Designed for newcomers to Istanbul, this is an opportunity to quickly learn the layout of the city and how to navigate around it – explore the central trendy districts, understand the public transport network, and pick up some important first words of Turkish!

Our guide, Monica Fritz, is a New Yorker who has lived here for 20+ years. Well known to expats for her in-depth walking and photography tours, she is providing this tour tailored just for us.

We will start in Çihangır, a pretty, bohemian neighbourhood with lively nightlife and a large expat community. Next up is Çukurcuma, a ‘must’ for antique and curiosity shop lovers. We will stop for a typical Turkish breakfast, so come hungry! - please pay for your own selections. If possible, we’ll visit a small mosque and stroll the back streets opening onto the main pedestrian street of İstiklal to Tünel.

We will discover some hidden restaurants and pass the iconic Galata tower and down the hill to SALT, the former Ottoman Bank, beautifully renovated into a cultural center with a large public library, an English bookshop and several interesting art spaces. We will stop to buy the essential travel pass “İstanbulkart” , top it up for new users  and take a ferry ride to the Asian side and the Kadıköy fish and spice market which will provide the perfect setting to sample Turkish coffee traditionally cooked in ashes and taste Turkish delight from the original producers. We finish by exploring the bustling spice market of Kadıköy to ‘shop like a local’.