Is Istanbul, Turkey Safe For Women? Honest Answer + Tips!

I generally do believe Istanbul, Turkey to be a safe destination for women travelers. I’ve traveled to Istanbul both solo and as a group of women over the years, and while it wasn’t without petty scams and street harassment, I never felt truly unsafe in the city. That being said, all international travel is not without its risks, and if you’re not street-savvy you will have a rough time in Istanbul as a woman like I did on my first trip there in 2016.

My Experience as a Solo Female Traveler in Istanbul

Istanbul was the first country I solo-female-traveled in college as a newly-turned-21-year-old. Everyone else in my study abroad program thought I was crazy for going to Istanbul alone! I heard, “Isn’t that a dangerous place to travel to?” about 100x, but it was too late – I had already drained my savings for the Ryanair ticket from Rome to Istanbul and I was deadset on going. So many things happened on that first trip to Istanbul – I was asked out by countless random guys (and I was too polite to not give out my phone number when someone asked for it!).

I was almost kidnapped by a guy who pretended to work for the Hagia Sophia and was pulled in every direction by sellers in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar trying to get me into their stalls. And yet, even though Istanbul wasn’t the easiest place to pick as a first solo female travel destination, I still enjoyed myself! It was a bit of a “trial by fire” in learning to stand up for myself and earn some street smarts. 

I’ve been back to Istanbul recently, a bit older, a bit more well-traveled, and in my opinion, I do think Istanbul, and Turkey in general, is a safe destination for women and solo female travelers. 

11 Safety Tips For Female Travelers Visiting Istanbul, Turkey 

1. Don’t Freak Out If People Try To Drag You Into Their Stalls In The Grand Bazaar

On my first trip to Istanbul during the low-season, I experienced a MAJOR culture shock when shopkeepers were physically dragging me into their stalls in the Grand Bazaar. I wasn’t good at saying no at the time, so I wound up going into every stall I was dragged into (and fighting my way out, politely, without buying anything!) On our second trip to Istanbul, in the summer, there were many more tourists to patron the stalls in the Grand Bazaar so I didn’t receive nearly as much attention and I was able to window shop – but it was a crazy first-time experience in the city.

2. Know Men Might Try To Give You Things In Order To Start a Conversation / Sell Something (Usually Tea!)

In many of the shops you enter, especially those selling bigger-ticket items like Turkish Rugs, the shopkeepers will offer tea while you’re looking. There’s an urban legend circulating that this tea is drugged, and it’s used to make you more pliant and get you to spend more money on carpets. I didn’t experience that, so I can’t say whether it’s true one way or the other, but do know that this free tea, while you’re perusing, does make you feel indebted to the shopkeeper, and guilty if you don’t buy something! 

3. Be Comfortable Saying No 

This is a big one! My first trip to Istanbul in college was actually the first time I had to stand up for myself and say no to people trying to push me around. Was I good at saying no to pushy shopkeepers and creepy men? No! That’s why I was scammed so many times on my first trip – But as a solo female traveler being able to simply say “no” is such an important skill to have. 

4. Dress Appropriately: Istanbul is a Modern City But You Might Want to Visit Religious Sites as a Tourist

While Istanbul is a modern city, it’s still conservative and religious compared to other major tourist hot spots in Europe. While people can (and do) wear just about anything in the tourist areas of Istanbul in the summer, if you’re leaving that area you might want to pack some more conservative outfits to adhere to cultural norms. 

5. Know You Will Have To Cover Your Hair For Mosques, But You Can Rent a Scarf On-Site  

Mosques in Istanbul are open for tourism, this isn’t the case in some other countries I’ve traveled to, like Morocco, where Mosques are generally only for religious services. The Mosques in Istanbul, like the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and Süleymaniye Mosque (my favorite!) are some of the best not-to-miss tourist attractions in the city, but you have to be dressed appropriately to enter. 

👚 What to Wear in the Mosques: For women, this means body covered – typically arms to the elbows and legs to the knees – and a scarf over your hair. You have to use a scarf to cover your hair – On my most recent trip, I saw a girl turned away at the entrance who tried to just tuck their hair into her hat. 

👉 Renting Clothes & Head Scarfs: All of the mosques open for tourism in Istanbul have a little area towards the front that rents out scarves, and sometimes coveralls, to tourists so they can be appropriately covered to enter the mosque. Scarf rentals at the mosques in Istanbul are usually only around $1 or less, in Turkish Liras. 

💡 Tip! I recommend bringing your own scarf for photos – you ARE allowed to take photos in the mosques, so packing our own scarves that looked good in photos + we could reuse the scarves as sarongs or in other mosques was really helpful!

6. Be Aware Of Fake Hagia Sophia / Blue Mosque Employees Scam

This was the main big scam I fell for on my first trip to Istanbul. Basically, as I mentioned before women need to wear scarves in order to be allowed into the mosques as tourists in Turkey. The mosques usually have kiosks where they hand out hair scarves to tourists for a small fee. Well, some man with a fake clipboard and ID badge was standing outside of the Hagia Sophia mosque/museum, and when he told me in stilted English that he was an employee of the Hagia Sophia and I needed to follow him to get a hair scarf, I just kinda … believed him. 

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We went around a back alley as the sun was setting (this was in the winter so it was setting early) and all of a sudden I found myself winding through narrow alleys with this man, who was leading me off the mosque’s territory through back routes. 

