travel

A Muslim Mom’s Travel Tips to having a blast in Kuşadası

Here’s an ideal holiday destination if you want to balance beach bliss and sightseeing!

It’s not as well known to people outside Turkey, but this is one of my favourite beach destinations in Turkey – it has much more natural feel and has lots of history and things to see.

I’d say you could get : Resort (70%) + sightseeing (20-30%) which is perfect for me with two kids under 7.

Sightseeing :
1. Ephesus ( ancient city and ruins) – full post on this here

2. House of Mary (May Allah be pleased with her). I didnt know about it, so it was fascinating and heart warming to visit.

3. Castle / town centre walk – for the castle there is small climb up, sweeping views. Covered spots. Worth it to discover a new view and beautiful setting. The town walk is short, but it was still nice to stroll through and get an ice cream to cool down.

4. Marina and Boat ride – 1 hour trips gives you a lovely view of the seaside and town. It was lovely and cool on board. There are several boats along the walkway so we just chose the first one leaving as they are all similar prices.

Next time: I’d like to check out a water park in Kusadasi to add a different activity to the resort stay.

Duration: 3-5 days for a relaxed break in this city to check out the sites and to relax at the hotel. (we would jump into the pool every day after touring!)

How to get here: Fly to Izmir, 1 hour drive to Kusadasi

Alhamdulillah, though it was so hot mid July, we had a blast. I’ll share a longer blog post on Maryam AS house soon 🙂

So if youre looking for a little adventure and history besides beach fun , I hope you add Kusadasi to your Turkey summer ☀️ itinerary Insha Allah!

What’s your ideal summer coastal holiday split between beach and sightseeing?

Kicking back in Kemer

Read more about our holiday in Kemer in Antalya: A splash in the sea, a stroll on the beach and a journey back to prehistoric times! 

This summer, we decided to explore Kemer, Antalya, intrigued by the DinoPark I’ve had on our list for a while. But we also discovered a new region on the Turkish Coast, with lots of kid friendly and family fun.

Things to do in Kemer

1. Kemer Merkezi : town centre, clock tower, pedestrian shopping street, statues in garden (1-2 hours)


2. Kemer Marina  : Halk public beach with very pebbly sand!, restaurants, playground near beach (2-3 hours)  


3. Dinopark : Goynuk  (3-4 hours) See special  post on Instagram.


4. Moonlight Park : private beach clubs with softer sand , Yoruk Park : historical display of Turkish tribes plus majestic sea views (1 hour – depending on time at beach) 

Other things to do : Mount Olympus Teleferik (cable car) which we didn’t do this time, but I was very tempted to do so hopefully next time!

Food:
There are plenty restaurants around. They range in mid to high prices. I recommend the Dominos as it was as super cool inside with the airconditioner and the menu and food was good.

Getting around: 
Taxis were charging set rates in €. 100 TL for basic 10 minute journeys.
Walking is possible but it’s quite hot. I recommend strollers or scooters for kids to get around. 

I recommend 2 -3 days in Kemer , including spending some time at your hotel pool to break up the daily outings. Your itinerary with small kids could look like:

Day 1: Travel + chill at hotel pool. Take a walk in town centre in the evening and have dinner. 
Day 2: Olympus Teleferik . Moonlight beach, Yoruk Park, Marina walk + dinner
Day 3: Check out of hotel and visit Dino Park, Goynuk on way back to airport (or another area in Antalya past airport eg Lara, Side, Belek)

Have you been to Kemer or is it on your bucket list? Let us know in the comments what you loved most or what you’re most excited to see. Let’s create a travel community right here!

What to see and do in Ayvalik for a beach break with small kids

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Ertuğrul Gazi tomb: This ain’t a movie site- so go, but go with correct intention!

Yes, it finally happened!

I’ve always wanted to go to Sogut to visit the burial place for Ertugral Gazi and some of his family members. But I didn’t manage to for the past 5 years living in Istanbul because:

a) it felt like my intention wasn’t right – this is a graveyard for a real person, not a movie set for Engin (The Turkish actor who plays his role in the hit series Diliris Ertugral)
b) the distance of 4 hours to drive with two kids to this remote town had zero appeal to me.

Until last year, Alhamdulillah we got an out of the blue opportunity to go with our friends visiting from South Africa who had hired a car and driver and wanted us to join the road trip! So having great company (and no kids!) and travelling in comfort made it all the more worth it (even if some of us dozed for most of the ride!). I also managed to correct my intention to remind myself that I was going to visit the resting place for a great Muslim personality in our rich history. Although not much is known about him- what we do know is that he raised one of the greatest leaders in modern Islamic history, Osman Gazi who founded the Ottoman Empire- one of the most powerful states in the world.

