Travel Photography | Princes’ Island | Büyükada | Adalar | Istanbul Turkey

© 2012 Wazari Wazir | Princes’ Island | Büyükada | Adalar | Istanbul Turkey

The Princes’ Islands (Turkish: Prens Adaları “Prince Islands”, or more commonly Kızıl Adalar “Red Islands” or just Adalar as they are officially named; classical Greek: Πριγκήπων νήσοι Prinkēpōn nēsoi), are a chain of nine islands off the coast ofIstanbul, Turkey, in the Sea of Marmara. The islands also constitute the Adalar (literally Islands or Isles) district of Istanbul Province. The mayor of the Adalar (Isles) district is Mustafa Farsakoğlu (CHP); WikiPedia

The largest island in the group, Büyükada (Great Island) shows is impressive from the ferry, with gingerbread villas climbing up the slopes of the hill and the bulbous twin cupolas of the Splendid Otel providing an unmistakable landmark. It’s a truly lovely spot to spend an afternoon.

There are no cars on the islands. Except for the necessary police, fire and sanitation vehicles, transportation is by bicycle, horse-drawn carriage and foot, as in centuries past.

You can rent a bicycle in several of the town’s shops. We did rent a bicycle and really enjoy circling the island leisurely but the most popular way to get around the island is by  the most popular way of getting around is horse-drawn carriages (fayton), which can be likened to taxis, or the dolmuş, of the mainland.

There is a fixed price for every location (in Büyükada, they are announced on the sign in the main fayton stop near the quay). The greatest price is for a total loop (known as Büyük Tur) around the island (length: about 15 km, price: about YTL 45 for Büyükada in April, 2007). Price is per fayton, i.e. not dependent on how much people the fayton carries (but they accept no more than 4, and some horses are not very comfortable with more than 3 passengers).

We didn’t take the fayton or horse-drawn carriages and chose to rent the bicycle is to make it easy for us taking pictures, we can stop whenever and wherever we want, unlike using the fayton, we have to ask the rider to stop here and there and maybe will anonoy him, so we choose the bicycle but maybe on my next visit I will choose the fayton and enjoy the island.

During my visit here, which is in April 2012, the ferry cost us YTL5 one way trip and total return cost is just YTL10 and we took the ferry from Kabatas station and it took one hour to get here. If you have extra time in Istanbul I highly recommended you to visit Princes’ Island especially for families with small children’s.

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