Istanbul Travel Forum

Hi,

Me and some of my colleagues are planning (about 5 people at the moment) to visit Istanbul during the coming Eid holidays (1st week of October).

Since we are going on a small group, we plan to engage a local tour with driver to take us around Istanbul.

Any recommendation is much appreciated.

Regards,
KiaSu

Best bet is to contact the concierge at the hotel you're staying in and have them find the driver. This does not guarantee that the driver will be perfect, but at least you have a better chance of avoiding problems.

Have used this method in several places.

With five people, however, I would just get a Knopf guide for Istanbul (see the Barnes and Noble web site) - and check transportation tips on this site.

I am a woman traveling alone, which is the *only* reason I'm using a personal guide, but otherwise I would be obtaining an "akbil" at the airport and taking public transportation everywhere.

Be aware that Ramadan ends around that time. Don't think it's an issue, but I prefer not to visit during their holidays out of respect for their customs.

uh, I see you're not in the US. In that case I would look at these VE pages and also search the web for the main things to do in Istanbul. I'm actually headed there on 11th October - then I hop to Ireland, so I have done substantial research.

I have all my activities planned out, before the driver. I'll just tell him where I want to go.

I got much info from this VT site, and added some places with the Knopf Please do check this site for Istanbul, and perhaps re-evaluate the need for the driver.

http://www.tourismturkey.org/ I just pulled in this site and got an amazing pdf brochure on Istanbul - click on Trip Planner, then Istanbul.

Enjoy your trip!

I was in Morocco at the tail end of Eid last year. I'm not sure it's the best of ideas to go during that time. From my experience, most restaurants were closed and it was awkward and sort of rude to be eating or even drinking water infront of them while they have been fasting for 10 hours.

My VT brother & my Canadian Friend must know that we Turks are non Arabs but moslems. We speak Turkish but not Arabic. We have our own moslem traditions different then Arabs.

I understand from the date that Sept. 30th- Oct. 1st and 2nd my VT brother mentions is end of Ramazan or as the foreigners say the Ramadan.

My Canadian VT Friend please note that Turkey is not Morocco, Egypt or Malasia where streng islamic conditions rule the country. Although there is an islamic government come into power according to a false voting system ruling the country still there are % 65 of us who believe in s secular democratic state. We will get rid of them in a very near future by democratic ways.During Ramazan the Ramadan nobody cares here in Turkey if he is eating or not. Sure there are some fundamentalist who are always angry. Elhamdulillah we are moslems but we believe a secular and democratic state.

We call the holy days Sheker Bayrami (Sugar fest)not Eid Holidays. After long fastingdays we celebrate end of Ramazan and beginning of the normal days with exchanging sweets to each other. That's the reason why we call the holidays Sugar fest.

On the 1st day of the Bayram all shops and official offices such as museums are closed. On the 2nd and 3rd day the private enterprises such as restaurants, shops, pazaar begin to open their shops. During 3 days of bayram no official places open to public.

The transportation such as taxi, tram, ferry, train, tunel, metro work 24 hours during Bayram.

Totally agree with everything SIRVICTOR had stated.

I was in Turkey during the last days of Ramazan months and I am on the road from Cappadocia to Istanbul stopping along some places during the Bayram fest, and never had a hassle. It was pretty normal, and things around are quite interesting and little heartbreaking as you will see families bading farewell to their relatives who joined them during the festival days and going back to their own places, or students going back to their school place. the drama that unfolds is a manifest of how warm and family oriented the turkish people are.

Anyhow, if you're engaging a local driver/tour, you can always go to any travel agency in Istanbul, they have both a driver and a tour guide.

There are a bunch of travel agencies that are recommended by Tom Brosnahan of turkeytravelplanner, here:

http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/tourop/index.html

Otherwise, when you arrive in Istanbul, lots of travel agencies line up along Sultanahmet's DivanYolu Cadessi - the road where the tram is. Just beside the Sultanahmet tram station, you'll find reliable agencies with an IES (plural).

Have fun!

I hope my mention of Ramadan/Ramazan was not an issue. As part of my trip I am ordering a Turkish CD to learn the language. I would not want to, however, insult in any way the other 35% that do celebrate Ramadan/Ramazan. My statement came from reading the following web site:
http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/Religion/ramazan.html