ISTANBUL in 4 Perfect Days | Turkey Travel Guide

Last October, we traveled around Turkey for 16 days. We started our trip visiting Istanbul.
Join us until the end to know more about the most beautiful places to visit and best things to do in this vibrant megalopolis. We will share with you useful information to prepare a perfect trip to the city where East meets West!
Comment down below if you know other interesting places in Istanbul! We would love to return in the future to keep exploring the city.
Don't forget to like our video and subscribe to our channel to help us grow in order to create more and more travel content.
Welcome to our channel, Reigne or Shine! Thank you for watching our video!
Get the best ferry prices if you book in advance with Ferryhopper. Use our affiliate link to book your tickets across the Mediterranean and the rest of Europe: www.ferryhopper.com/en/?aff_u...
Check the playlist with all our vlogs in Turkey:
• TURKEY Travel Vlogs
Fine Art Prints from our trips available here:
www.icanvas.com/canvas-art-pr...
My husband’s Travel Photography website:
www.chanosanchezphotography.com/
My Instagram account:
/ reigne_mindbody
Music by: www.epidemicsound.com/
Drone & extra videos by: www.storyblocks.com
TIMESTAMP
00:00 Intro
01:24 Arrival in Istanbul & Hotel
02:22 Hagia Sophia
04:01 Blue Mosque
05:30 Turgut Restaurant
06:21 Turkey Museum Pass & Coffee
07:03 Seven Hills, Sultanahmet & Dinner
08:38 Second Day Sunrise & Hippodrome
09:50 North Art Coffee
10:40 Topkapi Palace
12:40 Ayasofia Kebap Salonu
13:30 Grand Bazaar
14:58 Fine Dine Istanbul & Turkish Delights
15:48 Third Day Sunrise at Galata Bridge
16:31 Poiká Breakfast & Istanbul Streets
17:31 Egyptian Bazaar & Yeni Cami
19:13 Galata Bridge & Sanat Restaurant
20:25 Beyoglu, Istiklal Caddesi & Galata Tower
21:17 Viyana Kahvesi
22:13 Basilica Cistern
23:46 Poiká Breakfast, Chestnuts & Transport
24:49 Balat & Pier Café Restaurant
26:24 Public Ferry & Asian Side
27:44 Turkish Ice Cream
28:30 Outro

[@Chano_Sanchez]

One of my favourite cities in the world and having the opportunity to explore it with you and create this video has been a dream! So proud of the final result my love 🙌🏻🎥💪🏻😘

[@ReigneOrShine]

It is also one of my favourite cities I have visited so far. The mix of culture if just so mesmerising and I’m happy to spend it with you. I cannot wait to go back again!

[@viorelsirghi]

Perfect. Istanbul is a city were you want to come back to again and again.

[@ReigneOrShine]

I agree with you. It is undoubtedly one of my favourite cities I have ever visited and I am not even a fan of big cities. There is just something about Istanbul that made me love the city. It could be its friendly people, good food, the mix of cultures or the cute communal pets. 🥰

[@muratyalcnkaya4432]

It was a great video, the fact that she said “Türkiye” and not “Turkey” caught me from the first minute :) Her shots were very nice and she visited and introduced important places. The music she chose is very good, I would also like to thank her for using Turkish melodies, not Arabic melodies :)

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thanks a million for watching and for your kind words about our video! We are extremely happy when locals appreciate the hard work we do, it makes all the effort worth it. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 Recently, I´ve learned a lot about Türkiye thanks to my husband who loves geography and history. He explained to me all the past of the Turks coming from Central Asia and the blend of cultures in the Ottoman Empire. Actually, once we were in Istanbul I could really feel the difference in the music as I love listening to music from all over the world. I spent long hours trying to choose local music for our videos, sometimes it´s difficult as we use the Epidemic Sound website to avoid copyright claims and there are not so many options from some countries or regions. I hope I can maintain the music level in this whole Türkiye Travel Series. We wanted to use the name "Türkiye" as much as possible, as we know most Turkish people prefer it, we have kept "Turkey" in the written title because KZbin search engine still shows more this name and we didn´t want to affect the reach of the videos. ☺️ We love your country and we cannot wait to share more content from there! 🇹🇷❤️

[@asmozturk1931]

As a local, I find your video so informative, you did a good job in 4 days! Hope to see you again here, there are still lots of places to discover!

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thank you very much for watching our video and for your kind words too! We´re always very happy when locals appreciate our work, it means a lot to us and it motivates us to keep trying our best with our videos. We cannot wait to return to Istanbul, so many more places that we wish to visit and film there, it´s one of our favourite cities in the world! 🇹🇷❤️😊

[@huseyincembaykan1289]

Best photos from all aspects of istanbul. Thank you.

