Istanbul is the only city in the world that straddles two continents, and it feels like it. Stand on a bridge over the Bosphorus and you've got Europe on one bank and Asia on the other, ferries criss-crossing between them, gulls wheeling overhead, and the call to prayer rising from a skyline of domes and minarets. This was the capital of two great empires, Byzantine and Ottoman, and that layered history is everywhere: in the soaring Hagia Sophia, the tiled palaces, the labyrinthine bazaars that have been trading for 500 years. It's chaotic, sensory, ancient and modern all at once, and utterly intoxicating.
For the budget traveller, Istanbul is a gift. Thanks to the favourable exchange rate, your money stretches far further here than in Western Europe, and the city's greatest pleasures, the street food, the ferry rides, the bazaars, the mosques, cost very little or nothing at all. A bowl of something delicious from a local lokanta costs a few euros, a ferry across the Bosphorus is pocket change, and many of the grandest mosques are free to enter. The trick, as ever, is to eat where locals eat and step away from the tourist traps. Get that right and Istanbul delivers a world-class experience for a fraction of the price. We'll show you how.