Only when we were in a dark alley with NO other tourists around (this all happened very fast within 3 minutes, max), did the thought even enter my head that this man could be a fraud and not actually an employee of the Hagia Sophia at all. 

Again, I was extremely young and naive. 

After around 5 minutes of following this random guy through the (now dark) market alleys, the obviously fake mosque employee stopped in front of a dark staircase, opened a door that descended into a cellar, pointed down, and told me to get in 😬.

I was absolutely scared sh*tless. 

But, there was no one else in the alley with us – and (now I’m embarrassed to say) I didn’t want to be rude. 

So, I went into the dark spooky basement in the deserted alley with the fake Hagia Sophia mosque employee/ apparent conman. 

Would I do something like this now that I’m more well-traveled, older, less naive in general, no! Of course not! 

I would have told that guy to get lost the second we were leaving the crowd of people online to enter the mosque. 

But this was my first trip, and I pretty much knew nothing about nothing – I can’t stress how green I was, and lacking in street smarts to the max. 

I’m pretty sure at this point in my life the only scam I had ever encountered was the odd fake Tibetan monk in NYC who would come up and give me a bracelet (and demand a tip after). 

I’m very lucky to say the creepy fake Hagia Sophia employee was leading me through the spooky maze of markets not to kidnap me, but rather just to get patrons to his father’s basement carpet shop. 

Sitting there, in the warmly lit carpet shop with a nice Turkish family serving me tea and layering fabric samples on my lap, it was a stark contrast to how scared I had been a few moments before. 

Still, I had no idea where I was (this was before I knew about getting local SIM cards while traveling, or downloading Google Maps offline), and now I was depending on the con man to take me back to the main square so I could find my way to my hotel. 

I kept asking (very politely) for him to please take me back, the father kept making conversation, they kept serving me tea and trying to get me to buy a carpet – this went on for like, an hour (!!!)

FINALLY, I had to be a bit rude and assertive to get out of there. 

I said, firmly, “I’m a student. I have NO MONEY for a carpet.” 

Instead of taking me back immediately, the father shifted his strategy from trying to sell me a carpet to getting me to marry his son (!!!!) – the guy who kidnapped me from the mosque! 

I literally can not make this up. 

I found myself agreeing to things like ‘Yes, he’s a very nice young man”, and “Yes, very smart”, to hurry along with the family to get someone (any of them) to take me back. 

After an excruciatingly long hour of this, the fake Hagia Sophia employee agreed to take me back – but after walking around for 10-20 minutes (it was now pretty late, like 8 PM), instead of taking me back to where he got me, the con-man took me to a hookah bar! 

It was late and I was literally at this guy’s mercy because I had no idea where we were or how to get home, and at this point, I had figured out he didn’t mean me any harm – So I wound up smoking hookah with him, and like 20 other Turkish dudes for a few hours while they all asked me questions like “Do you like coffee?”. 

No one there spoke English, and I didn’t speak any Turkish, and I made the best out of the situation by trying to talk with all the locals and have a good night, because (even if I was there against my will) it was still an interesting experience. 

Eventually, the guy took me back to Sultanahmet Square, making me give him my number first, (which again, I was too polite to JUST SAY NO to at the time), and from there I was able to find my way back to my hotel. 

I know I was very lucky because the guy who took me from the mosque was just a harmless con man and a flirt, rather than someone who actually intended me harm – But still!!! It was a very eye-opening experience.

7. Visit The Sights Just Outside Of The Main Tourist Area 

If you find yourself getting a lot of street harassment in the main touristic areas in Istanbul I recommend visiting some of the less-popular spots to get a breather. My favorite spot in Istanbul is Süleymaniye Mosque, which is about a 20-minute walk from the Hagia Sophia, out of the large crowds of tourists. Süleymaniye Mosque overlooks the Bosporus Strait and is just as amazing as more popular sights like the Blue Mosque, but it’s a bit outside of the center and less crowded. 

8. Know That You Will Get A LOT More Attention If You’re Blonde

If you’re blonde (or have any bright colored hair really, red, blue, etc), you WILL stand out more – and get more attention. Trust me, I traveled Istanbul as a platinum blonde and as a brunette – in addition to going during the low vs. high season, my bright blonde hair color also definitely made me stand out more on my first trip. 

9. Consider The Season You’re Traveling To Istanbul (High vs. Low Season)

The first time I went to Istanbul it was the middle of February – Istanbul has the same climate as most of Western Europe so February was cold, wet, and dreary. Because it was the extreme off-season for tourism in Istanbul, there were basically no lines or crowds to get into any of the top attractions, which was nice, but the downside was I stuck out like a sore thumb and received way more attention as a solo foreign tourist.  

10. Use Istanbul’s Version Of Uber, iTaksi, Instead of Hailing Cars Off the Street  

To get around in Istanbul, we used the taxi app iTaksi, which calls metered cabs to your location similar to how Uber does, instead of calling cabs off the street. I think that using taxi apps is a safer way for women to travel internationally because they’re tracked with GPS and there’s a record of your cab driver’s license plate and info on the app -That being said, traveling as a woman is never without risks, but we felt safe using iTaksi to get around Istanbul! 

11. Don’t Get Too Stressed By The Small Scams (& Don’t Let Them Ruin Your Trip)

I remember literally the first 5-minutes of my first trip to Istanbul I was scammed. On my last trip to Istanbul, I paid something like 5 Euros for a fresh juice, that was literally full of dead flies 😂 You can let these things get you down and ruin your day, or just laugh at it! It’s not that big of a deal in the long run.