A Layover in Istanbul

• At the Airport - Signing up for Touristanbul

It was 6 am and I'd just stumbled through customs, and was wondering if that was a mistake. I had a 14 hour layover and a Turkish Airlines boarding ticket stub, and the knowledge that I qualified for Turkish Airlines' free tour of Istanbul, cleverly called Touristanbul. Unfortunately, I'd been lax on my planning and now had no internet and no knowledge of where to sign up for said tour.

Heads up, the new Istanbul airport does not provide free Wi-Fi. It sort of seems like they do, in that they say they'll offer Wi-Fi if you enter your number with the country code.

However, I spent a good thirty minutes trying to get that working without success, and eventually threw my hands up and decided to go through customs anyway. From there I headed to the information desk, where they said actually, you need a Turkish phone number to get the free Wi-Fi, so that's a no-go.

But no problem! Turns out you do need to exit customs for Touristanbul, and then head right for the Turkish Airlines desk at the International Arrivals area.

There I asked the very nice desk person if I could join and was told I could, but I'd need not only my Turkish Airlines boarding stub but also the boarding pass of my connecting flight to show that I did have the layover. The issue there was that since my flight was in over 12 hours, the check-in for it had not opened and I could not get the boarding pass.

Again, no problem! I explained all that and showed my online booking with the tickets, and they gave me a sticker to join the 8:30 am - 3 pm tour and sent me off to sit and wait to be collected with the rest of the group.

• The Tour - All free, no entrance fees or anything!

  

1. Departure from Istanbul Airport - They have a huge tour bus, so if you do have luggage you can leave it in there, no need to put your luggage in storage at the airport. It's a nice ride into Istanbul with great views, so be sure to get a window seat. Then once he parked, it's off to....

   

2. Breakfast - A Turkish breakfast! Free! Not hugely filling, but pretty new for me. It might just be a cultural thing, but I've never just eaten a boiled egg plain before. There was a bread basket to put the jams and stuff on, and so sausages and dates and so forth. Bonus, the restaurant had free wi-fi, once I asked the waiter for it. Not a great speed, but usable. It was also above a shop for spices and for ceramics, so we got to see some of those too. Then came the...

   

3. Blue Mosque - If you're female you need a scarf to cover your head here before you're allowed in. If you didn't bring one, they give them out in the wooden building,before the toilet area.

   Me and the other three girls had trouble finding where they were handing them out and kept wandering around asking people where they got their scarfs, but it's actually really easy, on the path right on the way to the toilets. If you hit the toilet area, like we did, you've gone too far.

   The tour guide told us loads about the Blue Mosque and what they do here, all about how they pray and wash themselves before doing so and all that.

   I 100% recommend this if you're into architecture and history and culture and traditions. Unfortunately I'm not, as I'm more of a nature person, but the others seemed quite impressed and it was pretty interesting.

   Also, I was slightly worried from the way he was talking that he was actually going to make us go through the prayer ritual, and I certainly couldn't remember it all, but no, it was just information.

   

4. Hippodrome: German Fountain - Ok, we did pass by this briefly, but it didn't stand out. It's more like the Hippodrome is a square, for walking, and this 'fountain' is a nice pavilion in it. Since we were walking on our way somewhere though, we didn't really stop to see it much. Have a picture of the pretty Istanbul flag in the square instead.

5. Serpentine Column - Can't recall. But! We did see the Hagia Sofia Museum, from the outside. It was closed on Mondays, so we didn't get to go in, but when it's opened they do take you to see that on Touristanbul. We walked past the Serpentine Column and the Hippodrome on our way to briefly eye the Hagia Sophia Museum before we went to....

   

   

   

6. Topkapı Palace - Very nice!! Lots to see. My favorite bit of this tour aside from the food. There are five buildings and they all have something different in them. One had a bunch of absolutely lovely old clocks and watches, and then another had religious artifacts and swords, and another had art, and so forth. Also, there was a gorgeous view of the sea. I'm no good at descriptions, but here, have lots of pictures. This took us about an hour. And then came the...

   

7. Obelisk of Thedosius - We stood around and the tour guide told us about the history and background of this. It does look really nice, like something out of Egypt with all these hieroglyphics. Finally...

   

8. Lunch - More food, and only about 3 hours after breakfast too. I am vegetarian so I didn't get the same things the rest did, but it was definitely genuine Turkish food, there was salad for an appetizer, and then a tasty soup, and then another main course, and then baklava for dessert.

• Return to Istanbul Airport

There were exceptional views of the city on the ride back as well.

Turkish Airline schedules their tours to make sure that you're back 2-3 hours before your flight. For instance, since my flight was at 6 pm, they'd only let me take the 9 - 3 pm tour, and not one that went til 6 pm. So that wasn't a problem, I made it back with plenty of time.

I only used internet once today, at the restaurant during breakfast, and I did the entire day without ever spending any money. I didn't even change any of my money into Turkish Lira, so if I had gotten lost or something I would've been in trouble, but it wasn't an issue.

Everything was free, and incredible. They gave me two meals, took me all over Istanbul, took me in to see so many of the famous and important buildings, and handle all transport. It was loads of fun, and I highly recommend anybody using Turkish Airlines to schedule themselves a long layover in Istanbul. They have free tours at all different times, just in the morning, or morning and afternoon, and so forth all the way til evening. From 6 - 11 pm they provide you with dinner and a cruise tour. It was a lovely day.