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Tour date: October 2002.

City Portrait: Istanbul, Turkey

Thomas Driemeyer
2005-10-17 14:59:05

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GETTING THERE

At the end of October northern Europe starts getting chilly, but Istanbul stays warm well into November. We were lucky to have up to 23 degrees centigrade and blue skies every day. Getting to Istanbul from Berlin is cheap and fast: we paid 220 Euro per person with Germania, direct from Berlin TLX; the flight time was a little over two hours.

We had a really wonderful hotel, which I found in the Lonely Planet guidebook: the Askin Hotel. They accept reservations by phone and email, and have a friendly and helpful staff speaking English and German. We had a view from our rooms directly on the Bosphorus, and later on the Blue Mosque, one of the primary sights of Istanbul. From the rooftop terrace we had a gorgeous panorama of the Blue Mosque, the Marmara Sea, and the Bosphorus. We would have a hard time finding any better or more conveniently located hotel, and all that for a double room price of 65 Euros per day including breakfast. Highly recommended.

Getting from the airport to the hotel was easy - find a cab, make sure you come to an agreement about the price, and 45 minutes later you are there. It only costs a cool 15 million Turkish Liras each way. The Lira is not one of the world's strongest currencies, a million Liras is about 60 cents. I miscounted all those zeros on the bills a few times. Prices tend to be significantly lower than in Germany even in the most touristy places. Standard EC ATM cards work in local ATMs.

SULTANAHMET

Istanbul consists of three different sections: the southwest, almost a peninsula bounded by the Marmara Sea, the Bosphorus, and the Golden Horn, where most of the monuments are located; the more modern north-west section on the other side of the Golden Horn; and the east on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, which is primarily residential.

The Askin hotel is near the tip of the peninsula, ...