{"id":52719,"date":"2012-04-15T08:30:48","date_gmt":"2012-04-15T05:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=52719"},"modified":"2023-04-06T10:19:10","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T07:19:10","slug":"finding-a-bargain-in-istanbul-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2012\/04\/15\/finding-a-bargain-in-istanbul-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding a bargain in Istanbul, Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Istanbul, Turkey \u2014 For months I had been pining for a trip to Europe, willing to go anywhere a cheap flight would take me. But the elusive bargain I sought didn’t materialize until February, and it wasn’t completely Europe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Boats pass beneath Istanbul’s Galata Bridge, which crosses the Golden Horn to connect the city’s older and newer sections. (Mary Forgione \/ For The Times \/ February 21, 2012)<\/em><\/p>\n

The airfare of my dreams was a Valentine’s Day special open to anyone: $599 round-trip from L.A. to continent-straddling Istanbul, including tax and fees. It required a companion fare (which meant I had to find someone to go with) and traveling in February. (This was Turkish airlines, and although this fare is not available now\u2014some fares this month are as low as $758 on American, so keep an eye out for specials.)<\/p>\n

With little time to plan, I found a willing accomplice (my friend Sonia), and packed a carry-on bag for the week. I scanned a few guidebooks during the 13-hour flight that said Istanbul wasn’t the super bargain it once was. But traveling off-season in a country outside the euro zone worked in my favor. After just one day, I found the Turkish city easy to get to know \u2014 and easy to explore without spending a fortune.<\/p>\n

During the impromptu trip, Sonia and I found good budget hotels in the hip Beyoglu and the old city for less than $100 a night. No mini-bars or microwaves, just neat single rooms (we didn’t have to double up to save money) that included good breakfast buffets…<\/p>\n

via Finding a bargain in Istanbul, Turkey – latimes.com.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/travel\/la-tr-turkey-20120408-story.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Istanbul, Turkey \u2014 For months I had been pining for a trip to Europe, willing to go anywhere a cheap flight would take me. But the elusive bargain I sought didn’t materialize until February, and it wasn’t completely Europe. Boats pass beneath Istanbul’s Galata Bridge, which crosses the Golden Horn to connect the city’s older […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":52722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1094],"tags":[102],"class_list":["post-52719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tourism","tag-istanbul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}