It took us around 4 hours (one way) with one comfort break at a petrol station. Total duration for the whole trip with lunch stop 10 hours- we left around 8am from Besiktas and we made it back home for kids bedtime.

What to see at the tomb site


What’s to see at the site:

– Tomb and burial sites for Ertugal, Halime Hanim, Turgut Alp and others. We made dua here and walked around the site.
– There are some Alps dressed in traditional gear to give you some movie vibes- but that’s it – don’t expect more
– Souvenir shop with plenty swords, IYI tribe gear and houseware and gifts which was great to check out.
– Sadly facilities are linited for toilets and food. Small snacks and drinks you may find only.

Length of visit : 1 hour maximum

What I learnt from the visit:
I was quite touched at the site, thinking back to what it must have been like in those days to fight for land and rights and how these amazing leaders had a vision for their people that they managed to fulfil. It’s really remarkable what they achieved and its important to teach our children about this important part of our muslim history.

Read more on this site in Sogut here

Lunch in Sapanca



What’s to see around there:
There are some other things such as Ertugrul Gazi Museum and the house of Sheikh Edebali. We stopped at Sapanca for lunch on way back to Istanbul because we really needed to pack in more value for this rather this long day out! You could drive to Bursa to make it a longer trip with overnight stay.

So is it worth it to go to or not?
No easy answer from me, sorry! I am glad I went, there is alot of significance for this site – if you are willing to read up or watch the series even for inspiration. In my case, there was a bigger picture of spending time with my friend as well for a couples outing after ages, but everyone’s motivation is different so you need to decide whether you would want to spend your time and energy on this trip out to Sogut!


Have you been, what did you enjoy about your visit? If you haven’t, been yet, is this on your bucket list?


Twenty Ways to keep kids occupied on a flight

Recently we had a super helpful chat on our local moms group in Istanbul about keeping kids busy and happy when traveling! 

Seasoned frequent flyer moms shared their tried and tested tips for keeping kids occupied and entertained all flight long (beyond screens)

20 ideas for flight

Heres some ideas to help you a plan a smoother trip with your little ones:

Starting with this amazing list from Tanja Altintas (from Germany). She says: “I always picked some things from each category but every time slightly different and with new things to discover….”

1. Packs of stickers, diamond stickers, decorative sticker tapes, foam stickers
2. Small stationary things like stamps sets, colour pencils, small postits sets and booklets, clips, and whatever I could find
3. Small boxes of playdough and a small ziplock bag or plastic box with a few tools and moulds
4. Colouring books & colourful DINA5 paper (I bought Ikea paper mix and cut it into half)
5. Two small size notebooks
6. Small magnetic drawing board or watercolour book
7. Several tiny picture books
8. A couple of small tiny toys they like to play with (duplo/ lego/doll/soft toy/cars/wooden bracelet sets)
9. A few small packed snacks
10. Mini boards games or usborne cards…. What to do on a long ride/on an airplane/funny things to do…. Etc
11. Mini activity books
12. Rubix cube or similar toys
13. Wipe and clean activity cards
14. Mini puzzles in tin boxes

travel
busy bees

More Ideas from moms:

15. I usually filled a small plastic box or plastic bag which has min 6-8 departments with the cut stickers and other things to stick on, so they could handle it without a mess

16. I’ve done really long road trips before and one thing I remember being advised was to offer a wrapped gift/toy/snack every 2hrs or so. That was fun for us both. 

17. I find doing anything together is more helpful than relying on solo activities for them, it’s surprisingly therapeutic to colour in a few colouring pages and play I-spy

18. Get kids involved in choosing 1-2 items to take along from home helps a lot with co operation later!

19. Choose a 1-2 new things from the airport. The kids get so excited being able to choose and tends to play with their new toy/s for quite a good chunk of time

20. I pack a big backpack with an arsenal of small new toys that are pretty much disposable since I may lose them, stickers, etc plus snacks, wipes and a change of clothes (pyjamas take up the least space).

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Which of these do you find most helpful? Do you have any smart tricks to share? Let’s build a bank of ideas together to save us moms on any trip or travel time!

Travel: Discovering Balat and Fener

It’s been ages since I’ve travelled across the Golden Horn for good old fashioned sightseeing so on a rare mild weather day recently, we headed over to explore the historic neighbourhoods of: Balat & Fenner in Istanbul, Alhamdulillah. I had this on my bucket list as it’s usually cited as the slightly lesser known tourist spots as well as being interested to see yet another different side to this rich, captivating city! 

