Why Istanbul is a Turkish delight
WHEN WORLD TRAVEL RESUMES, KATIE BROOKS SAYS YOU SHOULD MAKE A STOPOVER DATE WITH ISTANBUL
WE ALL love a direct flight when we go on holiday but sometimes it just isn’t possible.
It might be down to the cost or there isn’t a direct route to the destination of your choice.
But while a stopover can initially feel like an inconvenience, you can turn it to your advantage.
Spending up to 24 hours in a city before continuing your journey offers the chance to explore, and nowhere better than exotic Istanbul, straddling not just two continents but also European and Asian cultures.
It blurs time too, being home to artistic and architectural masterpieces at the same time as being a metropolitan city.
Before the coronavirus crisis, I joined the thousands of Brits who travel from Birmingham Airport to Istanbul each year.
Ten flights depart from Birmingham every week, mainly to the tourist destinations of Bodrum, Antalya and Ankara.
But Istanbul is a treat to savour, whether on that stopover or as a destination in its own right.
We landed at the new Istanbul airport which is still under construction, although you wouldn’t know that from the inside because the terminal is so luxurious.
From there, it was a 45-minute taxi ride into the city.
An underground railway is being built, cutting journey time to 25 minutes – on a stopover, every minute counts.
When you fly Turkish Airlines, you can enjoy a one-night stay for free in a four-star hotel when your stopover lasts more than 20 hours. Fly Business Class, as I did, and that’s upgraded to two nights in a five-star hotel.
I stayed at Pera Palace Hotel in the city centre, a sight to behold.
The elegant hotel has welcomed many famous travellers including Agatha Christie, who wrote part of Murder on the Orient Express while staying here.
It dates back to the 19th century and there’s a lot of history inside its walls, including a museum which is open to the public.
Each of its 115 rooms is shaped to display unique details and is combined with more than 100 years of history. My Deluxe Pera room boasted a walk-in shower with a bath inside it!
There was also a huge 49” TV which had a wide variety of channels, including BBC World News and CNN.
Delightful as the hotel was, the clock was ticking. Time to explore.
My tip? If you’ve not been here before, take a guided tour of city highlights to see some of the top attractions.
You can enjoy the tour of Istanbul for free if you have at least a six-hour layover between flights.
We headed for the old part of the city where you can find the Hippodrome area, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern.
Women should wear trousers or a longer skirt or dress for the tour, particularly for visiting the Blue Mosque, also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, where you’ll be provided with a headscarf to enter.
It’s a stunning piece of architecture and you can marvel at the blue tiles which give it its famous name. Be warned, however, that it’s currently undergoing renovation so you can’t see the huge dome in the middle.
The Hagia Sophia is also being renovated, although most of the detail is still visible when you look around.
One of the world’s most famous buildings, it started life as a Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral, before later becoming an Ottoman imperial mosque. Now it’s a museum and tourists can enjoy
history dating back to AD537, at the beginning of the Middle Ages.
Next stop should be the Basilica Cistern, which fans of Dan Brown’s thriller Inferno will recognise from the movie starring Tom Hanks.
The huge underground cistern, which was built in 542 by Byzantine emperor Justinian I, provided water to the grand palace where the emperors lived during the Byzantine Empire.
Onto the shops, where you can enjoy getting lost in the Grand Bazaar, a maze of shops selling everything from pottery to spices to rugs – and, of course, national delicacy Turkish delight.
I completed my tour with a boat ride on the Bosphorus, a narrow strait which forms part of the continental boundary between Europe and
Asia.
It’s also an internationally significant waterway which was evident when our boat, named Storm, passed huge tankers and small fishing boats alike.
Back at the hotel, I took afternoon tea, which consisted of lots of cake and macaroons, as well as lots of tea and coffee. It felt like we were in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate
Factory and I can’t recommend the experience enough.
For our evening meal we ate at the Feriye Lokantasi, with a stunning view of the Bosphorus.
The food was delicious, although the starter (I had grilled calamari) was huge and would have filled me up completely if I’d eaten it all.
The menu consisted of a variety of meat and fish dishes, while desserts included sorbet and chocolate mousse.
Breakfast in the hotel next morning was a vast buffet which catered for every taste, whether you wanted to try traditional Turkish delicacies or opt for your usual English fry-up.
Watch for Ayran, a Turkish yoghurt drink that’s widely loved across the city, although it was my Marmite moment. I’m sure it’s lovely.
Istanbul is a city you must include on your travel bucket list – so why not tick it off for free on your way to another far-flung destination?