Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [83]
Guidebooks
As with books on all of Turkey, I peruse quite a number on Istanbul, too. Two I must separate from the pack are:
Imperial Istanbul: A Traveler’s Guide, by Jane Taylor (Tauris Parke, 2007). This outstanding guidebook and Strolling Through Istanbul (just below) are the two most highly recommended books for a visit to Istanbul. You absolutely must read one of them, but they are different enough that reading both is best. This volume includes chapters on Iznik, Bursa, and Edirne. Taylor is a writer, photographer, and former television producer who lived in Istanbul in the early ’70s and writes, “The ‘Queen of Cities’ continues to exercise her fascination. Despite changes (not all beautiful), this extraordinary city, with the garland of the seas that surround her and the Istanbullus who inhabit her, still makes any return to her a delightful renewal of discovery.”
Strolling Through Istanbul, by Hilary Sumner-Boyd and John Freely (Redhouse, Istanbul, 1972). This is the veritable bible of the city. Robert Ousterhout, writing in The Freely Papers, says that “it remains the best guidebook ever written about Istanbul, setting a standard for travel writing that is rarely matched.” It’s not only the main text of the book that make this so valuable; with the lists of emperors and sultans, notes on Byzantine architectural forms, Ottoman architectural forms, and Sinan’s works in Istanbul, this package is unsurpassed. In the final chapter, “A Last Stroll,” the authors conclude that “Istanbul is much more than just an inhabited museum, for the old town has a beauty and fascination that go quite beyond its history and its architecture. One is apt to feel this when seated at a çayevi or meyhane in a sun-dappled square or while taking one’s keyif in a vine-shaded café beside the Bosphorus. Little has been said of the Stamboullus themselves, but the visitor will surely have experienced innumerable examples of their grave friendliness and unfailing hospitality.… How can one not feel sad when leaving this beautiful city?”
The other guides I use fall into two categories: those I bring along and those I don’t. Heavy tomes stay at home (I take notes from these) while one or two others go in my carry-on bag. All I consult are below:
Blue Guide: Istanbul because it’s written by John Freely. Renowned travel writer Jan Morris once wrote that she preferred to peruse old, out-of-date guides over new ones because she liked to see how a place had changed (and when she says “old” she means decades old, not just a few years). I completely agree with her, and though the Blue Guide edition I have is from 1983, I still consult it. (And I am fortunate to own a Baedeker’s guide to the Eastern Mediterranean that dates from the 1930s).
Eyewitness Travel: Istanbul for the time lines that run along the bottom of some of the pages in the History section, and the bird’s-eye-view maps (I am nuts for these).
A Hedonist’s Guide to Istanbul, otherwise known as Hg2 Istanbul, for its terrific and useful listings.
Insight Guides: Istanbul for the History and People section and the Travel Tips at the back.
Knopf Guides: Istanbul and Northwest Turkey for the early sections of each book—covering history, writers, painters, and relevant topics—and the architectural cross-sections of historic buildings and private residences.
Knopf MapGuides: Istanbul for its size, portability, and good recommendations. MapGuides aren’t published for every destination in the world, but when there is one in existence I never leave without it (except when I go to Paris, for which nothing beats the Plan de Paris). No more standing on a street corner looking like a dork with a map: each volume measures about 5 × 7½ inches and the city is presented in neighborhood-by-neighborhood maps, each of which opens up to about 9½ × 13 inches.
Louis Vuitton City Guide: European Cities for its remarkably succinct and spot-on listings. Istanbul is included