Why Go to Istanbul? by Tom Brosnahan

You must see Istanbul: it's entering another golden age like the ones it enjoyed under Justinian the Great and Süleyman the Magnificent.

After 16 centuries of urban life, Istanbul is a marvelous mixture of triumphant mosques, artsy cafes, spooky subterranean cisterns, stalwart fortresses, treasure-filled museums and plenty of pastry shops. Its natural situation is perfect: "Water flows through the city, purifying it; light floods it, making it over again, hourly," said Arthur Symons in 1903.

But about that golden age: everything's better now than it has been for centuries. The great edifices have been cleaned and restored. The phones work. Everyone speaks some English. Prices are low. And the fulsome traditional hospitality of the Turks, praised by travelers for centuries, remains intact.
Sure, the traffic is still horrendous, but now at least it moves, and there's a Metro system and a fleet of fast catamarans. Sure, tourist buses growl through the Byzantine Hippodrome louder than lions lunging at a gladiator, but away from the Hippodrome Istanbul is still Turkish, not tourist, and better than ever.

Variation on...

Hire a car and driver and visit several "kasrs" (imperial lodges), miniature pleasure palaces built by the sultans at Ihlamur, Yildiz, Aynalikavak and Küçüksu.

Come for...

• The great imperial mosques, open to all.
• Ferryboat rides from Europe to Asia for less than a dollar.
• The romance of the East and the private bathrooms of the West.

For the most concentrated experience...

• The Harem in Topkapi Palace. Get there at 9 am and ask (insist, really) to go up into the Adalet Kulesi (Tower of Justice) also.
• A cruise up the Bosphorus past imperial palaces and traditional villages.
• A performance of Mozart's "Abduction from the Seraglio" performed in the Seraglio itself (Topkapi Palace) (mid-June to mid-July)
• An open-air dinner on the Bosphorus shore.
• Hearing the call to prayer from Istanbul's 500+ mosques from atop the Galata Tower, preferably at sunset.
• A few hours' window-shopping among the 4000 shops of the Grand Bazaar.
• A few minutes' quiet meditation in a mosque.
• Bar-prowling in Beyoglu, for bars and cafes from cool to kinky.
• The Byzantine mosaics in the Kariye Museum (Chora Church). Breathtaking!
• A "raki table:" dozens of Turkish hors d'oeuvres ("meze") served with raki (grape brandy flavoured with anise).

Watch out for...

• Aggressive carpet-shills—it's best to ignore them completely.
• Ripoff taxi drivers in tourist areas. Make them use the meter; count your change.
• Untidy or immodest clothing in mosques—no shorts or bare shoulders, please.
• Pickpockets in buses, trams, markets and crowds.
• Antiquities—it's illegal to buy, sell, possess or export them.