A tale of two Turkish cities

Oh how I love a good twin centre holiday. Pretty much gone are the days where I longed to sit by a hotel pool for a week; now I just want adventure. And that's exactly what me and my friend G got when we headed to Turkiye to tick off two beautiful destinations.

Our first stop was Istanbul and after a super early start, a flight from London, and a crazy drive from the airport, we arrived! We were staying at the Sayeban Gold Hotel and it was in such a great location, we were really happy with our choice. The room wasn't exactly the same as the uber modern pictures from booking.com, but I think they'd renovated about 50% of the rooms so we just happened to get one of the other 50% (which was still modern enough and clean and comfy). We didn't stick around to admire it for too long though as the day was pressing on and we wanted to get out and enjoy some sunshine! Plus we were absolutely starving so food was the first order of the day. You should know by now that I'm obsessed with a rooftop and so the first thing I noticed (and loved) about Istanbul is that they have a hell of a lot of them. We only walked for about 2 minutes before we found a gorgeous one to have some lunch and cocktails at.

Afterwards we were ready for a little wander and we were right next to Gülhane park so we went and had a walk round. I was actually expecting Istanbul to be a lot more arid and built up, so I was surprised by what a green city it was. Flowers and trees everywhere, and this park was so lush and beautiful. It was easy to forget you were smack bang in such a big city while walking around it. It was also home to some cool buildings and monuments so it was definitely worth a look around.

Something that surprised me about Istanbul was that it was quite cosmopolitan as a city. I knew it was a massive place, but I thought it would be more of an old world time capsule (in the way that Marrakech is) than it actually was. It was actually very modern and bustling, to the point that all the restaurants and cafes were fighting each other for attention. They had staff working outside a lot of them and were offering free drinks and desserts and stuff to get you to choose their place over another. So to finish off our day, we finished with some free tea and baklava, accompanied by some cute band music in this gorgeous courtyard. The tea is delicious but served at about a million degrees so we had to wait a while whenever we drank it, but I could certainly get on board with finishing every meal with free baklava.

Despite being up since 1am, we still managed to make it out for our first evening! We decided just to go for a casual dinner and drinks and picked a gorgeous restaurant local to our hotel. We were very much on the mezze vibe already so we opted for a couple of small plates to share, although I was definitely expecting the falafel and hummus to be better, given that we were in the part of the world it originates from! It ended up being more than just the two of us at dinner too as we made friends with the most gorgeous little kitten ever who refused to leave our table. Any country in the world that has cute cats walking around everywhere gets a yes from me.

We started the next day off strong in the rooftop breakfast room at our hotel and then headed out to explore. We were on a sightseeing mission so we started off at the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque which was very beautiful and impressive. It did unfortunately have loads of scaffolding round it but we just trained our eyes not to see that. It was a case of admiring it from the outside rather than going in though; we weren't appropriately dressed to go in a mosque and the need to stay cool (ish) int he hote weather trumped the desire to go into a worship house of a religion neither of us belong to.

The next stop was the Topkapi palaces and a bit of a theme for the day was emerging as once again, we wandered around the grounds but didn't go in properly. It was a ticketed thing and it didn't look like you saw anything additional aside from 2 more beautifully landscaped gardens (one of which we were already in). Again, it was so much greener and more luscious than I'd been expecting!

Then it was time for the big one, the blue mosque! Can you guess what? We didn't go in (same modesty/religious respect reasons as above). But we did do a full lap round the whole thing to admire it and it really was a beautiful building. It was also set in the most gorgeous square with water fountains and landscaped gardens. They also had ice cream stalls there so naturally I had to get one. Not only because it was perfect ice cream weather, but I'd also seen videos of the famous Turkish ice cream sellers and I was in the mood to be taken for a fool. Lots of cone flipping and dobbing on the nose later, and I had my ice cream!

I'd been expecting Istanbul to be very similar to Marrakech in lots of ways; ancient, arid, old-world-charm. It had proved me somewhat wrong with its greenery and modernity but something it delivered on massively were the bazaars. Okay so in Marrakech they call them Souks, and they were modern, air-conditioned buildings in Istanbul, but they were very similar otherwise. We had a great time trying different nougats and teas and perfumed oils!

The architecture in the city was really beautiful and very European in places so we had a lovely walk around admiring it before we got hungry. Where did we go? Naturally to another rooftop bar. In fact this one was even higher up and had a gorgeous view of the park. We had some delicious small plates and then finished with the obligatory tea and baklava (a winning combo for sure).

We were on a sunset chasing mission that evening so after getting ready nice and early, we went to? Yes. Yet another rooftop bar. Again, this one was even higher up and we were hoping it would guarantee a clear view but there was another building smack bang where the sunset was. The sky was still beautiful though and the view from our table was gorgeous. I love being out from dusk until dark, and we had the loveliest meal too.

