Mary T.

Tip: If you're visiting Istanbul for the first time, dropping by this bazaar is a must. It's a cultural experience! I visited Grand Bazaar back in November 2014, a few months after I had joined Yelp. Back then, I wasn't fully on Yelp. I was still trying to figure out what to do, so posting photos and writing reviews weren't the norm for me. I had booked my flight on Air Canada to and from Istanbul. It had a number of touristy ideas. One of them was doing a sightseeing tour. A bus would pick you up at your hotel and drop everyone off at one tourist attraction. You then walked to various attractions with your sightseeing group, with lunch being a mid-point stop along the way. The last stop was Grand Bazaar. We were given some time to shop. It was roughly two hours. We then met at the main entrance where the bus picked us all up and got us back to our hotels. Grand Bazaar is one of the oldest covered ones in the world. It is hectic, but impressive. What surprised me was shopping and given a glass of Turkish tea with a saucer to enjoy. On the house. Wow! I wasn't expecting it, but I loved the tea sipped traditionally from a glass and saucer. It was a bit cold in November, so it helped warm me up. I did end up buying a Turkish tea glass cup with a saucer, but not from this bazaar. I ended up going to another one and getting a set there. I had an iPhone 5 at the time. This bazaar had every iPhone case that you could possibly imagine. I went to town and got a few silicone cases featuring M&M's characters. I was elated. I kind of miss having so many phone case styles to choose from for my Google Pixel phones over the years. I will admit that I have saved a lot on accessories! I remember seeing handbags at one stall. One featured a rotary dial on the front. i thought it was fun and cute. There were a lot of stands with fragrant spices. I loved smelling them a I walked by. I got apple tea from this bazaar. I still remember how juicy it tasted when I steeped each tea packet. Istanbul is famous for its carpets. I had bought a small carpet from a store that was a part of the tour. It actually rolled up and fit in my luggage. This bazaar had a lot of carpet styles and sizes to choose from. I do miss Istanbul. This bazaar was a nice final stop to a wonderful walking tour. I'd love to return. (6)

Boon C.

The Grand Bazaar is located at a tram line T1 north of Beyazit station. I love walk from mosque to grand bazaar then take the tram back to my hotel. The bazaar entrance is very small. There are several of them. So watch out for the direction. The bazaar paths are many. You can pin the location on your phone before entrance to get back to original location or gate. This bazaar is big. The vendor here range from gift to jewelry. Many to choose from. The interior of the bazaar was beautiful on certain part. I was able to explore myself from one entrance and exit on the opposite gate. Many of the visitors are tourists. Not sure there much local residents there.

Ted C.

I don't get how there's less than stellar reviews about this place. What are the complaints? It's loud? Crowded? Yes, all those things, but it's a historical landmark/tourist trap/marketplace; it's like if Macy's was half a millennium (and counting!) old. I obviously looked/dressed/acted like a tourist so I knew I was definitely getting the tourist upcharge. However, there's 0 reason you can't do as the locals do and haggle. The larger stalls have seating, sit there, enjoy the tea but don't be afraid to say thank you and leave. There's plenty of other merchants that sell similar items. Speaking of, the lokrum here was somehow the best I had in Istanbul; believe me, I was hoping that it wouldn't be the case but it was.

Jo S.

I overheard a French tour guide telling her tourists: "Le Grand Bazaar c'est genial!". I don't how if the Grand Bazaar is so great or if I am as enthusiastic as her, but I am glad I checked it out because I had to! You see it in every travel show about Istanbul, so you feel like you need to go and you do! It's easier to find, there are even signs for tourists on the streets (not as many as you'd like but...). We stumbled onto it after exiting the Egyptian Bazaar which we enjoyed more, but that's for later! I am glad we took a juice break between visiting the Bazaar-s because it ain't easy. We stopped for a freshly squeezed orange juice to get our strength in order to conquer the Grand Bazaar, the Beast of all the Bazaar-s in this world. There are decent eateries around and fruit stalls! I can tell you it's big, but it's way bigger that you can imagine! Than I thought! Once inside, there are 100 ways to walk it, many hallways, left, right, stay straight. You will probably wonder off, get lost, we did. It was crazy in there, the merchandise generic, expensive, I honestly felt overwhelmed. You do have some Turkish merchandise, but you'd be better off to buy similar items at the Egyptian Bazaar (or outside of it), it's cheaper and better quality! When we tried to exit, we didn't want to go back and the place has many entrances and exits, so we got lost. And this girl usually doesn't get lost easily. We ended up in a Grand Bazaar adjacent with more sellers and stalls of every designer brand copy of everything! It covers 61 streets and over 4,000 shops, dating from 1456! So no wonder! We got lost some more in a fashion like district, retract on a boulevard with a tram (the tram line helped me orient myself in Istanbul since street signs are scarce) and stumbled upon the Istanbul University area in Beyazit square with Sultan Beyazit Camii Mosque and later on the Column of Constantine because of the labyrinth that Grand Bazaar is! Which was good! Otherwise, we wouldn't have seen these historic places! I don't advice you to buy things here, watch the prices, the quality of products if you decide to do so. I liked the Spice Bazaar more and shopping there is easier! But you should explore it and might even get lost! That's the fun of the Grand Bazaar! C'est genial!

Judy S.

