Istanbul

Dear travelers,
I'm from Istanbul. I can provide you some guidance. Istanbul is a fairly advanced metropolis in terms of transportation, to start. Don't limit yourself to staying in motels near old mosques. You may also like locations in the city's north like Saryer and Beykoz. You may get an Istanbul city card for 6 liras, and with the remaining $20 you load onto it, you can ride the bus 35–40 times. Even if months pass, your money on the card will not be lost. In actuality, the Taksim district and historical places, which are popular with tourists, are the ones that the locals dislike and deem unsafe.I would say that your unpleasant experiences occur in the bad parts of the city. I recommend you to visit the whole city.

I traveled more than 50 cities in world. Most lovely city of mine is Istanbul. I fall in love with this city💕 People are so cutie , night life is perfect.

Istanbul was a terrible experience for me, and in more ways than one.

99% of people do not speak a single word of English, which makes every interaction exhausting. It does not help that Turkish people are short-tempered and get frustrated pretty quickly.

Ubers are annoying, they keep canceling on you and it makes going somewhere such a hassle. Regular taxis are notorious for being scammers. Even an Uber driver tried to scam me by asking me to pay by cash even though I was already paying by card on the uber app.

The city is overcrowded, people walk slowly, bump into you, cut you off in line, and are either unaware of their surroundings or don't care. Scooters often ride on the sidewalk and don't mind almost running you over. Cars clearly see pedestrians as a nuisance, doesn't matter if it's your turn to cross or not. There were uncomfortable moments like a beggar invading my personal space while at the ATM, or a Syrian refugee angrily insulting me in arabic for not giving her money. I also saw a guy beat the crap out of a homeless woman in front of her kid right outside a mcdonald's on Badgat street. Sounds like I'm making this up, but it's true.
Just pure lack of civilization in a saturated city, submerged in tobacco smoke and a cacophony of honking cars, sirens, loud exhausts, and (ironically) calls to prayer 5 times a day. Although I enjoyed Mexico City's chaos, I absolutely couldn't stand Istanbul's. At some point I was so drained, I booked a hotel in the far outskirts just to have some peace.

Hospitality leaves a lot to be desired. Look at some of the reviews on the Airbnb listings. it is not uncommon to see that when someone writes a bad review, the host writes an angry reply calling them a liar and sometimes making threats. But wait, there's more. I have stayed in 27 Airbnbs so far around the world, and the only 2 bad experiences I've had were in Istanbul. I won't elaborate here, but one was an abusive claim made by a host after checkout for "breaking" an already broken "$300" cheap old IKEA chair, and the other was an absolute 2-week-long trainwreck. Both were instances of shamelessly greedy and unscrupulous hosts and I had to fight tooth and nail with Airbnb's horrible customer support to not get screwed over too much, but I still lost ~$600, two weeks, and my sanity.

Let me be a little more positive here though:
Yes, Istanbul has an amazing history and geographical situation.
Yes, there is beautiful architecture and a cool oriental vibe.
Yes, there are some nice people and great dating opportunities.
Yes, there is great food to enjoy like midye, lokma, kunefe, balik ekmek, islak burgers, and of course kebabs.
Yes, it is worth visiting and exploring for 2 weeks at most.
But yes, it is also infested with some of the most uncivilized people in the world in my opinion.

I really wanted to like Istanbul which is why I stayed for 2 months and tried to keep an open mind, but honestly, leaving felt like a massive relief.
On the positive side, it is an experience that builds character, and next time I have problems in another country, I'll say to myself: "At least it's not as bad as that time in Istanbul".

great greattt f….g great city ❤️ i loved culture, friendly people, prices, kindness, humanity.

just be careful about taxi drivers. they can scam you. its better using uber. except this EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME.

as napoleon said; if the world became a one country Istanbul would be the capital ❤️

soo historical city..

I've spent 4 years in Istanbul, it was one of my best experience.
I met amazing people, but also a loooooot (looooot) of scams even from people I considered friends.
So be careful of whom you trust there, but instead of that it is a magical city, always something to do, very beautiful, and affordable, and as a women I felt very safe there (learnt turkish but even before that I felt safe)

As always take precautions when traveling. Turkish people are generally friendly and the cost of living can be very affordable for foreigners. That being said, the taxis are around Taksim and Old town can be a bit dodgy, especially if you don't speak Turkish or get in an "illegal" cab. To avoid this, download an app that calculates the fare for you (prices are fixed and determined by the city)and show this to the driver before entering the taxi. Like in most major tourist destinations, there will be opportunists who will try to profit from your ignorance. Use your common sense.

That being said, the food and history of the city is wonderful and there is plenty of places to explore and events to attend.

It's a really good city for digital nomads! Theare are many things to do (the city is huge!) prices are cheap and people is nice and friendly.

A great place to be. Excellent price/quality ratio. You can easily find everything needed to work: coworking, sim (you can eg use Airalo). There is a plenty of things to do in the city and around it. Food is dirt cheap and delicious.
It can be trashy and sometimes touristy but that didn't cause problems for me.

