Lonely Planet Istanbul (City Guide) Paperback Author: Visit Amazon's Virginia Maxwell Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1741799619 | Format: PDF, EPUB
Download Lonely Planet Istanbul
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- Series: City Guide
- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Lonely Planet; 7 edition (March 1, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1741799619
- ISBN-13: 978-1741799613
- Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I might start by admitting that I'm cheap (but please read on before you discount my opinion as just someone who wanted something for nothing). I'm cheap. And so when I recently travelled on vacation from Los Angeles to Istanbul I bought a minimal number of text messages and voice minutes from my mobile provider as a 'just in case'.
Seeing as how I wasn't going to have Google Maps at the touch of a button on my mobile, I opted to purchase the Lonely Planet Istanbul Guide Book to use with my Kindle (which I feel at least partially disguise myself as a tourist since it wasn't obvious that I was looking at a travel guide).
The guidebook is very well laid-out with chapters devoted to each major area of the city. Each chapter has a nice selection of the big sites that you shouldn't miss, a list of restaurants/bars/clubs that the author recommends and a map. Further, many of the big sites have small guides of their own to help you navigate them and draw your attention to some of their more interesting aspects.
From a planning perspective, I thought the book was very useful. Each night (or early morning since I never could quite get the hang of adjusting my sleep schedule) I would read about the area of the city I would visit next, lay out a plan on which sites I would see and then read about what made those site particularly significant. I would look through the restaurant recommendations and pick a few that seemed most appealing and then fall asleep (Or head out for those instances when I couldn't sleep).
It was then that my enchantment with the book really fell to pieces. I didn't find the book to be very clear with how to traverse from one part of the city to the other and the maps were utterly useless.
Istanbul is a fascinating city and definitely one of my favourite places, and I have been there five or six times now. It is a thriving and colourful metropolis, the place where Europe meets Asia and this book does quite a reasonable job of guiding the visitor around.
The first forty odd pages are devoted to an overview of the city and include the obligatory ten top sites to see, for once quite uncontroversial as most would be in agreement as to the majority of this list. Also included is some general information, some suggested itineraries and other basic information. A quite useful and recently introduced feature in Lonely Planet guides is the What's New section and here the recently completed restoration of Aya Sofya is highlighted. This is definitely on the Must Visit list in Istanbul and it has a lengthy and fascinating history. It was originally a Christian Church built in 537 and the last Christian service was held there the day before the Muslim invasion of Constantinople in 1453.
The bulk of the book consists of a description of the six neighbourhoods of the city. Included here are details of the top tourist attractions, including entry fees and days of opening (the latter being important as not many are open all seven days here), where to eat, drink, shop etc. The eating information should be treated with care as in my experience the updating with a new edition is limited and you may well find the eating establishment you have chosen to go to is not as described.
The remainder of the book, some 80 pages, is devoted to an eclectic mix of history and useful information for the visitor including accommodation, though I, like I imagine most these days, tend to rely on sites such as Tripadvisor for the latter.
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