On our way back from Egypt to New Zealand, we had few nights stop over in Istanbul and decided to explore some new areas of Istanbul that we haven’t been to so far and we picked Kadikoy. Kadikoy is a large, populous, and cosmopolitan district in the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey, on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmara, facing the historic city center on the European side of the Bosporus. Kadıköy is also the name of the most prominent neighborhood of the district, a residential and commercial area that, with its numerous bars, cinemas and bookshops, is the cultural center of the Anatolian side of Istanbul.
Apart from the first time that we traveled overland from Iran to Istanbul, we haven’t been to the Asian side of Istanbul. Returning to Istanbul for the fourth time, we decided to spend a day in the Asian side and especially Kadikoy. As most of the people visiting Istanbul, stay on European side, I’ll start with how easy it is to get to Kadikoy from Sultan Ahmet area and European side of Istanbul in general.
How to get to Kadikoy:
There are lots of ways to travel between Asian and European sides of Istanbul, considering the number of locals commute everyday over the Bosphorus strait to get to work. Using taxi and bus are probably the least preferred way as Istanbul traffic over the Bosphorus bridge can get really bad. Metro is a good option and the fastest but as a tourist, we will lose the stunning views of the Bosphorus. So as the result, the best option is getting on a Ferry. With frequent ferries from different ferry stations all across the European side of Istanbul, it’s a fun, easy, cheap 30 minute trip to Kadikoy ferry station. There are ferries from :
- Eminönü
- Karaköy
- Kabataş (Temporarily unavailable)
- Beşiktaş
- Princes’ Islands
Staying in Istanbul old town, Eminonu is an easy to reach station by walk or tram. Istanbul card makes it easy to switch between different public transportation means and makes it quick to move between different areas and neighborhoods in Istanbul. Ferries normally leave on time and they are all in good conditions. There’s a lot to see on board, so when we got to Kadikoy and had to get off, we didn’t even realized that we were on board for 30 minutes.
A Day in Kadikoy:
Spending a day in Kadikoy is a different experience from experiencing the Kadikoy night life. Kadikoy has became a popular as a nightlife destination lately with lots of cool bars and pubs and amazing food, but we haven’t been there at night, so here we focus more on a day trip in Kadikoy. First thing to see in Kadikoy is its fresh produce market within the walking distance from the ferry station.
Walking in this market with absolutely no purpose and forgetting about google map and directions, is a must. We just followed smells and vibrant fresh produce colors into the alley ways and stopped from time to time in a cute local cafe for a cup of tea or coffee. Buying figs and eating them as we were walking was the best.
Living in New Zealand with minimum access to fresh produce daily markets, I really missed access to these live, busy markets with amazing variety of vegetables, herbs, pickles, meat, cheese, spices,….
It is a real attraction to me after buying everything from big supermarkets for few years. Let’s have a look on some of the scenes in the market before moving on. In fact any local market or Bazaar is a big part of our trips anywhere, but Istanbul fresh produce is one of the best.
It is hard to say how much it takes to visit the market. There’s not a list of places to visit, it’s just about feeling the vibe and experiencing the market as locals, sit when you find a cafe that you like and just feel it to sit and have a cup of tea or two.
After spending few hours there, we walked toward another area in Kadikoy called Moda. It has more modern hip vibe with cool cafes and bookshops. There’s a touristic tram circuit in Moda. It’s easy to walk the tram route to see interesting parts of Moda and not get lost.
One of the interesting parts of Moda neighborhood was its quiet residential streets with quick access to the hustle and bustle of its center, cafes, bars, galleries and public transportation with walking distance to Bosphorus strait on its west and Marmara sea on its south. Definitely one of the best residential area to live in Istanbul. Our top pick on the European side is Besiktas. Most of the Istanbul visitors spend most of their time on European side and especially the old town and Sultan Ahmet area which is really a gem but the laid back local vibe of Kadikoy is stunning especially if you are not the first timer in Istanbul. The other interesting neighborhood that we discovered in this trip was Balat on European side which definitely worth a visit too.
Around Kadikoy ferry station and fresh produce market, Kadikoy is pretty flat unlike the rest of Istanbul but walking south toward Moda, it starts to feel more like the rest of Istanbul with lots of uphills, downhills and steep alleys.
Around lunch time we walked back to Kadikoy center to get some local lunch instead of spending our lunch time in up market cafes and restaurants in Moda.
We walked toward more busy local street food area in Kadikoy to have lunch and honestly there was too many options that we finally decided to go for few different bites instead of sitting in a restaurant for proper lunch to try as many good things as we can before getting full. The local part of Kadikoy has such a great vibe with real old local cafes with old men playing cards and having tea with their mates in stunning alleyways covered with vine trees.
Cafes like this are the gems we are looking for in any neighborhood and it brings joy to our heart when we find one. They are irreplaceable with cool hip new cafes vibes. We were getting tired and ready to get back to the old town and our hotel after a long day walking. On our way back we found the famous Umbrella street of Kadikoy. Probably if we were looking for it, we couldn’t find it. The nice thing about this umbrella street is using random umbrellas with different colors and patterns. It’s a cul de sac alley with nice bars and cafes. A good excuse for us to sit and have an Efes beer before getting on the ferry and go back to the hotel.
