You’ll have to forgive me for keeping this post short on words and long on photos. It feels like the only thing I’ve done this week is work, eat, and sleep. But that’s not completely true — at least some of that work involved another trip to Istanbul, two nights on the 31st floor of a fancy hotel, getting upgraded to a suite larger than my apartment, and swimming in a beautiful pool after the day’s meeting was done. It was actually kind of worth arriving at midnight on Monday and catching a cab back to the airport at 6am Wednesday morning.

But I’m not here to talk about my most recent trip — instead I want to go back to my day trip to Heybeliada during my first visit to Istanbul! There are only a few Lira and about a one hour ferry trip separating downtown Istanbul from Heybeliada, the second largest of the Prince Islands. No cars are allowed on the island, so visitors mostly ride bikes or take a ride in the horse drawn carriages (which I wouldn’t especially recommend — those horses did not look like they were treated very well). My friend and I spent the day on foot, which was also wonderful.

We visited on a Saturday, which is prime time for visitors from the city, so the island was overrun with families and children. Unfortunately, despite circling the entire perimeter of the island, we didn’t find any public place to swim that didn’t involve paying a fee. But I did love wandering around and checking out all the beautiful old wooden houses — something of a curiosity in this part of the world!

In any case, our visit to Heybeliada was a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the city and a great location for a day trip! If you get going earlier than we managed, you can also visit the other Prince Islands on the same day.  For more photos from my entire trip, click over here.

What’s your favorite day trip in recent memory?