Situated near Eminonu, on the European side of Istanbul, there are several buses headed in that direction and we took the 99 Bus.

Being a random Monday, there were tourists milling around but it was crowd free and restaurants were quiet making social distancing easy and feasible everywhere we went. 

Equipped with a  guide book and Google maps on our phone, we walked around the area, stopping for breakfast and later snacks (Pancake house).

Here’s the highlights from our 3 hour self tour:

Breakfast at Balat Antik Cafe – beautiful garden setting with a great menu for breakfast, coffees with fresh gozleme and juices on offer.

                                   

Walking along between the significant sights, we came across charming streets, colourful tables, beautiful settings to admire or sit down and enjoy. There are also quirky stores, really nice to browse around and support local designers and stores.                                                
Funny street art -very apt! 
                    
  

Greek Orthodox College: A really interesting story is about how when Conqueror Mehmet conquered Constantinople (Istanbul today) he granted immunity for the Church of St Mary to remain a Greek church and the signed order is in the church today. This was how Christians, Muslims and Jews lived alongside each other. 

Mesnevihane Tekkesi- musjid, lodge where sufism was taught. This is located on a rather steep hill – but worth the short walk up to see these places and the view. There is also a musjid up here if you need a prayer stop.

                                                     
 There’s plenty of cute cats and cafes here, you’ll never get enough of. Make sure you have your camera and good walking shoes! It’s a worthwhile visit if you have been here a while or on your third or subsequent trip to Istanbul and want to experience a different vibe in the city. The walk itself around the area between sites is probably around 45 minutes. Adding in leisurely stroll, snack and meal breaks and that’s how we spent about 3 hours here.
Have you been to Balat or will you be adding it to your travel itinerary for your next trip? (when safe and feasible!) Share with us your favourite thing about this neighbourhood below.
Exploring Istanbul, one amazing little spot at a time,
Taskeen, travel happy!

Review : Polonezkoy Zoo -The Ultimate Guide including pics and prices

Overall: A great day out for the family to get a healthy dose of animals and nature away from the city.

Not a place to go out of your way for if you’re for tourist – but ideal for us animal-deprived Istanbullus!

There are aspects I am not so keen on like some animals being enclosed. However, as I understand these animals can no longer survive in their natural habitats and are therefore being kept here as a way to preserve their lives- at least that the view I am going with 🙂

Entrance fees and details:

They open at 9am at least during August when we visited. It was super quiet at 10am when we arrived but picked more by midday.

50TL adult, 30TL kids over 2. There are discounts for older people. Under 2 is free.

Duration of visit : 6 hours (2 adults, 2 toddlers under 4). We did 10am-16:30pm including naps, lunch and snacks.There are different sections to enjoy so you could structure your day best suited for little legs, the weather (its open and hot), and also meal times. There is enough shady areas and benches throughout for rest and picnics.

It’s divided into:  Animals, Playground, Fun Activities, Outdoor Adventure Park, Restaurant. It’s not that huge – like you can get from one side to the other fairly quickly. Maps are provided at the entrance and it’s handy to pick up one to follow.

polonezkoy zoo

There are different areas to walk around to view animals in their respective enclosures. This took about 1.5 hours. It is stroller friendly. We got the kids out of the stroller at times so they get closer to see like the birds in the pond, or the lake. There is also an enclosed “forest” area that you can roam in – not stroller friendly but it’s not big so you can take the kids walking. we saw donkeys, deer and emus. Some animals were following us around so we didn’t spend alot of time there. There is also another area to touch animals which we didn’t visit as our friends told us it was difficult to walk around – so we skipped it.

Fun Activities: Include kiddy car rides, mini train, Ferris wheel, pony and horse rides. Theres also carnival style games like giant bow and arrow/punching. Everything is old but there is effort to maintain and we saw them cleaning out the equipment beforehand.

Each activity is between 10-20TL. You purchase tickets at the reception (a few minutes walk away) and use them at the activity area to pay for each thing you are going on.

Food: 

Inside the park, there is one self service restaurant with an option of  made to order food (eg pasta, sandwiches etc) , or cook your own (mangal – barbecue meat and chicken). 

There is also snacks, ice-cream, desserts and fruit available for purchase. It is slightly pricey, but expected.

There is a beautiful outdoor setting with plenty tables. You are not allowed outside food, however they did not check.

                             

Playground: really exciting, novel play equipment like swings, climbing , tractors to sit in, basketball court and much more. You could spend alot of time here so do allocate accordingly.