What an amazing place this was. It was a cultural experience. The vendors are all very good at upselling lol. They have an art for it, or maybe it's me just wanting more. I noticed that they leave you alone if you tell them you are not interested. They don't push like you see on videos of the country. This is because of the amount of tourism this Bazaar has. The cruise ships, locals and tour groups all stop here at some point. The vendors know they are going to make a sale with someone and so they also don't have to lower their prices or push. Things have change in this market. The Grand Bazaar is like one long covered hall with many, many stands. You find mostly gold in the main hall. You find the most beautiful and unusual things here, pretty things. The roof is actually cool-looking. It is shaped like an arch. I mentioned it because when you go in, you get overwhelmed, and not many think about looking up. The main hall has halls in between. It is where you find other things. It is something to check out. I saw vendors that sold purses, scarfs, perfume, Turkish towels, toys, etc. To get here is crazy. The traffic is crazy. The market is in the middle of a hectic town with many shops. Rush our is something to consider here. I suggest to avoid it it.

Sara G.

You know that feeling when you walk into a place and immediately think... yes, this is how I die. That's the Grand Bazaar. First off, 4000 stores. FOUR. THOUSAND. And here's the kicker: nobody is carrying bags. Not a tote, not a plastic sack, not even a sad little gift bag clutched in sweaty hands. Are people buying anything? Are they just practicing the ancient art of vibe commerce? Is it all a simulation? Questions without answers. Where do you start? Excellent question. Answer: you don't. You just enter one portal and hope you emerge from another dimension hours later, slightly dazed, wearing a knockoff Gucci belt, running from broken English and wondering what year it is. Also, shoutout to the architecture. I thought I was stepping into some ancient, bustling market from Ottoman times. Nope. Instead, I'm in a very clean, brightly lit shopping mall. By aisle 37 or possibly 742 but who's counting?, I was overwhelmed. All I could think was: Where's my helicopter, bruh. Get me outta here. Definitely bring flares for an emergency.

Cher Y.

I don't know why the market is a MUST to visit in Istanbul. The huge market is well organized and clean. However, it ldid not do any magic to me. The traditional spice part is absolutely great but the fashion part is filled up with of fake luxurious brand names such as bags, clothes, perfumes etc unfortunately. Be very cautious of all sorts of scams. We encountered ice cream scam and shoe shining scam. Be street smart. Lol. The food is absolutely great!

Rohan D.

It's a huge labyrinth of shops with clusters of similar shops and in the more touristy areas the shop owners are kind of aggressive but the further and more distant you get from the central area and main entrance the more it becomes locals only. It's another must see Istanbul site, but you have to be mentally prepared for it, there's a lot of stimulation in terms of sights, sounds, smells, and, well you probably don't want to touch too many things. We made it an especially unique adventure on one of our three trips through here as we (we meaning the Chief of Staff who has taken up knitting) set out to find some yarn. We ended up far away from any tourists where a cluster of knitting related shops were on three levels in the same vicinity. We used a combination of Google Maps walking (limited by Google Maps only thinking in two dimensions like Khan in Star Trek), exploring and wandering, and asking for directions with the help of Google Translate (limited also by Google Translate's inability to understand context or dialect variations). When you get away from the places where tourists concentrate you also get away from the annoying guides (you absolutely do not need a guide, they just steer you to their network of stores) you find the best little Turkish coffee places and street food.

Robert S.

This is one of the most famous sites in Istanbul...it's the place to go for anything from food to jewelry to gold to lamps, to spices. The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops on a total area of over 330,000 square feet, attracting between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. A few years back, it was listed No.1 among the world's most-visited tourist attractions with 91,250,000 annual visitors. The Grand Bazaar at Istanbul is often regarded as one of the first shopping malls of the world. We found it too big and too difficult to navigate. Still a fun place to shop for anything you want....

Angela C.

The oldest market in the world. Everything is more expensive inside and you have to haggle your price down anywhere and everywhere inside, but it is quite a sight to see, and you will be able to find any spice or tea imaginable. I must visit and see although you might want to purchase the same thing right outside of the market for a little bit cheaper.

Fred T.

This is one of the oldest and biggest covered marketplaces in the world. It is impossible to describe the scale of the place adequately. It simply must be experienced. At first it seems like an endless maze but is a method to the madness and its not too difficult to find you way back if there is somethign you want to pull the trigger on. We had hired a guide for the day and this was our last stop. As she took us around it became pretty obvious she seemed to know everybody. The spice vendor she knew was fantastic I was able to pick up a a kg of salt free sumac for home that he let me sample, weighted out and vacume sealed for travel. Along with a ton of lokum samples that were delicious. My son was staying in our final stop in Florence for a few months and needed another towel. She showed us this out of the way shop that had fantastic towels of high quality and reasonable pricing. A silversmith that had been in the same family for 7 generations With the tour over we stayed to wander ourselves. It was fun and corwded for sure. The ebb and flow of merchants, customers, and the vendors bringing trays of tea to shop keepers was mesmerizing. On the downside it is packed, and it became rapidly apparent that many of the shops are selling exactly the same stuff literally as if they all ordered out of the same book. It was an experience and I am happy we were able to walk about this incredible menagerie

Irene E.

It's humongous, like an octopus, countless alleys. Vendors selling everything ... you can't leave and you can't find your way out ... smile Not sure I'd recommend it - I for one, doesn't really like shopping. We went by chance after visiting Nuruosmaniye. Many areas are being repaired. But the roofs that aren't being covered/repaired are enchanting. If you something you have to buy, you should buy it - it's not easy to find it in a maze.

Richard S.

It actually 65 winding covered streets crammed with over 4,000 tiny shops, cafes, restaurants and mosques. Amazingly built in 1461 as probably the largest concentration of stores under one roof. Rebuilt twice in 1943 and 1954 because of fire. Be prepared to hounded by some of the most aggressive sales people. Also you must bargain.