hi

I want to know the names of the good places to live in istanbul, that doesnt mean it needs to be expensive places, just a beautiful place to have an apartment. and also which ones are that bad places???

This is all about your decisions. If you like living in down town Ortaköy, Etiler, Ulus, Beşiktaş, Nişantaşı will do. Both sea wiew and down town Bebek, Tarabya, Yeşilköy, Florya, Rumelihisarı, partially Sarıyer. If you like satallite towns Ataşehir, Bahçeşehir etc. I do live in Ataköy, close to airport, sea, down town and it is also ver well settled satellite town. I did not even started so may be you better ask me what you heard about. This way we can narrow the area. Istanbul is pretty big city with 15 million people in it

don't move to beşiktaş or fulya. All the new buildings are blocking my view!

Dear Aslı

All of the sites you list are on the European side! What about the Asian side??

I agree with you Marion. Asian side is much better "to live". Maybe when the tunnel is complete in a few years, I would love to move to bostanci, feneroglu anywhere along the sea.
But I also recommend that foreigners should live on the european side for a while before they move to asian side. just my opinion.

Assian side of what is Istanbul today was inhabited first, by the earliest settlers.

Later, those settling on the European side called the Assian side SKUTARI, meaning "the land of the blind" for the early settlers had failed to see the beauty of the European side. Today, the same place is still called USKUDAR.

Ok Ok

I dont want to start a European side - Asian side war, with violent posts like some other threads on this site.

BUT I think people who live on the European side only experience half of Istanbul. Those who live on the Asian side are much more mobile and end up enjoying the whole of the city.

Whats to argue about? The european side has all the tourist sites. Topkapi, Sultan Ahmet, Aya Sofiya, Taksim, the palaces, the airport. But with that, they also get the traffic and the crowds. For day to day life (if you can afford it) Asian side is much better, more normal.

I think the best place for a foreigner to live when they first move here is Cihangir. Its close to everything. There are many other foreigners that live there. So they can get used to the city slowly before they decide to move somewhere else. Keep in mind that cihangir is expensive too though.

any idea about Kartal? Im moving there on September.