Spending 2 nights in Istanbul enroute to Greece

I think you're referring to either Sultanahmet or Beyoğlu. Both are great, but for a very short first visit, I would recommend Sultanahmet, which is very close to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia.

For your one full day, the standard itinerary wluld be something like starting off with the Blue Mosque, and then visiting the Hagia Sofia and Topkapi Palace. It's worth mentioning that the Topkapi Palace is a half day in itself, as it's a big site.

Absolutely no need for a tour unless you really want one. Istanbul is a very easy DIY destination. The Blue Mosque is free, but charges apply for the Topkapi Palace and Hagia Sofia.

Lastly, if you have an opportunity to spend more time in Istanbul, please do! I had my first trip there last year, and spent a week there. I loved it so much I returned got almost two weeks earlier this month.

There is so much to do - we visited 11 mosques, several markets (the Grand Bazaar, which is probably the most popular with tourists, the Spice Market, the Fatih Bazaar and the Tarlabaşı Market), went to Dolmabahçe Palace, snd took a day trip by ferry to Bursa, another city. Would happily go back.

I was there in November 2025 for 5 days. Stayed at Istanbul House Old City (booking.com). Fabulous location great studio apt although I did not cook, gracious helpful and kind staff. The best way to describe the location is when you come out of the Grand Bazaar, directly cross the tram tracks, rambled down the hill with the Burger King on your right and at the bottom of the hill past great restaurants, shops, the Hamman, grocery stores, at the bottom turn left and the 2nd entrance on your left will be the apt, up one flight. More detailed info on the booking.com site for the accommodation.

Topkapi Palace fascinating and would do that and as noted would take 1/2 day. Get tics in advance as the lines were long to purchase. I did about 6 free Guru walking tours and all were excellent so would choose one to take first morning there. Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar a must. Very disappointed by Hagia Sophia. I was there in 1989 and you were able to wander inside on all levels. Now you are only allowed on the upper level and with barriers so far back you cannot see the lower level. The mosaics you do see are magnificent so it is one sight that needs to be seen but I found it limiting compared to my first visit so long ago.

That should be all the sights you have time for. Airport is about an hour away. I am not a cab/taxi/uber person even though a S, F, 78+ traveler but did opt for a car service to and from the airport. Enjoy.

Sultanamet is a good suggestion for so short a stay even though I loved StoryHotel in Pera during a December 2025 visit…so it was recent. You have time for a ferry trip and back, either to the Asia side or to the newer town side.

Listen for the call to prayer. The Grand Bazaar can be a quick peek…very redundant stalls inside. I preferred the Spice Market.

I agree with the above poster….i could have skipped the Hagia Sofia and saved time and money. Most is off limits.

You might have time for the evening dinner walking tour with Culinary Backstreets. So enjoyable…worth the price IMO.

Enjoy. Of course, if the tour you are on starts in Istanbul, I would think of booking the extra night(s) at the tour hotel.

Is there any way you can swing more than two nights? Not sure where you're flying from, but for myself (west coast) travel time and the jet lag on arrival in Istanbul was significant and with the long drive from airport to central historic area (often an hour or more), your one full day might be a big long tired slog. Istanbul is a big busy place so if you really do only have one day, finding a guide is a wise idea to make the most of your time. Here are some recent forum posts on that topic https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=1y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=istanbul+guide

And BTW, if you're doing the Turkish Air layover program, they do offer some guided tour options that some folks in the forum have used before. That might merit posting a separate question so you get answers on point for that.

I agree with the others that the Hagia Sofia was a huge disappointment. Not worth the money. The Topkapi Palace was fabulous, but we took a tour and the explanations about daily life was what interested us. We took an afternoon tour and wished we had taken the morning one cause you could spend the entire day there.
You don’t need too much time for the Blue Mosque, we just walked through. Same with the Grand Bazaar, a quick walk through unless you are a serious shopper.
We stayed in the old and new town, for just 2 nights stay in the old.

If you're sensitive to cigarette smoke, go to the Grand Bazaar as early as you can. It's supposed to be a non-smoking area (and the customers were pretty much compliant with that prohibition), but the stall-holders were smoking. There's not much air flow, so by afternoon it was intolerable for me. I imagine it would be somewhat less unpleasant early in the day.

I agree about Topkapi--I spent close to a full day there.

One full day is painfully short for Istanbul. It kept me happily occupied for 20 days, and I still didn't see everything I wanted to.

I was surprised to read a few comments saying Hagia Sofia was a disappointment, not worth the time or money. So I went back to look at my photos from when I was there in 2022. If you can see what I saw, it will be far from a disappointment.