We were ready to see what the nightlife had to offer and we managed to find ourselves the Zante strip of Istanbul. Offers on the drinks, people promoting it stood outside, and a whole lot of tacky-but-wonderful flair in the presentation. We had such a fun night!

We were feeling a little hungover and tired the next day so food was the first thing on the agenda (we decided to skip breakfast in favour of a lie-in). It was getting comical at this point but we actually went to yet another rooftop restaurant. Although plot twist: we were on the other side of the river! In preparation of our next activity of the day...

A boat trip down the Bosphorus! Accompanied by a sightseeing voiceover who not only gave us loads of cool history about Istanbul, but also pronounced 'Bosphorus' in the most elongated, over-the-top American way that it gave us the giggles. I always love boat trips and this was a perfect chilled activity for the day, and you actually cover quite a lot in one go.

Something that had been on my list for Istanbul since before we got there was to try their sand coffee. I'd seen videos and it looked really cool how they heat the coffee by burying the pot in hot sand! It was harder to find than I imagined, as I thought there would be more of a street vendor culture for it, but I'm not one to ever not get what I want. We found it! And it was delicious and had a nice smokiness to it.

It was our last night in Istanbul and we headed out for another lovely meal to wrap up our time in the city. For once, we weren't on a rooftop, but instead in a hidden garden and the food was amazing. Fresh cooked flatbreads for free before all meals is another Turkish custom I am very on board with!

The next day it was time for part 2 of our trip! We were heading to Cappadocia, a historical region in central Türkiye known for its valleys, natural landscapes and famous "fairy chimneys". It was about a 90 minute flight from Istanbul, and then we were staying in a town called Goreme which was another hour from the airport. The hotel we'd chosen was the Goreme Reva Hotel and it was super beautiful. Cave hotels are very popular in Cappadocia, where they're built into the rock formations themselves. We did toy with this idea but almost all of them don't have any windows or natural light (you know, because they're in a cave) and actually that sounded less appealing than just choosing a regular hotel made of stone and brick. Ours had 3 lovely roof terraces where you could admire the landscape and take pretty photos, and a nice pool area (which we were in a race to get to after a long travel day).

Cappadocia is definitely somewhere that's all about the photos and I'd gone for extra floaty vibes especially for them in this gorgeous butterfly print jumpsuit which I just love. After admiring the setting sun from one of our hotel roof terraces, we headed out to dinner in the town. There was actually more of a town than I'd been expecting as I thought we were pretty in the middle of nowhere. But there were quite a few restaurants to choose from and it was actually significantly cheaper than in Istanbul (which I found surprising). We ended up at a charcoal BBQ restaurant where we both order the most amazing seabream ever.

Our time in Cappadocia didn't actually go 100% to plan. The main reason we'd gone there, in fact the main reason that most people go there, is for the hot air balloon rides. They run them every day at sunrise and it's a really famous thing to do while you're there; to admire the scenery from above. We'd booked ours about a month ago but unfortunately, when we got there we got an email to say they'd all been cancelled that day due to the strong winds. Which was actually really unlucky because I think they get cancelled a lot in winter but in summer you're normally okay. I guess it gives us a reason to go back one day and try again! We had a lovely day regardless though and had a little wander around the town, got some iced coffee, read around the pool, and enjoyed some Turkish pizza (pide) for lunch.

We headed out a little bit later on the second night so we missed the sunset but it was lovely seeing the landscape in all different lights. Again I'd gone for a floaty outfit to match the vibes (this look felt very old hollywood) and we went for another lovely meal and a few rooftop drinks. Yes that's right. the rooftop obsession returned for one last time (well, it was our last night).

Our last day had rolled around way too quickly and we had a long journey home ahead of us. Luckily it was a well timed long journey home, as our flight to Istanbul was at 8pm and then our flight back to London from there was at 11pm. Which meant we still had the whole day to enjoy ourselves in Cappadocia! On the itinerary was breakfast at our lovely patio area, souvenir shopping, iced tea, and then one last sunbathing session. If you've yet to go to Türkiye, or worse, if you've only been to a Brits-abroad type resort where you don't leave the hotel, I would encourage you to visit and explore this beautiful country. It was my first time there and this two centre trip is one that had been on my list for ages. Two centre trips may seem like harder work but flights to Istanbul from London are every day, and so are flights from Istanbul to Kayseri (Cappadocia), with each return flight only totalling around £100 per person. 

The 4am drive home from Luton may have been painful but it was more than worth it. Me and G had such a lovely time on our first holiday together, and we're already eyeing up the next one. Since we're both bad influences when it comes to booking stuff and saying yes, I'm sure it won't be long until you see us featuring in another holiday blog post.