[@ReigneOrShine]

Oh wow. Thank you so much! What a very nice compliment. We are extremely happy to know that our work is somewhat showing a small part of the beauty and diversity of the city. We wish we could have stayed longer. Someday, we will go back and show more of what Istanbul offers. 🥰

[@ibrahimhalilkoyuncu]

I was looking for some videos about the life in Ireland, and after I watched your post about Ireland I saw this one and really enjoyed it. Good job ! (Live in Istanbul for more than 30 years)

[@ReigneOrShine]

Hello to you!! We are very happy that our Ireland video has led you to our Istanbul video. There are more things to show in Istanbul but we had very limited time. We wish to go back in the future!!

[@julioc4978]

Excellent editing and props to the cameraman, the narration is spot on as well. I would've thought Turkey was cheaper... Cheers

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thank you so much for watching and for appreciating our work to create this video! We´re really glad you like it so much. 😊🙏🏽 The economic situation in Turkey is not great in the last years, inflation is hitting hard and the lira has lost a lot of value, for this reason the tourism industry in the country has to increase the prices, but we looked for quality in Istanbul and service was always great where we went too, you could spend less there if you want, the rest of Turkey was even more affordable actually. All the best.

[@dianarusnov292]

Considering they spent most of their time around the Sultanahmet district (plus Viyana Kahvesi), that particular area and that cafe are considered overpriced and touristy. Cheaper food should ideally be in the Beyoglu district.

[@Travel-vibes2]

The video is amazing 😻 the editing is great and you gave us a lot of informations❤️❤️good job guys thank you ❤️from Tunisia 🇹🇳

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thanks a million for watching our video and for appreciating our work! We´re really happy to read your positive comment! Hopefully we can visit Tunisia in the future. We´re going to Morocco in May, and we can´t wait to keep exploring other places in Africa too. 😊

[@Travel-vibes2]

@@ReigneOrShine welcome to Tunisia ❤️ and enjoy your trip we are waiting for your beautiful and amazing videos

[@aniyasartcreations3103]

Thank you so much for making this video Istanbul is one of my most favourite places in the world and I love it even more now ❤❤

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thank you so much for watching our video and your kind words. We are so happy to know that our work brings back good memories of the places that our viewers such as yourself have been. Istanbul is also my favourite city in the world. There is just something very unique about the city that made me fall in love with it. I hope one day I can go back again.

[@larrydiel5071]

Best Video I have ever seen on this wonderful City that I hope to visit someday. You made feel like was visiting along with you and Chano ! Great Job !!!

[@ReigneOrShine]

This is a huge compliment, Larry. Chano and I are very happy to know that you enjoyed our work. I am sure that you will love Istanbul too. Happy New Year!!!

[@crispincataran4525]

I agree, best video.

[@blususpect]

What a great guide, I'm actually about to be in Istanbul this week so this was really helpful! I can't wait!

[@ReigneOrShine]

thank you very much for watching and appreciating our video! We´re glad that you found it helpful for your coming trip. We´re sure you´ll love Istanbul and we wish you a wonderful time there! 😊🇹🇷❤️

[@mehmetdurmusoglu]

Greetings From Turkish İstanbul

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thank you so much for watching!!! I miss Turkey. 🇹🇷

[@markkaroo]

I really hope and pray your channel explodes your videos are amazingly filmed and great voice over!

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thanks a million for your comment Mark! You´re so kind and your words made my day. I wish you´re right, we´re growing slowly, but we keep trying our best and we love creating these videos, so we won´t give up! Maybe one day if our views are higher we can travel more and post even more content, right now we use most of our free time and holidays to keep the channel alive. 😊🎥💪🏽

[@imeldacheung7746]

Your video is amazing 👍🏻😁 I love your voice and all your explanations, very detail ❤ Greetings from Indonesia ✌🏻

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thank you very much Imelda! We´re really glad to read your positive feedback, you´re very kind 🙏🏽😊 We loved Indonesia, we visited Bali and Java years ago, but unfortunately we didn´t know how to film good videos then, hopefully we can return in the future and create beautiful content there! 😍

[@Fiola_M]

Beautifully filmed and with so much detail. I have watched a lot and i mean a lot of videos on istanbul. The yt algorithm suggested you! Absolutely fantastic! The food seems costly now though 😮

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thanks a million for watching our video and for your positive feedback! We´re really glad to read your comment, our Turkey videos are working very well so far, hopefully YT will keep suggesting them, as we have worked very hard to create these travel series 🤞🏽😊 We could have spent less in food in Istanbul, but we always check reviews before choosing the places where we eat and we wanted to share great value for money options in the videos. The current high inflation is hitting Turkey very hard and the lira is constantly losing value, so the tourism industry businesses are kind of forced to adjust the prices to compensate. Service was great wherever we went, and we live in Ireland where everything is getting more and more expensive too, so we were actually feeling that Turkey was very affordable during this trip. All the best.

