Where to buy each thing and how it gets home, with a guide to bargain and check the rules.
The Arasta Bazaar, behind the Blue Mosque
On foot downhill to the water, then by ferry
The Grand Bazaar on Sundays and religious holidays
At the airport, with your tax-free receipts ready
Turkish delight, spices and tea, Turkish coffee, carpets and kilims, hand-painted ceramics, mosaic lamps, hamam towels and blue evil-eye beads are the souvenirs most visitors take home from Istanbul. You will see most of them in every market; each is sold best in one or two.
| What | Where in Istanbul | Check before you pay |
|---|---|---|
| Turkish delight (lokum) | Spice Bazaar, Arasta Bazaar | Buy it boxed and sealed if it has to travel; loose pieces dry out. |
| Baklava | Pastry shops in Karaköy and Kadıköy | Buy it on your last day, in a sealed box made for the flight. |
| Spices and saffron | Spice Bazaar | Buy sealed packs, and saffron as whole threads, never as powder. |
| Tea | Spice Bazaar | Black tea is what Istanbul drinks; buy it loose and sealed. |
| Turkish coffee | Eminönü, beside the Spice Bazaar | Ask for it freshly ground and sealed, with a small copper pot, a cezve, to brew it in. |
| Carpets and kilims | Grand Bazaar, Arasta Bazaar | Ask about its origin, materials and age: an old piece needs a museum check before it leaves Türkiye. |
| Ceramics | Grand Bazaar, Arasta Bazaar | Keep bright-glazed plates for the wall unless the glaze is lead-safe; the US food regulator warns about lead in traditional pottery. |
| Mosaic lamps | Grand Bazaar | Check the fitting takes the bulbs sold where you live, and ask for a hard box for the flight. |
| Hamam towels (peştemal) | Arasta Bazaar, Grand Bazaar | Feel for cotton or linen; a peştemal folds flat and weighs little. |
| Evil-eye beads (nazar) | Every market | Look for glass, not plastic. |
| Leather | Grand Bazaar | Try it on, and look at the stitching and lining at the seams. |
| Gold and silver | Grand Bazaar | Shops must show the price for each type and say whether the labour charge, işçilik, is included (Ministry of Trade). |
| Kolonya (lemon cologne) | Pharmacies and supermarkets | It is often 80% alcohol, which Istanbul Airport refuses at security, so it flies in your checked bag. |
The Old Town’s markets sit on a slope from the Blue Mosque down to the water, so you shop them in that order and finish at the ferry. The Grand Bazaar closes on Sundays; the Spice Bazaar opens every day.
One row of shops behind the Blue Mosque, built in the reign of Sultan Ahmed I to pay for the mosque’s upkeep. It sells towels, ceramics, carpets and boxed Turkish delight, and most shops have fixed prices, so you can browse in peace before the Grand Bazaar fills.
About 70 shops line both sides today, as the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality counts them.
The Grand Bazaar has grown around two covered halls since 1461. Jewellers are its biggest trade, with 532 shops, and carpets, kilims, lamps and leather fill the streets between them.
8:30 am to 7 pm every day except Sundays and religious holidays, as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism lists it.
Leave by the Mahmutpaşa Gate and walk downhill to the Spice Bazaar at Eminönü, an L-shaped hall built in the 17th century. Spices, tea, dried fruit, nuts and Turkish delight fill both arms.
8 am to 7:30 pm every day, closed on 29 October and religious holidays, as the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality lists it.
Take the ferry from Eminönü to Kadıköy on the Asian side. Its market streets sell olives, cheese, pickles and fish. Eat them here: cured meat cannot go home with you, and cheese rarely can.
The Tuesday market, Salı Pazarı, sets up in Hasanpaşa on Tuesdays and Fridays, as Kadıköy Municipality lists it.
Tax-free purchases in your checked bag are approved by customs at check-in, before passport control: counters G3 to G5 for Turkish Airlines, K25 to K27 for other airlines. Cabin-bag purchases are approved after passport control, and the refund is paid at the Global Exchange points behind the information desk.
Honey, molasses, oils and any food that is not fully solid count as liquids: 100 ml a container in the cabin, as the airport lists them.
