How to Experience Istanbul on Turkish Airlines’ Stop Over Program With #3under4

We were planning our 2 months stay in Senegal and started to look into flights. (Read here how to travel to Senegal with a baby.) Usually, we go with Emirates due its connection to Dakar, its great service, having been a Skywards member for a while and already knowing the airport and stop over experience.

Unfortunately, prices for tickets for the whole family had already become a little bit crazy with Emirates so that we considered other options. When traveling from Berlin to Dakar I had to quickly rebook a flight, which is a story in and of itself, and took Turkish Airlines to get to Dakar. The flight and layover at Istanbul airport weren’t too bad.

Looking up flights to Dakar from Tokyo we noticed the Istanbul stop over program. Basically, anyone having a stop over of at least 20 hours is eligible to a free hotel stay for one night. We had done the Emirates stop over experience in Dubai with one baby of 3 months as well as with #2under2. With that experience under our belts and not having travelled due to CoVid and the babies, I felt excited at the idea of visiting Istanbul on our way to Dakar as I had never been.

Moreover, this Turkish Airline Stop Over in Istanbul Report made it sound like a good experience. Read on below, to find out what our experience with the Stop Over Program was!

The Booking Procedure

Booking our flights was a fairly straight forward procedure as with every other airline. However, I did find the Turkish Airline website somewhat unresponsive and at times difficult to put in information.

I was disappointed to see that seat selection was not for free but one has to pay. I assumed they would put us in the row with the baby bassinet when traveling with an infant. With #3under4 I however did not want to risk being separated into different rows. Therefore I got us seats together as much as possible.

Regarding the hotel stay, you are entitled to a 4-star hotel. On the website it says you have to send your information at least 72 hours before your departure to the desk of your country of departure. This turned out easier. After logging in and adding my booking reference I found the topic to easily book the hotel in the online portal.

I saw both the outbound and inbound flight. Firstly concerned with the inbound flight I clicked on it, found the hotel options and booked it for us. When I wanted to book the stop over hotel for the inbound or return flight I, however, got stuck. A Turkish Airlines Agent informed me that the stop over program can only be used once on a trip. While the fine print includes this information, it could have been highlighted better throughout the booking procedure.

The Accommodation

As an economy class passenger you can stay in a 4-star hotel in Istanbul for one night. The two contracted 4 star hotels in Istanbul are the Pullman and another hotel that I can’t find anymore. Your stay depends on the availability of the hotels at the time of your stay.

The idea to stay at the Pullman was a small push towards booking with Turkish Airlines. We got married in a Pullman Hotel and jokingly say we’ll visit all of them, a different one every anniversary. While the Pullmans in Dakar and Tokyo are great and of equal standard, this seems to be different in Istanbul.

When preparing our stop over itinerary I started to look into where the Pullman actually is and what there is to do around it.

First of all, its location is not great for a stop over. It seems to be in the middle of nowhere with driving times of ca. 45 minutes to the airport and 30-45 minutes into the old city. Traveling by myself or just with my partner we would have probably managed to still see something within the timeframe. But with #3under4 I knew this was not going to work out when staying at the Pullman.

Secondly, when researching things to do around the Pullman in Istanbul (I didn’t want to give up on the free hotel stay too quickly) I came across its google reviews. They were unfortunately everything but encouraging. The location and the reviews could not outweigh the fact that it was free.

However, I wanted us to be able to experience Istanbul a little. Therefore, I decided to book a different hotel right around the corner of the Blue Mosque.

The flight

Flying with Turkish Airlines with #3under4 was ok. On the flight from Tokyo to Dubai the whole crew seemed a little unorganized and chaotic from the way the carts were organized to how they handed out food or asked for drink orders.

As an interculturalist, it was interesting as an Interculturalist to see how the crew was interacting with passengers and each other. They seemed stand off ash in the beginning but became nicer along the flight. Most of them were kind and cute with our little ones when they didn’t have any other task to perform.