[@mutlugocemenvatan5525]

Amazing shots extensive reading on historical details... great effort .. congratulations❤

[@mutlugocemenvatan5525]

Indeed i came here from your mystras video just a coincidence because it is very rare to find a video about peleponnese like yours.. now i watched istanbul video and im not suprised again.. great effort (such a great shots and at the same time brief historic details

[@ReigneOrShine]

thanks a million Mutlu! We´re really glad to read your positive feedback about our hard work. 🇹🇷❤️🎥😊

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thanks for the kind words about our Peloponnese videos too! We love history and we try to share some important information to make our videos more interesting and hopefully help people that are planning to visit those places too. There is a lot of work before and during our trips to try creating the best content possible, so it´s always a great motivation to us when we read comments like yours. All the best! 🙂

[@Suruchiee]

Very very well presented and informative video. Everything captured is so good. Simple details like Turkish melodies are included too. The half an hour video didn't feel like half an hour.

[@ReigneOrShine]

thanks a million for watching our video and for your positive words! We´re really glad to read your comment and to know that you appreciated the hard work we put on it and also the small details that are very important for us. We are always afraid of doing the videos too long for current audiences, but seeing how well this video is working makes us think that we can create some longer videos in the future. All the best!

[@crystalwells9948]

Well balanced contents in terms of history, travel information and comments. Information of prices is very useful. Thanks a lot for your effort. We really enjoyed watching it.

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thanks a million for watching and for appreciating our video so much! We´re really happy to read your positive feedback. All the best! 🙏🏽😊

[@Nieves-nf1gu]

Maravilloso vuestro trabajo!!!

[@ReigneOrShine]

Muchas gracias, Nieves!!

[@larrydiel5071]

Thanks!

[@Chano_Sanchez]

Thank you so much Larry! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 Hope you can visit Istanbul soon 😊 It’s one of our favourite cities so far!

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thank you so much for supporting us Larry!!! You’re very generous. 🙏🏽

[@kathleenlovejoy3144]

Loved this. Looks like such a unique and beautiful place. I'd like to visit one day! Did you feel safe traveling there?

[@ReigneOrShine]

You should definitely visit it one day. There’s no place like Turkey. Yes we felt very safe even when we were walking late at night at Sultahnamet. We felt much safe in Istanbul than walking at night in Dublin. 😂 And also people are friendly. Of course, businesses will try to ask you to buy their products but if you say no thank you, they won’t annoy you anymore. They will just try to speak with you because they are just curious where you’re from. Chano would even let me go there just me and my best friend. That’s how safe it is. Plus, their airport is UH-MA-ZING!!! Reminded me of Singapore’s airport. Very clean, efficient, and friendly staff. Even their airport in Capadoccia. World class! I am speaking as a tourist. It might feel different if you’re living there. 😅

[@paullucas9758]

THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDIO IT WAS GREAT IWE HAVE JUST BOOKED TODAY TO GO TO ISTANBUL IN A FEW MOUNTHS . THIS WAS VERY INTERESTING . FUNNY HOW YOU KEPT SAYING THE FOOD WAS CHEAP , I SUPPOSE IT WIĹ BE IF YOU,LIVE IN DUBLIN ,I AM IN YORKSHIRE SO THINGS ARE A .OT CHEAPER HERE , SO I WILL HAVE TO TAKE A LOT MORE MONEY THAN HAD PLAND , THIS WILL BE 41 COUNTYS WE HAVE DONE . ALL THE BEST FROM YORKSHIRE .

