We decided to go cheap for hotel but splash out on experience, so we booked for a 3 star hotel for our stay. The trip was initially for us to have a mini break as we had both been working endlessly the entire year without a break, so we thought we’d treat ourselves.

We stayed at a hotel just a couple kilometres from Grand Bazaar, it was in a little place called Fatih, in Istanbul. The location was great, there were loads of local restaurants and for a fraction of the price that you’d normally see in the more touristy side of Istanbul, to be honest, we barely saw any tourists in the area we stayed at. It was busy but more due to the actual locals lifestyle, so it was interesting to see how life for the locals of Istanbul works.

We’re both individuals who pay for experience rather than trends, we love history, nature and architecture so we thought we’d take advantage of what Istanbul has to offer before splashing any cash or souvenirs and other bits and bobs.

Although Turkey in general is a budget friendly holiday option in comparison to many other countries, we were shocked at how the prices had increased within 2 years time. My wife has never been to the Topkapi Museum so I thought I’d take her there to start. The prices used to be no more than £20-25, but to our shock they had increased to around £50 each! Massive put off, so we went to search for things close by related to what we wanted to do. We thought we’d try out the Hagia Sophia but that also now has a price of £25 per entry (free for those who are there specifically for Friday prayer known as Jummah).

Not gonna lie, we were completely disappointed but we understand the reasons behind the price increase. So we managed to find an islamic shrine not far from the Grand Bazaar, which had a lot of historical items placed in, and was totally free without being super busy. We also found the Sultan Ahmet Mosque known as The Blue Mosque which was free to enter and also breathtaking to be inside and pray in. Check out my tiktok and instagram @pinmyjourney1 to see what we found.

As I mentioned, we stumbled around the Grand Bazaar looking for historical places, so of course whilst we were there we thought we’d check it out (my wallet and bank account already face palmed by this point).

If you want knock off designer brands with slightly poor quality but for an absolute bargain, shop around outside the Grand Bazaar and be sure to haggle, we haggled from over 1000 lira to around 300 at one point.

But of course, the Grand Bazaar itself has better quality items, knock offs that look genuine and some shops source the same material as LV and other brands and make them from scratch. The sellers tend to be honest once you get into a deeper conversation and of course, act like you’ve already visited China to catch out any cheekiness!

The other days, we spent around the sea, exploring local areas and my wife went a bit ham in the pharmacy for skincare, I believe you can get products off the counter at a much lower price than back in Europe. We visited some local restaurants and the food was banging, didn’t have a single bad experience with meals to be honest, apart from the hotel breakfast which was quite shabby and repetitive.

All in all, would we visit again? Without a doubt (but in a better hotel this time because comfort is important along with exploring) and we’ll be sure to extend our budget as the prices have increased along with the rest of the world.

Estimated total spent including return flights from Europe and Hotel: £2300