The day started off again with a colourful breakfast 😎 
What I like about this hotel is, that beside the standard food, they change one or two dishes every morning. Hence, you don’t eat exactly the same breakfast on a daily basis 🙂
After yesterday’s full day exploring of Istanbul, we wanted to escape a bit of the hustle & bustle of the city and decided for a half-day trip on Princes’ Islands (Adalar). The Princes’ Islands are a chain of nine rather small islands in the Sea of Marmara. Of those nine islands, only four of them are open to the public: Büyükada, the biggest and most popular one followed by Burgazada, Heybeliada and Kınalıada.
The reason why it is called Princes’ Islands is dated back during the Byzantine period, princes and other royalty were exiled on the islands, and later members of the Ottoman sultans’ family were exiled there too, giving the islands their present name.
We opted for Büyükada. What’s unique about these Islands is that it’s a car-free islands #yeah
We originally planned to take the fast ferry from Beşiktaş that takes you to the island in about 45minish. Unfortunately the taxi driver got us off at the wrong ferry station, and we ended up with taking the slow one, which took almost 2hish to our destination since it made a few stops in-between. Which I didn’t mind, especially when you got rewarded with views like these 😀 
And on the plus side, the slow ferry cost only 7TL one-way 😎 After the 2hish ferry journey we finally arrived at Büyükada.
I was hoping to find a bit quieter / idyllic island similar to Hydra in Greece, where I went earlier this year. Instead the island was vividly visited by locals and tourists. 
Since Büyükada is the biggest of the nine islands and it was impossible to explore the whole island in one afternoon, we decided for a trip on one of these horse-drawn carriages. For a 45minish ride they charged 75TL. 
We didn’t see the whole island but half of it for getting a first impression 🙂 
Before making our way back to the ferry we had a quick lunch at Sultanahmet Koftecisi 
and strolled a bit around the town centre 
There are more restaurants and shops along the market street to the left (east), as well as seafood restaurants along the shore. To the right are a few cafes, a park, and docks for private ferries and yachts. 
On the way back we took the fast ferry IDO, which only took about 45minish to get us back to Istanbul but it cost the double price 15TL per person. But time is money, right? 😉
Location Details:
Ferry Docks from Istanbul:
The dock for the slow ferry departs (arrives) from (at) Eminönü
The dock for the fast ferry (IDO) departs (arrives) from (at) Beşiktaş
Food Places we been to:
Sultanahmet Koftecisi
Büyükada-nizam Mahallesi, 23 Nisan Cad. No:12, 34970 Adalar/İstanbul – Asya, Turkey
Phone: +90 216 382 25 23
Overall Experience: 2/10 (I normally don’t give bad ratings since there is always something good if not the food, then the atmosphere or the service or the price. But this place – I would avoid it and suggest to try any of the many other food places nearby. My walnut salad was okay but the Iskender Kebabs was a joke. It was supposed to come with lamp meat, some yoghurt and a bit of salad. Instead they top the plate up with some lamp meat but underneath were only bread!! Not very an honest way to serve food)
