A wonderful trip to The Prince’s Islands from Istanbul
Istanbul – is not only the European and Asian parts of the city. A popular destination of tourists and the very citizens are the Prince’s Islands or Prens Adalar in Turkish. Located 20 km from the metropolis and washed by the Sea of Marmara. You can get there by public ferry.
The issue of getting to the Princes’ Islands (designated as ADALAR or Prince’s islands). There are several departure stations. The main is Kabatas, which is in the European part. It’s also the terminal station of the tram’s blue line. There is an option to get on the steam from the Asian part from Kadikoy station.
It’s important to know that it’s cheaper to sail to the Prince’s Islands by public transport, where you pay with Istanbulcard card. The company is called SEHIR HATLARI (there’s a site and brochures at stops with hours and prices). The Price will be 3.85TL, if that’s the first trip of the day, or 1.6TL – if you took a tram or a bus to Kabatas/Kadikoy station. There’s a discount system for the second trip. That is, it will be 5.45 together there and back.
There’s another company that take people to the Prince’s Islands on their boats, but the ticket price is 5TL, and Istanbulcard card is not accepted.
You can enjoy your trip from the city to the islands for 1.5 hours. We went from the first station Kabatas, then picked up people from the Kadikoy station – and headed to the islands.
On the way, you can admire the metropolis view: the European and Asian parts of Istanbul.
We took two simits for a trip) But inside there’s a cafe, and tea is additionally offered.
Morning Istanbul. We decided to go at 8:40 am, so that at 10:00 we could already ride around the island.
It was cloudy) But we took swimsuits. Hence, it is believed that it’s a good deal to swim on the islands, because the water is clean. So, the Turks have summer houses there and rest in summer. Although Istanbul has access to the sea, but because of the permanent navigation of ships and waste water – it’s very dirty!
This is great to sail to the islands for 1.5 hours, and on public transport at a cheap rate) It’s a usual thing for the Turks, but for us – a holiday.
The Prince’s Islands are called in plural not without reason, because there are 9 islands. 5 of them are inhabited.
It’s interesting that it’s banned to travel by car on the islands. Only on foot, by bicycle or other harmless transport.
You can, of course, visit all 5 islands. However, every time you have to pay for transportation on a ferry.
The most popular and the largest island is Buyukada. This is the ship’s destination. We have forgotten a bit and went out at the first stop, so arrived at the Kinaliada island. Not bad too, there were no tourists that day.
Immediately on arrival, we went to look for bicycles. Basically we went with the main goal – to ride a bicycle. We found a rent, but nobody understood English. We were surprised, since crowds of tourists come here (didn’t know then that we went out on a less popular island). We managed to negotiate a 5-hour ride – 15TL. If the whole day, 20TL.
We made only one lap around the island, because it started to rain.
Went to a café for an hour, we were lucky to have a good wifi. By the way, there’s a map of the island on the table, which they gave us at the bicycles rent.
Cool when there’s nobody around. You can use the locations as you want to. So we were glad that got out at a different island.
Use what you want! Found a lot of interesting.
As for the island itself. The one we exited – Kinaliada – haven’t seen nothing Prince’s there. Many abandoned huts and the utility workers do not clean here. The impression was that the Turks come here to picnic feast, but don’t clean after that at all. And couples fled here not to be noticed.
There’s lots of dogs and cats on the island, but it’s a dreadful and sad view. We don’t know whether people spend winters here – if not, then the way animals survive can be seen in their eyes.
It’s a pleasure to ride here. There are steep descents/ascents and level rides. To go round all the streets on the island you need some 2-3 hours perhaps. Depending on how to ride and stop. From those five paid hours, we rode less because of a downpour and photo shoots, but equally cool! Another nice thing is to contemplate the great city of Istanbul from a small island at a 20 km distance.
And then again a pleasure of sailing on a boat. And a bunch of seagulls that can fly 20 km behind you if you throw them food.
Istanbul – is seagulls, mosques, ships and intrusive sellers!
With love, RH.
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