However, the most beautiful mosque I've seen in Istanbul (or anywhere) is Süleymaniye Mosque. It's a little less convenient to get to (I walked, but it is uphill), but both the interior and exterior are stunning, and the views from there are some of the best in Istanbul.

With just two nights, you probably won't have time for everything worth seeing and doing in Istanbul, but whet your appetite for what I'm sure will be a strong compulsion to return and spend more time there.

I was surprised to read a few comments saying Hagia Sofia was a
disappointment, not worth the time or money. So I went back to look at
my photos from when I was there in 2022. If you can see what I saw, it
will be far from a disappointment.

Lane in 2024 the entrance process for the Hagia Sophia changed significantly. Now, non-worshiping tourists cannot visit the ground floor of the mosque for free and can only see the building via upper level access (with a significant fee to do so) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tourists-must-now-pay-a-fee-to-visit-the-hagia-sophia-180983627/

I concur there are other beautiful mosques to see that are not fee-based, my two favorites were the Sultanahmet Camii (Blue Mosque) and Rüstem Paşa Camii (Rustem Pasha)

Thank you everyone for your inputs. Hoping to use this brief stay as an introduction to Istanbul and the rest of Turkey for a future visit. The Sultanahmet (old town) area will be high on our list from what everyone has mentioned. Looking for accommodations, there also appears to be a lot in the Beyoğlu (modern) area although it it is further away from Old Town area.
How is transportation for getting between these two area?

Because your visit is so very short, every hour matters. I'd want to minimize not only transportation time from my hotel to the sights but also transportation time between airport and hotel. Honestly, I don't know what the best solution is for you.

There's a rather quiet area due south of Hagia Sophia and east of the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque). I didn't stay there, but I walked through the area one day and thought it was recommendable for people wanting to see sights in the Old Town (the Topkapi Museum would also be walkable). There are a lot of hotels in the area. I think Rick Steves tours have sometimes stayed in that area.

The part of the Old Town that's west of Gulhane Park and south of Sirkeci Station is a different world--very crowded and full of little shops. It's fun, but I think it would be overwhelming for some visitors. I'm a big-city resident and comfortable in crowded conditions like that, but I still opted to stay in a different part of the city for the last half of my visit.

Because your visit is so very short, every hour matters. I'd want to
minimize not only transportation time from my hotel to the sights but
also transportation time between airport and hotel.

I agree with this point - if you want to do mostly things in Sultanahmet area, then stay there so you can easily walk to sites instead of also having the added pressure of figuring out how to get around from farther afield. It's a solid hour to/from the airport to just about any part of the city that is close-ish to the big sites so you'll not save much time staying farther from the historic center.

I stayed in the area acraven mentioned and it is still noisy but not as loud as other parts of the city. It was very cool to close enough to hear the call to prayer for both Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque. My hotel was Agora Guesthouse, two RS tour hotels on the same street are the Azade Premier and Acra Hotel.

in 2019, our RS tour stayed in the area south of Hagia Sofia. It was quiet, but I didn't like the uphill walk to the sites, though there were good restaurants near the waterfront. It is a about 1/4+ mile from the tram line or the subway/metro.

Pre-tour we stayed in a hotel behind the Basilica Cistern. It was on a side alley off of a pedestrian street and was very quiet. It was like an oasis in the middle of the clamor that is Istanbul. I preferred being on level ground, close to the major sites, and on the tram line. It was 100 yards from the metro.

ADDED: Within a couple hundred yards around the Hagia Sofia, is the Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern, Topkapi Palace, Istanbul Archaeological Museum, Gulhane Park, Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum. Get the RS Istanbul Guidebook for walking tours, entry prices, closed days for sites, and organizing for optimizing your time.

Picking up on the discussion on location, if I was to go back a third time (and I plan to) I would probably stay in Cihangir, still in Beyoğlu, but quite a bit quieter than staying right near the Galata Tower where where we were a few weeks back. That said, bits of Beyoğlu are extremely steep, with (sometimes slippery) cobblestones, so I'd you have any issues walking, you're better staying in Sultanahmet. To get between the two, walking or taking the tram would be the easiest options. There is also a ferry from Eminönü to Karaköy, although that would be more for the fun of it, rather than as a timesaver.

I can strongly recommend the Sultanahmet Palace Hotel, right at the back of the Sultanahmet Mosque (the Blue Mosque). We had a balcony with a view of the water and the mosques. The staff were great. You can definitely hear the ezan from the different mosques, but after a couple of nights we slept through.

And don't worry about getting around- the metro is very efficient as is the tram, and ferries also work well if you want to cross to the Asian side. Buses are easy to navigate. All public transport takes the stored value Istanbul Kart, which you can get from vending machines at the metro stations, or you can use your credit card, although the fare is higher.