I’ll have a one day(OR longer) stay at Istanbul in Jan/Feb 2005 with my mom. Soo I desperately wanna visit some of the historical places like Hagia Sophia, Sultanahmet Square, etc & ofcourse shop at the grand Istanbul bazaar. I just wanna know if it’s a good idea and if it’s safe since we won’t be accompanied by any males. Any advice about how to make this one day stay a safe and exciting trip to Istanbul? If any of you have been there then I’d really love to hear about your experiences.
it's perfectly safe, get a hotel in the sultanahmet area, it's near hagia sofia/ the blue mosque and topkapi palace. Everything is in walking distance and if you really want to you can take a trolly to the grandbazar.
I think doing all 3 plus the grand bazar will be difficult in one day, unless you prepare and start early....get a guide book and you should be fine. oh check out the spice bazar over the granbazar, it's much cheaper for EXACTLy the same stuff...
one more thing... as a muslim u can visit any of the mosques to pray, outside of their tourist hours)...we ended up praying at all the major mosques b/c we were there around namaaz time (it's called namaaz in turkish too!)