Istanbul

Pros: Friendly People, Byzantine and Ottoman Art and Architecture, the Bosphorus
Cons: Traffic

There are too many automotive vehicles for the streets in any of my candidates for favorite city. Crossing major streets in Istanbul is particularly difficult. However, I don’t have the impression of permanent gridlock in Istanbul that I have for London,...

Pros: A lot to see, beautiful oriental architecture
Cons: Can be very exhausting

While living in Northern-Cyprus I saw myself confronted with the situation, that whenever I wanted to leave the island to visit my family back home I couldn't do so with a direct flight, but had to endure a stop-over in Turkey. As I had visited ...

Pros: Huge wealth of sites, easy to navigate, cheap
Cons: None

We spent 3 days in Istanbul to finish up a 3 week vacation to Iceland, Greece, and Turkey. It was a great way to finish off our vacation. We were backpacking and not part of a tour group. It's a very easy city, with almost all of the main tourists...

Pros: Friendly locals, fascinating history, views from the Bospherous
Cons: Expensive, hard to find English speakers, crowded

Turkey is certainly the most Westernized, modernized and open Arab country. While Turkey is more Islamic than Iran, with about 99% of the population being Muslim, aside from its more than 2,000 mosques, it doesn’t have a particularly Islamic flavor. ...

Pros: Great Location , great rooms, great everything
Cons: none

Review Topic:  Accommodations

Review Topic:  AccommodationsDriving into Sultanahmen in Istanbul, you go back in time by about 300 years. The paved roads stop. The traffic dramatically drops and you are smack in the middle...

Pros: biggest variety of interesting items and people all under one roof
Cons: high-pressure sales tactics can be a big turn-off

Review Topic:  Sights & Attractions

Hundreds of years old, the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul probably lays claim to being the world's first shopping mall. The main covered section is HUGE, covering several city blocks. Here...

Pros: possibly the most beautiful city in the world
Cons: long trip to get there

I’ve been here twice and I plan on going back in a few months. It’s tough to sum up the fantastic qualities of Istanbul briefly. Let me give it a shot…

People:

The first time I was in Istanbul I was with a Turkish male friend so I...

Pros: Museums, masques, most beautiful urban views in the world.
Cons: Avoid the nightclubs where they offer you women.

Seriously guys, not because I am a patriot, but because of all the culture and the uniqueness of my country, I recommend everyone should go to this exotic, different land that was once the center of the modern world.  But, when you do go ...

Pros: Friendly People, Sights, Exotic Culture, Food
Cons: Being awakened at 3:40am during Ramazan

If you only have five or six days and want to take a dynamite mini vacation, consider Istanbul as the place. I flew on a Turkish Air Lines nonstop flight from Miami, Florida to Istanbul. Turkish Air Lines also has nonstop flights from Chicago and New...

Pros: Scenery, food, prices.
Cons: A bit of harassment from merchants.

Istanbul is hard to define as a city; it consists of a melting-pot of people, cultures, architectural styles and atmosphere. I didn’t quite know what to expect as I was embarking on a few days break to the edge of Europe. Being so close to modern Western...

Pros: Enchanting city, nice people, little crime
Cons: Crowded & congested, average air quality

I love Istanbul! As I teenager studying history I was fascinated by the city that combines the Old World with the new, Asia and Europe, with such seeming simplicity. So when the Navy asked for volunteers to go to Turkey in 1983 I jumped at the chance....

Pros: Exotic yet Familiar
Cons: The Bosphorus

Review Topic:  Overview

--- Let me give you a little background about myself. I'm a travel writer for a magazine, so I've been around the block a bit. I earn beaucoup frequent flier miles each year, 'cause I'm going to a lot of...

Pros: Food, Hotels, People, History, the lot!!!
Cons: Don’t talk about soccer to anyone, ever!

Quite often travelling light and on a tight budget allows you to experience what a place is really like. However, Istanbul is not such a place.

It is a city with so much splendour and glamour, to travel on a tight budget is to deprive...

Pros: exotic beautiful crossroads intrigue architecturepoetry
Cons: still striving, struggling between two worlds

Istanbul should be at or near the top of your list of destinations, and you should plan to go economy getting there, first class for accommodations and budget everything else!

I was in Istanbul last in the Summer, 1996, as the Atlantic Rim...

Pros: Great local cuisine at good prices
Cons: Not tourist-oriented

Having been born and raised in Istanbul, I have had grown to love the Turkish cuisine as well as sample some of its better restaurants in the city. After many years of trying different restaurants citywide, I have found the best places on either side of...