How long to spend in istanbul

I am planning a 4-5 week long trip in turkey in May/early June next year, and am trying to work out how long to spend in Istanbul, my current idea is 5 days but I can spend longer. As I would like to see the major attractions along with some time just checking out the city and taking my time to explore.

Does anyone have suggestions on how long to spend in Istanbul, I also know this very subjective and is probably like asking how long is a piece of string.

You could use all your 4-5 weeks in Istanbul and still have a list of not done's left over.It is a huge, multi layered city and many people I know have visited regularly for 15 years or more and still find new things!
But for a first visit allow a full week.This would give you time to cover all the major must see's plus give you some down time to just stroll and soak up the atmosphere.Too many visitors pack every single minute full and never pick up the beat of this vibrant city because they are just ...rush rush rush.
Depending on where else you'll go you could consider splitting your time in Istanbul to 3-4 days each end of the trip.After seeing other parts of the country you would go back to Istanbul and view it with a different perspective which is an interesting experience.

Agree with #1.

A week is a good time for a first trip..a balance between the most well known sights and some time to just walk and absorb.

I doubt it will be your last trip....I was there for my 8th time last August.Hopefully I will be there again next year.....

Haa haa, I rest my case Lucapal , 8 and counting :)and I bet your 'to do' list is still just as long as ever.

It does depend what else you want to do in Turkey, and what your overall priorities are. But I agree with the other posters - you would not run out of things to do in a week. This would be a very reasonable amount of time to see the main attractions (without rushing) and to just "check things out". My first visit to Istanbul was for a week, and it was ideal - I saw what I wanted to see, without exhausting the place (impossible!), and it created in me a love for the city which has never left me, and which has caused me to return several times. I hope you are ready for the start of such a love affair. :-)

Considering you have a generous time for the overall trip (4-5 weeks) I too agree that a week is about right.

One thing I disagree with is the suggestion to divide your time in Istanbul--I personally think you should keep it all together at the end of your visit. Particularly on your first visit to Turkey, I can't imagine a worse place for an independent traveler to recover from significant jet lag than Istanbul!

While I only spent a small amount of my life living in a large city, I'm no stranger to large cities throughout the world. I've visited Istanbul many times now and despite spending more than a month in total, it still somewhat overwhelms me with both its size and general pace. While we have made a number of excellent friends in Turkey (with a few of them living in Istanbul) none were actually met in Istanbul. I find it significantly more difficult to have meaningful interactions with Turkish people in Istanbul than nearly anywhere else in the country. Even some Turkish friends who moved to Istanbul more than a year ago say it is FAR more difficult for them to make friends in Istanbul than other places in the country. This isn't because people in Istanbul are any less friendly, it's because they're so busy! Even with weeks of advance notice it can be difficult to meet with friends in Istanbul for just a few hours! This seems to apply to people of every strata of life as our friends in Istanbul are of wildly different means, occupation, etc. Actually anyone who isn't very busy in Istanbul probably is not the sort of person you need to be interacting with ;)

As Sarikinarya said, if you split your time in Istanbul you may well get a different impression during the second visit. I go a bit farther and say that your second impression will probably be significantly better than the first. That makes me conclude, "Why bother with the first (and likely false) impression?"

I was going to add my tuppence-worth and side with Sarikanarya. But then I looked at your profile and other post. On arrival in Istanbul after coming from Australia you'll almost certainly be jet-lagged, and a city isn't the best place to get over that.

As Selcuk is on your list of 'must visits' can I recommend getting a flight to Izmir? If you arrive at the right time you can seamlessly transfer to a train to Selcuk, right at the airport. If there's not the option of a direct flight, then booking the domestic flight with the same airline at the same time will ensure that if your first flight is delayed for any reason you'll be put on the next available flight and looked-after in between. http://seat61.com/Turkey2.htm#Izmir_Ephesus_Pamukkale has the timetable for trains - the airport is roughly halfway between Izmir and Selcuk, I think.
Selcuk is the ideal place to relax - plenty to see with Ephesus on the doorstep and a wonderful museum as just two of the attractions, but nearly everyone there speaks English and the pace of life is easy, easy. (It's also cheap, compared to Istanbul, with good connections to everywhere else, so if you spend a little longer there it's no big deal.

Never enough time.
Been here two years and still so much to do.
Good luck.
Istanbul Photogrpher John Wreford

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