This airport is extremely security conscious. You have to clear security twice before you get to…read moredepartures. It is a very clean and very busy. It's an airport. There are so many options for purchasing duty free and gadgets. That's all.

Much larger airport than I had imagined. A bit confusing when going through security. There are…read moreseveral to pass. There also two parallel lines that do the same thing, except one line might have one agent, while the others may have 2 or 3. We started at the first and realized there's just one woman working it. We moved to the next one when we saw that the other one was moving faster due to having multiple workers. At the actual gate, there's another security person checking your boarding card and passport to enter the enclosed area. Several entitled people decided they didn't need to wait and pushed to enter from the side, causing a scene. At boarding time, you have to show your passport and boarding card again. It's safe, but it's a lot of checks. Allow enough time.

Had an 8 hour layover on our way from Turkey to Maldives. We started off in gate B which is pretty…read morequiet, some coffee shops and pastry shops. Lots of seating area and even recliners. But its very clean and spacious. But you get to the main hub of the airport and it is busy!!! At least 2 stories minus the gates below. Lots of shops. Multiple duty free shops. Lots of restaurants. Some mainstream ones then some local type food. Salt Bae has a restaurant here. Evidently he's Turkish. Lots of bazaar type shops. Multiple rest areas. Nap zones. Even a yotel to sleep in or nap. Most importantly bathrooms everywhere!! We bought a whole bunch of baklava and Turkish delights, as well as magnets. Definitely lots of things you can see, shop and buy. They even have motorized wheelchairs and mopeds to move people around which is a lot better than LAX. This place is well designed. Extremely large. Very clean. Lots of information board about flights. I guess people here really like their coffee and pastries because they are everywhere!! But it was nice to explore this airport. Just be ready to walk alot!!!

My husband and I ended up having a layover opportunity in Istanbul, but shorter than the usual…read moretours offered. I emailed Latif and he responded quickly and worked with our time frame and set up a tour that fit our needs. The transport to and from the airport was comfortable and easy. Our guide was Alp, who was absolutely amazing! Alp was knowledgeable, friendly and welcoming- it was like a good friend was showing you around. He was able to get us to what we wanted to see in a short time frame, without feeling rushed or pressured. My husband who is a secondary world history teacher was also impressed with the discussion he had with Alp on all the sites we visited. My only regret is that we didn't stay longer in Istanbul! I would wholeheartedly recommend booking a tour with this company.

ILT made it easy for us to get to see Istanbul and enjoy a delicious meal during our layover. I was…read morevery pleased with the experience and ease of communication and logistics. I just provided my flight information and they handled the rest. We landed, easily found the meeting point, and a team of people walked us to the van, which then drove us to city center where our tour guide met us, showed us around, and the same van picked us up and took us back to the airport with plenty of time to get to our gate

What a great experience for Turkish night! The entertainment was amazing! Food, service, and care…read morefrom staff was phenomenal. Will definitely be back next trip.

Based on my hotels recommendation we booked the Tournatour - Bosphorus Dinner Cruise for dinner on…read moreNew Years Eve. There were MANY dinner cruises to choose from, and from looking at all the boats departing that night, our boat was one of the nicest. We had a fantastic evening complete with dinner, a Turkish Dance Show, drinks, and dance floor with DJ. The food itself was nothing to write home about. The Turkish dance show was too short. Also, I wish there had been a master of ceremonies that guided us through the evening's events, and had welcomed us onto the boat for the evening. It would have been great to know where everyone was from, as there was an obvious mix of locals, and people from around the world. The services overall were good, but with a few extra tweaks, the evening could have been even better.

We did the Bosphorus long cruise. It was really nice to see both sides of the straight. Very…read morescenic. Before taking the long cruise, a few things to keep in mind. * The boat deck is not covered and the direct sun is brutal. We moved inside and couldn't see as well. * There are plenty of seats but the only good seats are the ones at the end, facing the direction you're going and on the side the boat is closest to. * It's not narrated, so you don't really know what you're seeing. * There are 2 bathrooms on the boat and a small concession. * The stop in Asia where you get off the boat was pretty lame and they left you there for 2.5 hours. There's really nowhere to sit or walk. The only thing you can do is eat a nice seafood lunch. But beware- the restaurant we chose didn't take credit cards.

This is a cruise company located at the Eminonu ferry terminal that does cruises along the…read moreBosphorus River. Some tour companies will try to sell you some package that includes this or will be a guided bus to the terminal, but you can show up here yourself and get it for much cheaper. There is a metro stop right near the terminal. Even the full cruise is only 25 lira (less than 4 US dollars!). Speaking of which, they offer a full 6 hour cruise which goes farther north along the river up to the Black Sea, but I do not recommend it unless you really have a lot of free time. The short 2 hour cruise was enough to see the city views of both the European and Asian sides of Istanbul and passes under many magnificent bridges. There are also some loudspeakers that give some history of what you are seeing, but I found the commentary fairly boring.

Inefficient system and unhelpful staff. When we discovered that two of our carry on bags were too…read moreheavy the agent spent 5 minutes trying to talk us into buying another bag rather than checking them (he gave no reason- he just wouldn't listen when we said we wanted to check the bags). In order to pay for the checked bags we had to get out of line, go to a different booth at the other end of the terminal, stand in line there, and then that agent insisted on running separate transactions for each bags; each transaction took about 3 minutes to process). We were flying from Paris to Washington DC, and the agent gave us our boarding passes for the flight to Paris but wouldn't give us the second boarding pass because "AirFrance isnt open yet" (it was 10 am...). The agents were not knowledgeable of the airport layout or the systems they were operating (they could bot answered our questions or five directions to the gate) and one of the agents we interacted with seemed moody and rude. All around poor experience and we havent even made it to the flight yet.