Turkey Part 1

What an AMAZING 3 weeks I have had! If you have been following my Instagram, you know my family and I have spent the past 3 weeks in Turkey.

We traveled to 4 different cities that had completely different things to offer and we enjoyed each of them differently. I’m going to share details of our travels within each city.

This post will cover the first two destinations– Istanbul and Antalya.

Istanbul

We began and ended our trip in Istanbul, an extremely busy and major city in Turkey. Being from the United States, I would compare some parts of Istanbul to New York City.

Things are within walking distance in certain areas, the city is alive at night, and there are SO many people (around 15 million) who live there.

It’s a very crowded city, but that is one of the many things I enjoyed about it.

Where we stayed:

For the first few days of our trip, we stayed in Old Town Istanbul (Sultanahmet district) at the DoubleTree – Sirkeci hotel.

If you want to experience old town Istanbul, this hotel is in the perfect location. It is within walking distance of many restaurants, cafes, shops, and most importantly, the Grand Bazaar.

At the very end of our trip, we stayed in the fashion district of Istanbul at the W Hotel.

This area is completely different than Old Town. It’s in a very nice, modern area that’s within walking distance of cafes and coffee shops.

What we did:

The Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque & Grand Bazaar Half-Day Tour is a perfect way to experience the history and culture that Istanbul has to offer. You cannot go to Istanbul and miss out on this tour!

We booked it the day before we went and had a tour guide that spoke english. There were several tours going on and they divided everyone into groups depending on what language you spoke. It is a walking tour, so wear tennis shoes!

Although the tour took us through the grand bazaar, we went back the next day to spend more time here. There are over 4,000 shops, if that explains anything. If you plan on getting souvenirs, spices, or Turkish delight, buy it here! After visiting other places in Turkey, I found the Grand Bazaar had the best prices for these types of things.

On our last night we ate at Hamdi Restaurant, which was within walking distance from our hotel! It was a great Turkish restaurant with an amazing view of Istanbul.

PS If you go to any mall in Istanbul  you have to go to Istinye Park!

Antalya

We flew from Istanbul to Antalya, which is about a 1 hour and 15 minute flight. Antalya is a very touristy area with lots of resorts by the beach.

We made reservations for 6 nights at a resort we thought would be amazing, but could not wait to leave once we arrived.

Where we stayed:

We stayed at Kempinski The Dome, said to be a 5 star luxury resort. Don’t get me wrong, it was a gorgeous hotel that made for great Instagram pictures, but that was about it! We needed entertainment for kids because we traveled with my family from Qatar and all of us combined were a total of 7 kids.

When we got to the resort, we found out that the pictures on booking.com were false advertisement and they were the only resort in Antalya that didn’t have a waterpark. Other than that, the food was inedible.

Their “lavish buffets” for lunch and dinner each day was one disaster after another. When choosing a place to vacation, food is the most important thing to me. I swear we lived off fruit, ice cream, and pizza (good thing Turkish ice cream is delish).

What we did:

All of the resorts in Antalya (besides the one we stayed at, lol) have entertainment of some sort. Our resort allowed us to use the facilities at the resort next door, the Sirene Resort, which was really nice. We had a blast on the waterslides and went to a DJ party at night.

If you are ever in Antalya the one thing you HAVE to do is go to the Land of Legends.

It’s an outdoor mall, theme park, and hotel. There’s a show every night that takes place all around the outdoor mall and is worth seeing at least once.

We had dinner at an amazing lebanese restaurant, then had Turkish coffee an shisha while we watched the show!

Like I said, this is part one of my vacation in Turkey! The next blog post will cover Kalkan and Bursa.

I hope my honest review of where we stayed & what we did will help you when planning your next trip! I can’t wait to share part two!

XOXO, Amanda