"You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself"
Prince Siddhartha Gautama

Bringing Places To Life  

Istanbul the Sly Way

Bosphorus, Istanbul

For a city that has embraced Europe in nearly every way, Istanbul is still on the other side of the divide between west and east for cheap flights. In some senses, this is a positive thing: the city won’t become a weekend stag party venue for fun-seeking Northern Europeans like Prague or Budapest have any time soon. Generally, though, it’s frustrating: for a fascinating city merely three and a half hours in flight time from London, it’s pretty inaccessible (the grand old days of the Orient Express might not be over, but the train will set you back over £5,000). There is a solution: last minute holidays. Buy a deal (often under £400 per person for a week, all-inclusive) to one of Turkey’s resorts such as Izmir, then as part of your weeks of sun and sand on the coast you can factor in a side trip to Istanbul via a stylish combination of train and super-fast ferry.

The most convenient train connection leaves Izmir at 09.25, running through gently-rolling farmland, and arrives in Bandirma (where, incidentally, the last shot of WW1 was fired) at 14.56, in time for the 15.30 ferry across the Sea of Marmara to Istanbul. This boat will be a well-appointed car and passenger boat, with arrival time in Istanbul being approximately 17.30, and the entire train-and-ferry cost TL47 (£15.90). The still speedier passenger-only catamaran seabus (deniz otobüsü in Turkish) regularly zips across the Sea of Marmara along the same route: routes are included on Istanbul metro cards, which take one of two forms: either the Akbil or the newer electronic Istanbulkart (TL10 for the card, then add credit of TL 1.75-2 per seabus ferry journey; getting TL15 credit will probably suffice for a couple of days’ public transport costs in Istanbul) which is replacing the Akbil.

As famed travel writer Eric Newby once said, “the best arrivals are by sea” and this is one of the relatively few options left in Europe of approaching a city by water for the first time. It really is ever bit as spectacular as it sounds, with sensational views of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque) as you complete your careening approach helping to give a picture-postcard first view of the city. When you get into the Yenikapi ferry terminal, you’re also right in the centre of Istanbul action, within walking distance of many city attractions and with direct connections via the metro too.

And why make the trip to Istanbul from your flashy Izmir resort? Why make the trip to the world’s only city poised between two continents, containing some of the grandest mosques, temples and bazaars and easily the planet’s very best coffeehouses? That’s one question you don’t need to ask.