It is the magical city that can offer a spell of charm or maybe scare you with dark magic. Unlike many culturally homogenous countries, Turkey is a heterogenous one and Istanbul is particularly so. There are all kinds of people and cultures here so it is strictly an art to live within a constantly changing culture. Just going from one place to another exposes you to so many different peoples living in harmony and they often kive in quite a rush as the city thus people are so dynamic. Here you can find almost all urban colors (wonderful and not-so-wonderful) the jewel of Istanbul called Bosphorus and an inner sea harboring several marinas.
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| Bosphorus Bridge |
Four marinas are located within Istanbul. These are Fenerbahce, Ataköy, Pendik and a new marina to the 10nm west of Ataköy marina. There is also Yalova marina somehow nearby Istanbul. I like neither of them since they lack the beauty of southern marinas and suffer from pollution. If you intend to keep your boat here then...good luck for you will have a very difficult time finding a berth in these marinas, especially in Fenerbahçe and Ataköy marinas which are crowded and expensive.
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| Istanbul Waterways & Prince Islands |
We wished to keep our boat in Ataköy marina and cruise along the southern coast in summer but The Sea of Marmara, The Bosphorus and the Prince Islands gave us no big pleasure. The marine resources in and around Istanbul are polluted so swimming is not recommended even though our municipality somehow declares our waters clean enough to swim. Do not trust them and do not swim in Istanbul ! There are few anchoring opportunities around the Prince Islands and Bosphorus is crowded 24x7. Lovely settings for an occasional cruise, a definite must, but did not satisfy our needs for periodic or extended cruising.
That is why we kept our boat in Istanbul only for several months and then started on our first cruise :-)
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