My wife will be traveling for work through Istanbul, and she will have a 13 hour connection. She will be in Business Class, so she will have lounge access.
Neither she nor I are very familiar with Istanbul airport, so I was hoping we have some dopers who are. She’d like to drop her carryon in the lounge (they will hold luggage) and visit Istanbul, rather than spend half a day in the airport / lounge. She will be on Turkish Air, flying in from the US and out to a European country.
Anyone know how the airport is set up? After Passport control, will she be able to stay inside the terminal (thus getting to the lounge), or will she be pushed right out into the non-secure area? Will she have to come back through security? The main issue is that the way she travels she usually has a small roller as her carryon, and she won’t want to drag that around the city.
Any general thoughts on the best way to make use of 13 hours in Istanbul?
That’s going to be kind of an awkward layover, unfortunately. I can’t answer the question about the lounge specifically, but here’s some additional general information that might be useful.
The first thing to know is that Istanbul Airport is enormous, like, bigger than Dallas Fort Worth. It’s legitimately a mega-hub. We knew it was a major facility, but the first time we were there, we were still gobsmacked at the scale. There are tons of shops and restaurants and things to see and do. There aren’t eight hours of activities, obviously.
The unfortunate news is that it’s a long way outside of the city center where all the tourist sights are. There’s no quick and easy way to get in and out: it’s over an hour by car, or 90 minutes by train. And that’s on top of the 20-30 minutes it takes to actually walk through the giant airport. Our experience with passport control was pretty efficient; we got through it much faster than, say, in Lisbon, which was a total cluster. But it’s still time to plan for.
Is your wife okay with planning for, say, up to two hours to land, get through the airport, catch a taxi, see the sights for five hours, and then turn around and figure out the return in time to check in and catch the next flight?
When I visited Istanbul some years ago I used a private van transfer.
I learned later though that the Istanbul metro has a line which goes right to the airport.
If I’d known that, I’d probably have just used the metro.
As for where to go in the city, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia Mosque are must-sees. Istanbul also has the largest covered bazaar in the world. Tons of shops that sell everything from carpets to watches. Watch out for pickpockets, though.
Be aware that Istanbul built a new international airport recently, and moved all the flights there when it opened in 2019. The distance between the two airports is about 20 miles, so they are not near each other. Once the new airport opened, the old airport closed to scheduled flights.
I mention all this so people know that any experience they had with the Istanbul airport before 2019 is obsolete.
That’s funny. When I visited it was through Ataturk airport and I was going to make the same comment that it’s large and would take a while to get into the city.
I think Hagia Sophia + Blue Mosque + a meal and then see what kind of time you still have. Topkapi palace probably is too much time. The bazaar is pretty cool. Galata Tower has some great views.
When I last visited, Hagia Sophia had a 90-minute line (for a visit that lasted just under an hour). It’s a staggering piece of architectural, cultural, and religious history, but someone on a tight timeline might want to keep this in mind. As a working mosque, it also has closure periods for worship.
The Blue Mosque had effectively no wait time when I was there. The bazaar, of course, you just walk in. Galata Tower was closed for earthquake reinforcement so I can’t speak to the schedule, but I will note it’s across the bridge away from the central area and might be challenging on, again, a tight schedule. I agree that Topkapi Palace is a miss for this visit; it requires a solid four to six hours by itself.
I’m risk averse so I would probably go for something like that, where the tour operator understands upfront when you need to be back at the airport, and so could cut things short if necessary. Not as cheap as wandering around on your own but less risk, perhaps.