travel42 Port Guide: Istanbul

travel42 Professional Cruise Port of Call Review

For the better part of two millennia, Istanbul, Turkey, has been one of the greatest cities in the world, and it remains one of the most vibrant and magical places in Europe and the Middle East. It is not the capital of Turkey—that honor was bestowed on Ankara in the 1920s—but Istanbul is the country's largest city, its main commercial, historical and cultural center and the heart of its tourism industry.

Istanbul's centuries of empire have left an extraordinary collection of palaces, churches...