[@ReigneOrShine]

thank you very much for watching and for appreciating our video! You´ll love Istanbul for sure, it´s one of our favourite cities in the world so far. Wow, 41 countries, that´s really impressive, hope you´ll visit many more! Actually, most of our Irish colleagues keep telling us how cheap the food was after watching this video, 😅. We know Istanbul used to be much cheaper (Chano also visited in 2016), but compare to Dublin is really affordable now, also for us the value for money was excellent. But also as we replied to other comments, we wanted to show nice places to eat in this vlog without breaking anyone´s budget, we never go to expensive restaurants and instead we try to find good prices and good quality, but you could spend less money in eating in Istanbul if you want. In the rest of our Turkey trip we spent even less, and the supermarkets outside Istanbul were very cheap! What we found the most expensive were the monuments and some touristic activities, check the museum passes for Istanbul or for Turkey if you plan to visit many sights as you will probably save money there. Wish you a wonderful trip! 🇹🇷♥️😊

[@marerdozainvega7511]

Una maravilla!!!!!❤

[@ReigneOrShine]

Muchísimas gracias!! 😘😘😘

[@travelleryildirim3013]

Nice Vlog and realy good quality of informations 👍🧿

[@ReigneOrShine]

thank you very much for watching and for appreciating our vlog! We´re really glad that you like our content! 🙏🏽😊

[@mohdjibly6184]

Nice video ..thanks for sharing

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thank you so much for watching. 🥰

[@abhijeetkadam863]

very good information.

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thank you so much for watching and your kind words. 🙏🏽

[@mmss9326]

Qué Bonito!😊

[@ReigneOrShine]

Muchísimas gracias! 😍

[@ExtraditionLawFirm]

👏

[@ReigneOrShine]

🙏🏽😊 thanks for watching!

[@muhammadraza8488]

I❤Istanbul

[@ReigneOrShine]

Me too! So much. Planning to go back soon. 🇹🇷

[@sdx1001]

Nice video! I’m inspired to go to Turkey now. What’s that little square blank gadget you were wearing? Is it a microphone to catch your voice better?

[@ReigneOrShine]

Go for it. You will surely love the country too. 🥰 Yes, it’s a cordless microphone to capture my voice and reduce the noise on the background. Thank you so much for watching!!

[@dianarusnov292]

Great video! Very helpful for my upcoming trip, even though I've been. The "C" in Cami (mosque) is actually pronounced like the "J" in jam. Just a note. 🙂

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thank you very much for watching and for your positive feedback! We hope you´ll enjoy your time in Istanbul again, we cannot wait to return in the future to keep exploring the city. And thanks for the pronunciation correction too, I hope I´ll remember it for future videos, it was really hard for me to read the Turkish words, I tried to remember some from the locals but it´s very different to the languages we know 😅 All the best!

[@acsomiT]

I just watched your video, and I’m in Istanbul now, April 2024, and the food and coffee at the restaurants in the Sultanahmet and Galata district it’s more expansive than you say. It’s tourist prices everywhere in the old town. You barely find a super thin kebab roll on a take away for 12€! Rome it’s cheaper!!! When were you in Istanbul?

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thanks for watching! We were there in October 2023 as we have included the exact dates and mentioned it in the video. We never lie with the prices of our trips. You can check the same restaurants that we included as we put their names. The inflation in Turkey has got worse in the last months, the economic situation in the country is not improving and maybe some businesses are trying to earn from the visitors, but you can always research reviews in Google Maps for example before choosing where to eat. We found a great variety of prices in the city. The same in Rome, where Chano lived and we visited for 7 days, you can find more expensive or cheaper prices there too. Regards.

[@andre_1907]

good video and different perspective, thanks for that. only the thing is why did you use arabic music as a background in the video? I couldn't catch that.

[@ReigneOrShine]

Hi thanks for watching and for the kind words. I get my music from Epidemic Sound. I pay every month so that I can use songs without getting copyrighted. The site has very few selections of Turkish music. I decided to use music that has Middle Eastern influences. Not necessarily Arabic. I am careful in using copyrighted music because our videos can get demonetised (meaning, we won’t earn anything). I try my best to respect all cultures and sometimes viewers should also understand the situation content creators have.

[@sivdasrs]

It's a vlog with great video and audio captions. However, I have a question regarding Euro price display. Isn't the price to be paid in Lira or there is a choice to pay either in Lira or Euro? Do the outlets accept Euro?

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thank you very much for your positive feedback! We used € to pay some hotels and activities, but you´ll need Lira most of the time when you are there. Turkish inflation is hitting hard and the lira value has got worse since we went there last October, so putting the prices in Lira would have created confusion to understand the real value of our trip, as they are constantly updating prices for tourists. You´ll see this in the restaurants menus for example, they keep changing the prices because the lira is getting less value, so they increase the Lira prices. Turkey was an affordable country for us to travel considering the quality of the services, so we were happy to help their economy as tourists. Hopefully their economy will get better and their currency will have more stability soon.

[@sivdasrs]

@@ReigneOrShine Thank you for your prompt response with an apt clarification. This is an extended help beyond the video content as I'll be in Turkiye for about 12 days visit next month. Best wishes to your vlog from down under.