They handed out some toys for the kids. The figurine comes in different get ups themed around airline and airport. You can change the position of arms and legs. The entertainment value of it is limited as is the little wooden plane’s one.

We had to pro-actively ask for the bassinet and it took them quite some time to bring it on both flights. Baby did sleep well in it for a few hours on both flights and seemed to be comfortable enough to let her legs hang out. They didn’t provide any baby pillow or blanket so I was glad to have brought the Emirates’ blankets.

The Airport Transfer

The transfer from the airport to the hotel and back is not included in the stop over program deal. Unless I missed that information.

We took a yellow taxi from the airport. It took us to our hotel in about 50 minutes and cost ca. 700 Turkish Lira. The ride was a little adventurous due to the driving style of our taxi driver and everyone else.

For the way back we had the hotel organize a taxi for us. The price was indicated in EUR and seemed like a good deal. When we heard the price in Turkish Lira we realized it was almost double what we paid for the yellow taxi. It was a cool VW party bus and our two older kids still speak of it. Maybe it was worth the experience.

The Actual Stay

Our flight arrived in Istanbul at ca. 6pm. With #3under4, getting off the plane, toilet break, passport control, etc. took us about an hour, hour and a half to get out and into a taxi. This means we got to our hotel by around 8.30pm.

During the taxi ride I was questioning this whole stop over program and started wondering what I was doing to my kids. They were exhausted, fell asleep at the airport, again in the taxi, but at least not cranky.

After checking into our room we walked up the road and were seated in a restaurant by 9pm. The waiters were extremely friendly and chatty. There was nice music and a relaxed welcoming atmosphere. Lots of cats were running around and stunning my kids. Two men were grilling meat next to the other restaurant’s terrace and using fireworks to attract more viewers.

My kids were wide awake and pointing at anything and everything. By then, the exhaustion of the 13 hour flight and taxi ride were forgotten and I felt that the stopover had already been worth it. I could hardly taste my food though before the kids did get tired again and I took them back to the hotel. Getting proper sleep (I only woke up once) in a hotel bed was priceless.

The next morning, we took it easy during breakfast and enjoyed the views of the Bosphorus and the Turkish breakfast specialties. It was a beautiful sunrise with a lovely view and again made the efforts feel worth it.

We asked for the taxi before starting to explore and were cautioned to not leave too late for the airport due to traffic. Basically, there were 1.5 hours left to explore. We visited the Blue Mosque and walked over to the Hagia Sophia. The cue there was ridiculously long so that there was no chance to enter it. Instead, we tried some local treats (Pretzel with Sesame and Nutella), Turkish coffee and managed to find our kids this fun Turkish ice cream experience.

The party bus rounded off the stop over with a smile and has definitely left us with a curiosity to see more of Istanbul and get to know more about its people and culture.

The kids

Another reason to choose the flights with Turkish Airlines was the timing of them. We left Tokyo at 10am, arrived in Istanbul at 6pm, left Istanbul at 3pm and arrived in Dakar at 7pm. It seemed like it would help to manage the jet lag.

The first leg from Tokyo to Istanbul was a 13 hour flight. This got a bit long at times but we were well prepared and the kids did well for most of the time. They took 1-2 naps on the flight. When we arrived in Istanbul they were really tired. The little outing to the restaurant got them just awake and tired enough so that they slept through the ‘Turkish night’ and didn’t wake up too early. We stayed in a family room and got an extra crib for the baby.

We had all their regular and routine bed time items with us in the cabin baggage: pyjamas, tooth brush and paste, their ‘doudou’ and 2 of their favorite bed time books. This helped them to feel a bit more comfortable in the new place and there were no tantrums, neither in the evening nor in the morning.

Conclusion

Our stop over ended up having very little to do with Turkish Airlines except for the flights and its hub in Istanbul. Besides not being able to get a ‘free mini vacation’, the stop over was absolutely worth it. While short and few, the memories were sweet and will stay with me forever.