19 Tips I Wish I Knew Before Visiting Istanbul

my name's Camden I moved to a new country every single month and these are the things that I wish I knew before I came and spent the last month and a half here in Istanbul first tip that totally tricked me out the first night there's something called galatiport and if you're a cruise ship person come through Istanbul that's where you're gonna Dock and the place seems so nice but avoid that place like no other that place there's just a tourist trap everything's really expensive the restaurants are no good get as far away from the glottoport

as you can so that's tip number one second thing is this is a crazy loud City and so just bring earplugs if you're a light sleeper towards the end of this video I'm going to talk about which areas of town I recommend staying in if you're trying to avoid some of that but yeah just make sure that you have some earplugs if you are that light sleeper and also make sure to pack really good walking shoes this city is really spread out it takes a long time to get from one point to another and most

the time you're going to be doing walking and there's a lot of Hills so you're dealing with the Cobblestone treats going up hills I don't know it can be real challenge so make sure that you have the proper Footwear but if you don't want to do all the walking I highly recommend you actually utilize their public transportation system because it is great they have like the Metro they've got like their Subway version thing these carts they have the fairies I mean it's really really well connected and that's really the best way to get around and

uh just get yourself one of these when you come in it's called the Istanbul cart and you can basically get them outside of any ferry port or metro line I think it costs like two dollars to actually get the card and then you can just load it up with as much as you want next piece is saving yourself some money if you want to be on the water and take a boat tour you can if you want to but if you're looking to save some cash don't and instead utilize this card and just take the

ferry over to the Asia or european side whichever place you're staying on go to the opposite but basically the ferry ride they're like 50 cents they're fantastic views they're running all day you can hop on them from like any point really great views really comfortable and it's just a much cheaper way to do things like 50 cents that's steel I guess you've got to come back so a dollar but who wouldn't want to spend a dollar for a boat ride and kind of feel like you're living like local so definitely save some money there and

do that another tip that I recommend for everybody is you can actually download Google Maps and this is a pretty important city to do that in mainly because the Wi-Fi is a bit spotty this isn't really one of those cities where it's like yeah just go down the main road and turn left now there's going to be a lot of turns and tricky navigations there are a lot of tight super cute streets but things can get confusing so you're definitely going to want a map and if you're wanting to make sure that you always have

the connection I definitely recommend an esim called aerolo I used it here for the last month and a half and it worked like a charm and saved me multiple times so I'll leave a link in the description so you can try that if you're not familiar with an esim it's basically a way of getting a SIM card but electronically and they're great because it doesn't give you a new phone number you can still text and call like normal it's just giving you data so you can browse the internet make sure you can navigate your way

it's just super simple and you can download before your trip okay so this next one is a little bit weird maybe a little bit gross but I think you should know about it and I haven't heard other people talking about it so there are obviously a lot of cats in Istanbul and dogs and birds and the locals do such an incredible job taking care of the cats that they leave food out everywhere so all the cats are fed and that is awesome two things happen with that though one the dogs also eat all the food

so there's a lot of poop around on the ground but it's not the poop on the ground that you're looking out for it's actually coming from the sky because the birds they eat everything as well and these birds are massive and the worst part big birds mean really really big folks so I hope that you have better luck than me and can avoid getting pooped on but maybe just have some wet wipes in your bag so you can wipe yourself off when it does happen so I don't know fingers crossed for you and next tip

if you're coming ready to experience the coffee definitely experience it note that it's not gonna be quite the coffee that you've experienced in other countries it's very different but also note that tea is actually the primary drink here in Turkey while Turkish coffee is awesome and its own in disgusting ways in my opinion the tea is really really good and that's what most people are drinking all the time they come in these awesome cups it's really satisfying to drink out of so be ready for a lot of tea and coffee this next one's a small

tip and it doesn't really matter but just something to be prepared for there's definitely a lot less English Spoken Here amongst the locals than other European countries so be prepared for a lot of Turkish which is a tough language to figure out you still shouldn't have too much of an issue communicating with folks but don't be expecting everybody to be able to understand all of your English so unless you're awesome and actually know Turkish just be prepared to slow down the dialogue just a little bit when talking with some of the locals who don't know

English quite as well and another thing to know is when you're going to the mosques because you should definitely check them out they are so so beautiful two big tips here one they're free but make sure to get there as early as possible in the day I tend to recommend getting there around like the 9 30 10 a.m Mark for two reasons one is that you'll beat most of the tourists and the tour groups two is that the mosques actually close for prayer time now you can just look up the mosque and see exactly what

time they're closed for prayer time but the lines get really long when people don't realize that they're going to be closed the line backs up and it's just something that you want to avoid and note that you will have to take off your shoes before entering and they've got these Cubbies where you can just keep them but the tip here is actually bring a pair pair of socks because if you're anything like me it just doesn't feel the best walking around on like this sweaty carpet where everybody else is either Barefoot or have their sweaty

socks so it might feel cleaner to just have that spare pair and pop those on when you're leaving the Moss but definitely check those out and then the last thing I want to give you tips about is just which area of town to stay in depending on what you're looking for so few big areas there's the faith area which is where most of the big mosques are going to be and you're going to be really close to a lot of the main tourist attractions it's a beautiful area definitely only a little bit touristy but it's

on the European side and there's nothing wrong with it perfectly fine place to stay then you have like a lot of tower area and to be honest I think that's a little bit too touristy you're gonna be fighting the hills the whole time probably not my first recommendation maybe somewhere else in karakoy which is kind of hugs the water and you don't have to walk up as many Hills so similar area it's still going to put you in the heart of all the action and karakoy has great nightlife karakoy has a few areas where you're

like right up along the water easy access to the fairies and other public transportation great street food really fun place to be especially if you want to have that knife if you want to have that nightlife experience but do note that it is definitely noisy there's also a neighborhood called yeah I don't know locals correct me I'm sorry if I botched that pronunciation but the hunger was a really really cool neighborhood on the European side that felt very local it was a little bit quieter didn't have of any tourists it was really really nice and

is kind of close ish to the toxin Square provides easy access I'd really recommend there if you have a longer stay and you want to experience that local culture now talk some Square I I didn't love I really wouldn't recommend anybody staying up there I get that it gets a lot of publicity and people think that it's the great area to stay for me in my opinion I just didn't think so I thought it was pretty touristy nothing too special I probably avoid that area as a whole but the place that I wouldn't avoid is

the Asian side specifically category and more specifically a neighborhood called Moda Moda was just unlike anywhere else that we experienced in Istanbul really quiet really local feel so many young people a lot of great restaurants fun energy just it's definitely the area that I will be staying the next time I come back and it's where I spent basically all of my time so highly recommend making sure to get over to the Asia side now if you're wanting to learn more about what you're going to love and might even hate about Istanbul don't worry I got

you covered click on this video right here we'll catch you guys there