My husband and I just got back from a quick trip to Istanbul. Thank you to everyone for the tips and advice. We had three full days and I wanted to share some tips and highlights.
-Three full days is just about the minimum to do the city justice. We didn't see everything on our list and didn't even make it to the Asian side. But we felt like it was a good first taste. We did have four nights (which helped).
-We used Welcome Pickups both to and from the airport. It was 36 euro each way and I would recommend them. We would have tried the metro to or from the airport on a longer trip.
-The trams are easy to use and we used them a ton. We actually had no problems with the Istanbulkart! Maybe we lucked out- I was very nervous after hearing others' experiences.
-If you are new to Mosques, both the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia are very visitor friendly.
-We stayed at the World Heritage Center Hotel. It was suuuuper central, teeny tiny room, good breakfast, amazing rooftop view. I would very strongly suggest a hotel with a good rooftop view.
-We used the 2021 RS book and found it to be accurate, but prices have gone waaaaaay up. For example, the book says the Basilica Cicstern is 30 TL; it's now 450 TL. It wouldn't have changed our plans but we would have taken more lira out on arrival.
-Our favorite meals were Nizam Pide for lunch and Sultanhamet Fish House for dinner. Both were very casual and good food.
-We did the Turyol 2 hour boat on the Bosphorus but there are so many choices. Other boats seemed to have better windows for viewing that we may have tried in hindsight.
-It was the 100 year celebration while we were there, which was fun! There was also a big protest around Taksim Square when we were there- friends ran into it- but it was otherwise business as usual.