Turkish delight, tea and coffee travel almost anywhere once you declare them; cheese and cured meat almost never do. The rest depends on where you land, and on your cabin bag, where honey and olive oil count as liquids. Your guide knows them all.
| What you bought | Cabin bag | US | UK | EU | Australia | Canada |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turkish delight | Yes | Declare | Yes | Yes | Check firsteach ingredient checked | Declare |
| Baklava | Yes | Declare | Yesno fresh cream | Limitsunder 20% dairy and egg | Declare | Declare |
| Ground spices and saffron | Yes | Declare | Yessealed packs | Yes | Check firstconditions apply | Declare |
| Tea and Turkish coffee | Yes | Declare | Yessealed packs | Yes | Declare | Declare |
| Pistachios and hazelnuts | Yes | Declareroasted | Limitsshelled only | Yes | Limitsroasted and packed | Check firstCFIA lookup |
| Honey | Limits100 ml | Declare | Limits2 kg | Limits2 kg | Declareinspected | Declare |
| Olive oil | Limits100 ml | Declare | Yes | Yes | Declare | Declare |
| Cheese | Yesfirm cheese | Declaresolid cheese | No | No | No | Limitspasteurised only |
| Sucuk and pastırma | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Carpets and kilims | Yesif it fits | Declarecounts toward $800 | Declareif over £390 | Declareif over €430 | Check firstcounts toward A$900 | DeclareC$800 after 48 hours |
| Backgammon boards and carved wood | Yes | Declareinspected | Yes | Yes | Declareno bark or holes | Declare |
In the United States, declaring means no penalty even when an item is refused. Australia also refuses whole cumin, coriander and fennel seeds in your bag, so buy them ground.
A shut gate, a haggle in a language you do not speak, a suitcase that will not close: you choose what to bring home, and we arrange the rest.
Your guide helps you tell handmade and local goods from stock made for visitors.
How a kilim is woven, how a lamp is made, and what the pattern on a plate means.
Your guide knows what things are worth and bargains for you where bargaining is normal.
What you ask the seller, and the answers, translated as you go.
Tax-free forms, the check an old carpet needs, and what your customs allow.
You browse at your own pace, and a shop goes on your day only when you ask.
Between May 2023 and July 2026, 828 people wrote to us to plan a private day in Istanbul, and 38 of them asked about buying something.
The questions they asked: whether the bazaars are worth it for real buying, where people in Istanbul shop, where to go when the Grand Bazaar is shut on a Sunday, whether to carry lira, and which souvenirs are small enough to carry home.
Licensed guides, TÜRSAB member #7651Guiding Istanbul since 2011145 Google reviews rated 5.0560 TripAdvisor reviews rated 4.8The Spice Bazaar opens every day from 8 am to 7:30 pm, closing only on 29 October and religious holidays, as the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality lists it. The Grand Bazaar is closed on Sundays and religious holidays. On Sundays The Other Tour’s heritage walk ends at the Arasta Bazaar instead.
In the weekly neighbourhood markets as much as in the covered bazaars. Kadıköy’s Tuesday market, Salı Pazarı, fills a covered hall in Hasanpaşa every Tuesday and Friday with produce, olives, cheese and clothes. Other neighbourhoods keep their own days, like the Friday market in Fındıkzade.
Yes, if you live outside Türkiye. Shops holding a tax-office permit, which they must display, refund VAT when one invoice passes a minimum total and the goods leave the country within three months. Show the goods and the invoice at customs as you leave; at Istanbul Airport the refund is paid at the Global Exchange points after passport control.
A new carpet or kilim, yes. An old one needs a museum check first: under Law No. 2863, protected cultural property may not leave the country, and museums of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism examine old carpets and other ethnographic pieces before they go. A piece they release comes with a document you show at customs.
Turkish delight, usually yes: declare it as food in the United States, Canada and Australia, and in Australia each ingredient is checked. Baklava is allowed in the US, the UK, Australia and Canada, but the European Union exempts pastries only below 20% dairy and egg, and butter-rich baklava can pass that. Buy both sealed.
Yes. A licensed guide from The Other Tour plans the day around markets that are open, translates at the counter, bargains where bargaining is normal and helps you tell handmade goods from factory stock. A shop goes on the day only when you ask.
In the Grand Bazaar, often; in the Arasta Bazaar, rarely, because most shops there have fixed prices. Gold shops must show the price for each type and say whether the labour charge, işçilik, is included, under the Ministry of Trade’s price rules.
Tell us what you hope to bring home and who is coming. We reply within a day with a route that puts each market on a day it is open, and the name of the guide who would walk it with you. A driver for your bags and the ride to the airport can go on the same plan.
