ANY TURKS!??? OR WHO BEEN TO TURKEY!?? - NeeD HELP!!

Hi,

The main places to visit in Istanbul: Sultanahmet (Blue) Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi palace, Grand Bazaar, Spice Market, Taksim Meydani (Taksim Square), Turkish & Islamic Arts Museum (right in front of Blue Mosque) and Sulmaniye Camii (another beautiful mosque). You can take a short cruise across the Bosphorus over to the asian side "Üsküdar".
The boat ride is nice if you have lovely weather but I found that there wasn't much to do in Üsküdar.

If you have the chance to try a Turkish hamam, do it! It's a very refreshing experience! The one I went to is called Cağaloğlu Hamam
cagalogluhamami.com.tr/ (I think you should be able to find the address here).

There's this really nice authentic restaurant where they make fresh "pide" (a thin bread that you eat with chicken). The restaurant is called Cennet Gozleme-Manti. I think the restaurant is in the Sultanahmet area. You'll see a lady from the restaurant's window, sitting and preparing the fresh pides. Gorge yourself with lots of turkish delights (lokum), sweets such as baklava and delicious apple tea.
Make sure to try the amazing chewy turkish ice cream (dondurma). If you walk on Sultanahmet street, you'll find lots of ice cream stands. Also try "kumpir" (baked potato with various fillings), sooo good! 

The metro & tram are very useful and simple modes of transportation over there. The rest of the time, you just walk.  I only took a taxi once as I got stuck in some heavy rain, the first day; although I missed the rain, I wasn't prepared for it and got soaked so had to get into a taxi! You really shouldn't have to take any taxis though. Most of the time you'll be walking and taking the metro and/or tram.

I heard Cappadocia is beautiful; didn't get a chance to visit.
If you have the time, visit Ameerat island (Princes' Islands) as well, heard it's nice. Other places I heard are also worth visiting, I heard, are: Izmir and Pamukkale.

Here are two useful sites:

goturkey.com

turkeytravelplanner.com

You've made me really miss Turkey now Have a wonderful time!
Hope this helps

I went last March for a week and stayed in Istanbul. I stayed right in Taksim at the Galata Antique Hotel. Pretty nice and old school. Right next to the metro and great bars and cafes. Had a great time. Went and saw a lot of the sights that SaharEl mentioned. I hooked up with some locals and they took me to all kinds of great places. The food is amazing everywhere and the people are nice.

Jokernage kind of surprised me but there is some truth in what he's saying..

AK - I'm from Istanbul and you need at least 4 days to discover the city as a tourist. Travelling solo in Turkey might be a little challenging as there is a language barrier. Taxi drivers for example dont speak English. And all the signs are in Turkish. Well you're going in a cold climate so there wont be much happening like summer season.
If you like skiing that would be a good option to go to Bursa.
The places you would like to cover are way too many and they are not close to Istanbul apart from Canakkale. Canakkale is the place where you'll see Troy but nothing else would probably be of your interest.
Izmir is a nice city as well but again its off season so you may want to check out Cesme and Efes.

I'd recommend you to visit Kapadokya(Cappadocia) if you'd like to see one of the amazing landscape in the World with underground city beneath it. You can enjoy some Turkish nights with Belly dancing as well.

I hope you enjoy my country