Visiting Istanbul..

Sultanahmet is much more interesting than the newer areas. Check out the Blue Mosque, Agia Sofia, Topkapi Palace, Yerebatan Cistern and of course the Grand Bazaar. Have some fun bargaining for goodies.

I believe Margaret is asking for ideas of sights NOT visited on the tour. I would like some also as we're booked for a tour and will arrive a day early.

I agree with Lee's suggestion that Sultanahmet would be the best place to stay compared to the New District. Since we don't know which tour you are taking it's hard to know what's covered and what is not. I would get a good guidebook, check off the places that you'll be visiting and look for other sites that might interest you. I'd also look for a good walking tour.

In addition to the things listed in Lee's post that may (or may not) be on the tour, I liked: Istiklal Street in the new section, Istanbul Archeological Museum, The Arista Baazar, Spice Market, and Chora Church.

We are taking the "Best of Turkey in 13 Days" tour. Thanks for lots of good ideas. I look forward to hearing more!

St. Saviour in Chora is spectacular. After that, you can take a taxi tour of the city walls, which are very close to St. Saviour. This link has a good walking tour of the walls:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Istanbul

A Bosphorous cruise to the islands would be a great use of your time, I think. As would a visit to the Archaeology Museum, if you are into that.

We are going to arrive in Istanbul three days before our tour. I sat down with my guide book (Cadogan) and looked at all the sights described that are not going to be on the tour itinerary. The ones that sound good to me are: Museum of Turkish & Islamic Arts, Imperial Museums (Archaeology, Ancient Orient, and Turkish Ceramics), Mosaic Museum, Church of St. Saviour in Chora, and the Jewish Museum of Turkey. I also have on my list to visit a hamam.

We too will be arriving in Istanbul 2 days before our 13 day Turkey Tour and we made reservations to stay at the hotel that the tour will be using. I would be happy to list that hotel but do not want to be "advertising" for them. I am not sure if that is a problem or not with the new web site rules. If you are interested in the name, please send me a Private Message. Our tour begins on May 24 and I would like to hear from anyone going on that tour. I do not yet have a detailed list of the sites we visit in Istanbul but hope it is included in the tour package that we just got notice is about to be sent out. Happy travels and Turkey here we come.

Margaret - We will be arriving in Istanbul a few days ahead of our Turkey tour as well. Even though it's a little more than what we wanted to spend, we booked a room at the tour hotel for our pre-tour stay.

From experience on past tours and other travels, it's much more convenient to minimize hotel transfers by staying at the same hotel. You will probably end up staying in the same room for your entire stay - if not the hotel will probably transfer your bags so you don't have to hang around until the room is ready. It's much easier than spending precious vacation time transferring hotels.

Read the back of the tour itinerary sheet that you get for being on the tour. It lists items you might want to check out that the tour does not cover in the first city of the tour.

Edwin