[@ayesharizwan9185]

How and where did u get the museum pass

[@ReigneOrShine]

The best way to buy the Museum Pass is when you are already there in Turkiye. On the minute 6:24 of this video, you can see a stand next to Hagia Sophia (just in the way to the Topkapi Palace), we bought it there because the queue was minimal, but you can get it in every museum or sight that are included in the Museum Pass. We wouldn´t advise to buy in the Topkapi Palace as the queue was very long there, better in the stand where we bought or any other museum or sight with shorter queue to avoid wasting time. Thanks for watching!

[@Be.Realistic]

Hi, How much was the seven hills food

[@ReigneOrShine]

thanks for watching! We didn´t have dinner there at the end due to the seagulls and the noise, but prices were similar to other restaurants in the area. Our advice would be to take the pictures in the rooftop and eat inside the building if you want to have a meal there without the hassle. Other restaurants nearby offer also nice views but without people feeding the birds and they would be more peaceful.

[@Largeportion1000]

500 to 600 lira each for breakfast is expensive for Istanbul.

[@ReigneOrShine]

The maximum we spent for a breakfast was 21€ = 700 liras (both included). We share all the dishes when we eat, so maybe you got confused there when you saw us changing dishes. We know those places we chose were not "cheap", but the quality was really good and they were just next to our hotel in Sultanahmet. We live in Ireland, so we are more than happy to spend fair money while we travel and help businesses in Turkey too. The guy in the North Art Café went abroad to improve his coffee brewing skills, and the Poiká Café place was also very good with friendly staff as well. You can surely spend less, but we have a budget for the whole trip and we save in other areas of our trip.

[@dianaqura-uu6pt]

It’s called Constantinople

[@ReigneOrShine]

thanks for watching!

[@user-kw9cr5rn3b]

Why euro why not lıra

[@ReigneOrShine]

Hi. Thanks for watching. We use in euro because most of our viewers are from Europe and US. Maybe next time, we use also the local currency.

[@user-kw9cr5rn3b]

@@ReigneOrShine yes u should

[@Chano_Sanchez]

@@user-kw9cr5rn3bhi. I’m the one in charge of putting the prices in our vlogs and I’ll keep the € for these travel series to simplify it. The lira is constantly changing value (many restaurants are often changing the menus for example) to adapt the price to the €/$, when I was checking the prices now in January the liras are not the same than when we went in October. I know the € is changing too due to inflation, but this is just an information that we add to give our viewers an idea of how much we spent. In every country we go I’ll keep adjusting to € as it’s the currency we use ourselves, it takes a lot of time to register and add all these prices by the way. If someone is interested in the real price they would spend right now they could open a google tab with an updated currency exchange rate, that’s what I always do to prepare our trip expenses. Thanks for watching.

[@Chano_Sanchez]

Hi. I’m the one in charge of putting the prices in our vlogs and I’ll keep the € for these travel series to simplify it. The lira is constantly changing value (many restaurants are often changing the menus for example) to adapt the price to the €/$, when I was checking the prices now in January the liras are not the same than when we went in October. I know the € is changing too due to inflation, but this is just an information that we add to give our viewers an idea of how much we spent. In every country we go I’ll keep adjusting to € as it’s the currency we use ourselves, it takes a lot of time to register and add all these prices by the way. If someone is interested in the real price they would spend right now they could open a google tab with an updated currency exchange rate, that’s what I always do to prepare our trip expenses. Thanks for watching.

[@asmozturk1931]

It is better to keep currency in euros, because prices in lira can change due to huge inflation in Turkey,which is about 100% yearly.

[@abqrusschewler2876]

Are you a travel guide?

[@ReigneOrShine]

thanks for watching! Not really, travelling and doing these videos is our passion. I work as a full time nurse in a paediatric hospital and my husband is a sport scientist, he´s currently working as a manager in a sports centre in Dublin. Best regards.

[@efekagan5531]

actualy turks are not drinking apple tea also if u ask a local about apple tea she is gonna say what is that. Its a tourists scam i thing

[@ReigneOrShine]

Thanks for watching! I know the most popular Turkish Tea is not Apple Tea, but I was drinking Apple Tea almost every day in different parts of Turkey and I´ve just checked the origin of Apple Tea and it´s one of the many tea variations originated in Turkey. I tried different types of tea in different countries, and Turkish Apple Tea is one of my favourite so far. I don´t understand how a variety of Turkish Tea can be a scam, it wasn´t expensive and it was delicious, so I think it´s something positive for the businesses if tourists like this type of tea.