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 enlarge | Author: Dk Publishing
Publisher: DK Travel
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
Buy New: $8.58
You Save: $14.42 (63%)
New (36) Used (12) from $8.58
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 30962
Media: Turtleback
Edition: Rev Upd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 280
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 4.9 x 0.8
ISBN: 0756625017
Dewey Decimal Number: 914.9618044
EAN: 9780756625016
ASIN: 0756625017
Publication Date: January 15, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New; Excellent condition! Clean crisp tight copy, no marks,could have some minor shelf wear. Email Notification, Satisfaction Guaranteed,Direct from our warehouse.
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-6 of 6 | | « PREV | | |
Best general purpose guide March 31, 2007
43 out of 43 found this review helpful
If you're only going to buy one guide to Istanbul, this is the one.
The principal reason is that Istanbul is a city of great architecture, which D-K's cut-away diagrams ideally showcase. You can quickly determine where you are within a building and which features you have not yet seen.
For us, the most enjoyable attraction in Istanbul was the ferry ride up the Bosphorus, which ends at a charming village near the Black Sea with excellent restaurants where you have lunch before returning. There are commercial tourist boats that make this trip, but we much preferred the public ferry that cost approx. $10 round-trip -- one of the great travel bargains of the world. The discussion about it in this guide is quite good.
Some things not covered in the book:
* When we asked the concierge at our hotel for the best place to change money, he said "The Grand Bazaar, no question." Indeed. In addition to a narrow spread between buy and sell, there is no commission. The local merchants all use the money-changers there, and according to the concierge, exchange rates for the entire country are set there.
* Among the best bargains in the Grand Bazaar are gold and silver, which are sold by weight with a reasonable mark-up, as opposed to the 400% markups commonly charged by American jewelers. Each jeweler has a gram scale where he weighs any given piece, and then prices it accordingly, based upon the price of gold that morning. The gold, by the way, appears to universally be 22 karat, worked in India. Because Indian workers are paid $15 per month, labor is not a material element in the price. A jeweler I spoke with priced a bracelet (pre-bargaining) at $650, when the price of the gold alone was $525. He was highly competent and straightforward in answering my questions, as were most of the merchants I dealt with. Similar savings seem to be available on diamond jewelry, although I did not consider myself competent to judge the quality of the stones and thus, did not buy anything.
* Rug merchants appear to be somewhat less reputable and certainly more insistent (one becomes tired of hearing their ubiquitous "hallo"). If they ask which hotel you're staying in or when you're leaving, simply respond "Why do you want to know?" One rug merchant, who is married to an American woman and is himself quite americanized told me that many of the merchants import rugs from China and then represent them as being from Turkey or Iran. As with diamonds, it pays to know what you're buying.
* Cab drivers are often dishonest. Know how much you should pay for a given trip and carry a lot of small bills and coins, so that you can pay exactly. Do not expect change. You may receive old lira (the Turkish lira was steeply devalued several years ago). Make sure the driver starts the meter when you get into the cab. The rate after midnight is 50% greater than before. Still, the (honest) rates are quite reasonable, especially since tips are not expected.
* The food is excellent, good ingredients and wonderful spices. Explore or ask your concierge. The best place we found, on the advice of our concierge, was the Magnaura Cafe Restaurant at Akbiyik No. 27 in Sultanhamet, tel: (0212)518 76 22, three blocks from the Haja Sofia.
* Be prepared to awaken at 6:00 am with the Call to Prayer, which is blasted from loudspeakers on the minarets of the mosques. It doesn't last long, but it will awaken you. I was not able to sleep through it, a problem that I rarely encounter.
* Three must-sees that we regret having missed: (1) the Chora Church, (2) the Palace Cistern, and (3) the old city walls.
All things considered, it's a great city.
For a really useful pocket-sized guide: Top 10 Istanbul (EYEWITNESS TOP 10 TRAVEL GUIDE)
For a less functional but more beautiful and sophisticated guide, try Knopf Guide: Istanbul (Knopf Guides Istanbul and Northwest Turkey)
For a more Nuts N' Bolts tour guide on navigating the city on foot: Rick Steves' Istanbul (Rick Steves)
Recommended reading: John Freely's Istanbul
Recommended viewing: Byzantium: The Lost Empire, Topkapi, Biblical Treasures of Turkey, the Supercities VHS tape Istanbul], and the Teaching Company course The World of Byzantium-The Great Courses (24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)(6 VHS TAPES)
DVD to avoid: Globe Trekker: Turkey
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