I came here the autumn 2021. Before i had lived in another Turkish city which was amazing! But I had to live that place and came here.
What can I say? My first real estate agent scammed me for 1500TL. And I couldn't rent any apartment for 6 months because I am a single woman and also my national is being considered as not the one with decent women. So finally after 2 weeks of searching and meetings with many completely rude and unprofessionally real estate agents I did find the apartment.
What am I thinking about now? Yes, how to leave this city. The city centre is not clean, it's almost impossible to have a taxi, the electricity cuts off very frequently and i Never know when my remote work will be stopped. The city itself is overcrowded and despite living in the city center I am afraid to walk nearby at night.

Spent 4 months in Istanbul. Lovely city. Lots of things to do, cafes to work from, historical sites and nice parks. Might be chaotic at times but its part of its charm.

Pros:
Everything is really cheap from food, groceries, clothes, etc. The only unusually pricey thing is alcohol. Rent prices are skyrocketing too

I found Turkish people to be really nice. Some of them went out the extra mile to help me out with mundane things. The tea culture and community feeling of every street is awesome too!

Public transport is great. Make sure to live in a place close to a Metro/Marmaray/Metrobus station. I'd recommend staying in the European side, specially close to the Yenikapi station (M2)

Cons:

English is not widely spoken and it can be an issue if you don't speak turkish. You can have a hard time if you decide to live in 'authentic' turkish neighborhoods because finding people speaking English is hard. To avoid this simply stay in the european side, Taksim is where most foreigners hang out and people speak decent English

Watch out for scammers. They are everywhere in Taksim/Istiklal Street. 1 in 10 taxi drivers will try to swindle you. Not even Uber can protect you on this.

We love Istanbul! To the person who said there's no pros in Istanbul, I'm not sure if this person was really in Istanbul or always just sees the negative. The people are so nice! Despite it being a touristy place, vendors are not aggressive. Locals are chill. Some shops would even round down our bill if they have no exact change. There was working WiFi in coffee shops but it was faster in our Airbnb of course and that's where we work.

For transport, google is never reliable (sometimes yes). A local recommended us the app Moovit and it was accurate. Get an Istanbul card for the metro. They have really efficient public transport, comfortable and cheap! People are so nice they assisted us in buying the card when the vendor can't speak English. Locals are so helpful, you just have to look for the nice ones. And maybe be nice so people are also nice to you :)

Aside from the historical spots, it's a great place for food! They have a great coffee and tea culture too.

I have almost no pro to this city, been there for 15 days, and tried really hard to see the good side, but I didn't.
People were rude 100% of the time, very hard to find someone who can speak english, uber just works with cash and price is not accurate, don't trust google maps for public transportation (it doesn't gives you all the routes and some bus routes were wrong), Internet was REALLY bad everywhere, you can't access wifi in public areas without a local sim card, SIM Card for tourists are way more expensive ...

If I can yet advise you, Stay in Moda, Kadikoy. It's not that crowd, more chill, and people are nicer (not that nice but comparing with the european side...)

I spent one year in Istanbul and it's absolutely amazing. The city is really safe, I went back home really late during the night, walking, without any problem. Parties are really fun and there are all kinds of spots to have fun (bars, nightclubs, restaurants...). The city has a lot of cafés to work at and most of them have free and reliable wifi. Definitely recommend!

As any other city, there are its pros and cons. Of course, it is not a village where everyone will be nice and smile at you if you expect this. Large cities are usually cold and people are quite disconnected. However, the beauty of the culture compliments everything. I suggest having a right intention when coming to Istanbul. If you're looking to make new friends, this is probably not your place to pick (as people are pretty cold), but if you want to enjoy your life, live in your own pace - go to islands to swim, see historical places, walk on your feet a lot, go to cool restaurants and very vivid coffee shops (the variety, is wow!!). As you enter your routine, people will follow and you will connect with some as well that it is not going to be lonely.

Beautiful, affordable, and historic. Downsides are that Turkish people can be often very casually racist and culturally insensitive, especially if you are an ethnic minority and/or a woman. I've also been followed on multiple occasions by random men on the streets. But don't let this take away from your experience of the place as I've experienced some of the best hospitality, food, and sights this world has to offer. There are plenty of cafes and public spaces with reliable wifi where you can get work done.

Spent six months in Istanbul in 1993 when Turkey was really exotic. Didn't return till 2007, when I made mostly Kurdish friends in Sultanahmet, whom I'd see on frequent visits thereafter. Otherwise, I'd skip the city as like throughout Turkey bar the Kurdish areas there's anti Western feeling and targeting of visitors (I noticed that after a meal with alcohol, I'd nearly always be approached by a single male in the street near the restaurant inviting me to a bar certain. I'd suggest going to the first busy café instead, at which point they'd excuse themselves. I suspect some waiters were part of a scam targeting single males).

It's most historical city with most rude people!!
you always be careful to not to be stupid

I planned to go there next spring !

İstanbul is the most historical city in the world.