Shopping

The Grand Bazaar is hard to beat for souvenirs, as well as larger buys like carpets, jewellery or brassware. Shops in the bazaar are grouped together in specific areas, so seek out Halicilar Caddesi (Street of the Carpetmakers) near the centre of the market, if it's a rug you're after.

Once you've decided what you want, remember to bargain, with a seasoned negotiator getting anything up to 50% off the initial asking price.

Next to the Blue Mosque, the Arasta Bazaar is also good for carpets, kilims and Kutahya tiles.

The Istanbul Craft Centre, housed in an Ottoman seminary off Sultanahmet Square, has shops selling other traditional handicrafts, many made on the premises by local artisans.

Try the department stores along Istiklal Caddesi for excellent value clothes and western fashion goods.

The shops of sophisticated Nisantasi, near Taksim square, have designer clothes, shoes and accessories at excellent prices.

Akmerkez in Etiler is a large shopping centre with a variety of western and Turkish fashion outlets.

The backstreets of Cukurcuma, near Istiklal Caddesi, are dotted with fascinating antique shops. There are antiquarian book and map shops in the narrow streets around the Tunel station at the end of Istiklal Caddesi.

There's a colourful market with lots of stalls selling jewellery, particularly silver, and other nick-nacks in the Bosphorus suburb of Ortakoy every weekend.