Istanbul travel info

Around five in the morning, while it's still dark, the call to prayer starts at one mosque and rolls on to the next and the next. A few hours later a man walks down the same lane with a tray of sesame-crusted simit balanced on his head, and outside the tea house people sit on low stools holding tulip-shaped glasses of black tea. Cats wander in and out of the shops as if they hold the lease. That's roughly how an Istanbul day starts.

The Bosphorus splits the city into a European side and an Asian side. On the European side, in Sultanahmet, Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque face each other across a park, and the Grand Bazaar hides more than 60 covered lanes under its roof. Cross the Galata Bridge and you reach the café lanes of Karaköy, the Galata Tower and the red tram on İstiklal Avenue. Kadıköy on the Asian side is a ferry ride of a little over 20 minutes, and with a glass of tea on deck and gulls diving for bits of simit, it goes fast.

Most international flights arrive at Istanbul Airport, and many nationalities can visit visa-free for up to 90 days (check the rule for your own passport). The catch is the lira: it keeps losing value and prices keep rising, so transport and taxi fares go up once or twice a year. Lira amounts here are as of October 2026; check them again before you fly.

Istanbul Airport (IST)

Sabiha Gökçen Airport (SAW)