What should I avoid in Istanbul?

Istanbul taxi drivers have a handful of tricks that catch first-timers. The most common: the driver hits the airport-rate button — double the city fare — or takes the coastal road from Sabiha Gökçen when the highway cuts twenty minutes off the trip. BiTaksi locks in the route and fare before you climb in. From Sabiha Gökçen, the Havaist bus to Kadıköy runs about 180 TRY (around $4) until midnight; a taxi on the scenic detour hits 900–1,200 TRY. From Istanbul Airport on the European side, the M11 metro reaches Gayrettepe in 40 minutes for 70 TRY — no driver, no negotiation, an air-conditioned carriage that still smells like fresh plastic. One more trick: some drivers claim the credit card machine is broken at the end of the ride. It isn't. Insist, or use the app.

The shoe-shine drop is Istanbul's signature street hustle, and it is still going strong. A man with a wooden shoeshine kit walks past you near Galata Bridge or Eminönü, lets his brush clatter to the cobblestones, and when you call out or pick it up he thanks you like you've rescued his livelihood. Free shine, he insists. Then the demand: 200–400 TRY. Keep walking. The second racket targets solo men near the Spice Bazaar and along İstiklal Caddesi. A local strikes up warm conversation — where are you from, first time here? — and within fifteen minutes you're sitting in a dimly lit bar in Beyoğlu where drinks arrive without prices and the tab lands between 3,000 and 5,000 TRY, with a bouncer near the door to help you reconsider leaving. If a stranger is being unusually generous with his time near a tourist corridor, the math is not working in your favor.

The restaurants lining Divan Yolu between the Sultanahmet tram stop and the Blue Mosque are the city's worst dining value. Laminated photo menus behind glass, a man tugging at your arm, and plates of pre-made kebab that taste like they sat under a heat lamp since noon — a mediocre Adana kebab here runs 350–500 TRY. Walk ten minutes south into the Küçük Ayasofya neighborhood and eat at Tarihi Sultanahmet Köftecisi Selim Usta. The köfte comes off a charcoal grill, arrives on a hot steel plate with raw white onion and blackened peppers, and costs around 200 TRY. You can smell the charcoal smoke drifting out from the street. The Grand Bazaar is worth one visit for the painted vaulted ceilings along Kalpakçılar Caddesi, but buy nothing on your first walk through. Prices start at five to ten times what the shops behind Mahmutpaşa charge, three streets outside the bazaar walls.

Summer heat surprises people who picture Istanbul as a European city. July and August push 33–38°C with thick humidity rolling off the Sea of Marmara, and the walk between Hagia Sophia and the Grand Bazaar — fifteen minutes on a cool spring morning — becomes a slow, damp trudge through dense crowds. The stone courtyards trap heat like ovens. Little corner shops sell 1.5L water bottles for 15–25 TRY, and you'll find public fountains (çeşme) marked 'içme suyu' scattered around the old city. Winter is the opposite problem: a raw, wet wind off the Bosphorus that makes the Eminönü-to-Kadıköy ferry crossing feel ten degrees colder than the thermometer reads. Your fingers go numb holding the rail on the upper deck. Pack layers you can peel, not one heavy coat.

Mosque closures catch visitors daily at the Blue Mosque and Süleymaniye. Shoes off, shoulders and knees covered, women cover hair — most people know this part. What they miss: the five daily prayer times close both mosques to tourists, and the Friday midday prayer (cuma namazı) shuts the Blue Mosque for roughly 90 minutes. Standing in a long queue under the sun only to reach the door and be turned away — that's a first-day mistake worth sidestepping. Check the posted schedule at the entrance gate or download the Diyanet app. And give a wide berth to the 'free guided tour' men outside Hagia Sophia. They're unlicensed, their history tends to be creative at best, and the tour ends at a carpet shop where you'll sit on floor cushions drinking çay while someone slowly unrolls silk rugs you never asked to see.