Product Description

Visually stunning and spanning two continents, Istanbul lies on a cultural fault line. Evidence of its pivotal historical role - from the Byzantine era, through the glories of the Ottoman period, to the age of Ataturk's distinctive modernity - is reflected in the city's architecture. Those in search of the old Orient don't have to look far: the minarets of the curvaceous Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Palace, old men drinking tea in the recesses of the Grand Bazaar are all here, and respected by the modern city. But there is another side to the city. The Istanbul of today manages the trick of combining age-old, much-appreciated glories with modern worldwide cultural trends. "Time Out Istanbul's" locally based writers are ideally placed to guide readers through the fashionable restaurants, innovative music and lively bar and nightlife scenes that are an integral part of modern Istanbul, a city that not only survives, but thrives, as a synthesis of cultures.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39136 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

From the Publisher
Time Out Istanbul offers the definitive picture of Turkey’s cultural capital

Customer Reviews

Time out guides are tops for city breaks
Time Out guides are the best single guides for city breaks and the Istanbul guide is a case in point. Accomodation and entertainment listings are critical and comprehensive and the information for tourists informative and helpful. However the maps at the back could be more useful. For a visual guide to the city look at DK. Anyone from a week-end tourist to a long term expat would find this invalubale.

Not up to date - avoid
I generally like the Time Out travel guides, but this one was an exception.

First of all it is now a couple of years old and it really shows! Admittance prices have all at least doubled from what's indicated on the guide. Entrance to Aghia Sophia is now 20YTL instead of 10YTL, The Bosforus cruise costs 20YTL, not 7YTL, tram tokens are 1.50YTL not 1.30YTL etc.

Also lots of indications are plainly wrong. They indicate a nice coffee shop called Pierre Loti in the Eyup district and just say that Bus 55 goes there (where from? we are not allowed to know!). I went to the Eminonu bus station and found out that it is in fact the 99A that takws you to Eyup.

The book indicates the boat docks by Sirkeci/Eminonu as the starting point for the Princes Islands cruise but when I went there they told me the boat leaves from Kabatas, at the other end of town! Thank you Time Out!

Finally, yes, you get good reviews for all the restaurants, bars and clubs, but you can't have just a page or sometimes even less for the major sights such as the Blue Mosque, Aghia Sophia, etc.

Topkapi Palace gets slightly more space, it is after all Istanbul's most famous attraction (!), but again, the rices are out of date and the guide does not mention that you have to pay again once inside the Palace if you want to see the Harem.

I also missed having a larger map of Istanbul with the outside district and a map of Turkey included in this book.

All together quite a let down.

Not enough info on the sights
We spent 6 days on holiday in Istanbul, in Sept 08. The Time Out guide was much less useful than our other book (Eyewitness).

The best part of this book is the section on the history of the city: interesting and entertaining - just what a good guide book should be.

But there isn't enough detail about the historical sights. For example, about one and a half pages are devoted to Haghia Sophia - Istanbul's foremost attraction. Meanwhile there is a 4-page section on Gay & Lesbian life in the city, including rather too much detail about what goes on in certain hammams.

If the balance had been the other way around, it would have been a much more useful book for our visit.