                                                                


Covid measures: standard :staff wear masks and there is sanitiser at entrance and at restaurant. The
park was not over busy on a Sunday, meaning there was enough opportunity for social distancing.

How to get there: We took a taxi which was 80-90TL from Etiler (Istanbul), and it took around 35 minutes. To return, we weren’t sure whether we could get a taxi back easily and therefore booked a Progo car in advance to pick us up which was a minivan so a more comfortable ride as well.

There isn’t alot of detailed info available online on this park so I have decided to share our experience to help other families! Hope you have an enjoyable day. Please feel free to share a comment below or ask any questions from myself or the readers.

                                                                     

Exploring Istanbul, one outdoor place at a time,

Taskeen

@Productive_Muslim_Mom

Turkish tales: Exploring Cengelkoy in Istanbul

Salaams

We like to structure our weekends with one day of rest/chores/catch up, and the other day for adventure! This usually involves exploring an undiscovered area, trying out new food or just doing something different. This weekend, we woke up to a sunny sky, albeit with a slight chill in the air and decided to head out to Cengelkoy, a neighbourhood in Uskudar, across the bridge on the Asian side.

This place is best known for “Cikolata Kahve” – a chocolate boutique store specialising in exceptional chocolate. So this made our first stop for a “snack” , since we had already had a big breakfast at home. Inside, it was quaint and cosy, friendly staff and quite busy, which I kind of expected for such a popular place.

There are no menus, because really there are only 3 items on their menu to drink – Cay (Turkish tea), hot chocolate and Turkish coffee/hot chocolate. Besides this, you can order chocolates from their attractive display made up of dark, milk, white, nutty, fruit flavoured,  caramel filled, praline filled…..beautiful and decadent looking!

We ordered the hot chocolate and Turkish coffee/hot chocolate combo. It arrived rather quickly, which I suppose is because they are churning out heaps of this for the steady stream of customers! I usually ditch the cream, but I thought on this occasion it made sense to complete the full experience of this special menu item, and that was a good idea! I could taste the rich milk chocolate that the hot drink was made from – and I know thats what sets really good hot chocolate apart from anything else. Scrumptious.

Divine hot chocolate

A walk upstairs led me to an even more marvelous find (yes, more marvelous than the chocolate downstairs!), which was one floor dedicated to convenient facilities for women – bathroom, prayer room together with a beautifully decorated area for wudhu (ablution). Turns out, men were expected to use the nearby masjid for prayer, but luckily for us ladies, we had it all laid out here- another reason to stop by this lovely store again! I never find comfortable prayer facilities underrated. It makes praying on the go so much more pleasurable especially if you are busy and far from home. Coming from living in more Western countries, I have had some horrendous experiences so I really appreciated this nice touch. In fact, I might write another post on all the awesome prayer facilities in Istanbul.

praying in style
ablution in style

Also at the store, there is also a splendid terrace right on the top to relax outdoors with spectacular views of the bosphorus and bridge when the weather is good. After selecting some chocolates to take away and as gifts (boxes range from 30-60 TL, pay per weight), we walked around the main street in Cengelkoy. There are lots of restaurants with unique settings- either located on the shore of the bosphorus or others that have amazing views from higher up. There are cafes selling waffles, turkish snacks, cake shops and coffee shops all dotted along the main road. I made a mental note for next time- Some places to eat did not come up in my previous research yet they looked really good and I would like to try, Some names include Bosphorus View, Sutis, Deniz Yildizi, Villa Bosphorus. Yes, although Cengelkoy is small, there are lots of interesting restaurants to visit more than once, if not just the chocolate shop!

Beautiful bosphorus views of Europe and Asia

We had lunch at Kahve Rengi, a delightful cafe/restaurant with an exciting menu. The food was tasty, with generous portions and with great service- all novel for me in most of my Istanbul experience so far! They had  a baby chair which was convenient. The strawberry milkshake that my husband ordered tasted like it had real strawberries in it which was very welcome too.

Tikka masala

After another short walk around, and we spotted a cafe called “Kunefe Caddesi”. A shop whose name is Kunefe is very promising, and more so when I saw they also made “katmer” – a flaky pastry based turkish dessert that I recently discovered fell in love with. We ordered one of each, served with kaymak (cream) and ice cream. It was delicious, quite sweet though but enjoyable.

Katmer- my new favourite Turkish dessert

As the sky turned to light rain, we headed back after a pleasurable day out in Cengelkoy, Alhamdulillah, a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon in Istanbul.

Adventuring in Istanbul, one pretty place at a time
M4Life