Istanbul: Galata Tower & Scams

Today was a short day as it’s the last day for my traveling companion as he moves on to a new country and I leave to another one tomorrow.

We spent the day at Galata Tower since there were no cruise ships at port and there were no lines for the tower.

Galata Tower

Inside the tower is this model of Istanbul.

There are interesting things to see from the tower. Not sure what exactly is going on on the rooftop of the building below?

Spectacular views.

Interesting photo ops!

The route down is to take some stairs in some very tight corridors but each landing has some artifacts from long ago.

We had lunch at a Persian restaurant and the food was good and affordable.

Finished the day with desert. The three flavors of homemade ice cream from left to right are blueberry, peach and milk. Why are they all the same color? Who knows, but the best one is the milk. Available at Salon Galata.

SCAMS

Our trip in Istanbul has been fabulous except for the three scams encountered by the travel team. Istanbul is well known for endless scams and you should be aware that even the tourist destination are in on the action by over charging or padding the costs of tours, tickets and events.

The best way we found to avoid the scams is to PRE-BUY your tickets with reputable firms. I would highly recommend that you pre-book all the excursions or tours through GetYourGuide.com or Viator.com. I would highly encourage you to do this especially for Turkey.

I booked all my tours through GetYourGuide and I didn’t have a single problem. My traveling companion thought he could save a few bucks but ended up getting scammed.

If you think you’ll be saving money by going with some dude off the street, you will likely end up overpaying or be outright scammed.

The other thing to do BEFORE you travel to any destination is to review your destination in Reddit, YouTube or other online resources with emphasis on “scams in country x” and educate yourself. I also always check the UK Travel Advisory website for any notices. No, you don’t need to be British to use the site!

This website has a list of some common scams but it’s not all inclusive of issues you may face.