weekend in Barcelona’ but is it a viable option, i.e. worthwhile the (limited?) comparable hassle?

How far from the airport is the centre and any tips?

Ideally I’d be booking flight and apartment (are there any websites for just apartments?) separately.

Its certainly do-able. Flight time isn’t that much further than Barcelona, really. And The airport is no distance from the city centre. DO NOT HIRE A CAR!!! The traffic is utterly insane!!! Truly terrifying! And you drive like a granddad anyway

I’ve done it for a long weekend (3 nights). Tagged it on at the end of a trip from Antalya after driving up the med. Istanbul is absolutely ace!!!!

Firmly on the agenda are the whirling Dervishes. Utterly beautiful to watch.

The whole place is amazing. Go for a proper Turkish Bath. You’ll love it. You basically get roughed up by a fat moustachioed Freddie Mercury lookalike. Right up your street 😀

Make sure you go here – Maiden’s Tower – at sunset one night

Its an old lighthouse in middle of the Bosphorus, now a restaurant. Go and eat with Asia on one side, Europe on the other and big **** off ships sailing past. Amazing experience

Like this waiter?

I’m going there for a long weekend in June. Thurs-Monday I think. Her indoors has sorted it all though 🙂

Would love to know where your staying etc.

Was there a couple of weeks ago on business. Cheap direct flights from Manchester, cheap taxi into city (I believe there is a train into the city now, but didn’t use it). Ride into city ranges from 30 minutes (early morning, no traffic) to a couple of hours at rush hour.

Bear in mind that the taxi drivers like to cover the back seats, and don’t worry too much about the seat belt buckles being available. Bit unnerving in a small Fiat at mental speeds. You can pre-book better cars (and I would if I had my family with me).

Hagia Sophia (great), Blue Mosque (also great and free of course), Taksim Square (OK), Topkapi Palace (didn’t go) etc. Wander around old city, excellent food. I really want to spend some time there as a proper tourist.

Take a 10 pound note each for the “entry visa”. Just a tourist tax sticker in your passport.

Paul

A mate described his experience of a proper Turkish bath as being beaten up by a fat sweaty bloke 😀

Thats pretty accurate pigface. Bizarrely, considering you’ve just been assaulted, you feel absolutely fantastic afterwards. As long as you don’t dwell on the homo-erotic elements too much 😉

Did a long weekend in Istanbul in January a couple of years back. Definitely long enough to get a flavour of the place and the travel times aren’t too bad, even though we flew with easyJet to the further-away airport on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. A truly amazing city.

Watch out for multilingual shysters approaching you on a hundred different pretexts with the eventual aim of selling you a carpet. Be prepared to barter for stuff.

I stayed in the the old city bit, which is picturesque but very tourist-oriented. If I was going back I would try and get a hotel somewhere off the main drag, Istiklal Caddesi(?)which is across the bridge from it, although still not that far away. More variety of nightlife and restaurants etc, open later, less tourist rip-off prices.

I stayed in an awesome hostel behind the blue mosque. There is plenty to keep you occupied over a weekend and I recommend the fish and salad sandwiches which are made on a moored boat not too far from sultanahmet. Although I enjoyed my time there, I don’t think I would ever want to go back because of all the old pervy men even when I was wearing suitable clothes to go in a mosque! But its certainly a buzzing and interesting city nonetheless! (ps you can get a bus into instanbul from the airport which takes about 20mim and if you are staying near the blue mosque you can jump on a ferry across which is cheaper than getting a taxi!)

Be prepared to barter for stuff.

The ONLY places I don’t barter are Sainsburys and down the pub.

And the only reason you don’t barter in the pub, is because you’ve never actually been to the bar 😛