Hello everyone. I am planning to travel to Istanbul in June this year. I´m looking up flight ticket prices, and it is very discouraging! Can anyone point me to any cheap flight plans? I am wanting to get a roundtrip ticket (unfortunately, I can stay only a week). Also, any other travel advice would be extremely helpful and appreciated, as this is my first time traveling out of the country (okay, traveling in general). Thank you!!!

To be honest, I´m probably not the person to answer this question, but I´ve done the trip a few times, so I have some idea.

Best deal that´s ever happened, as far as I know, is $530 through Turkish Airlines, direct flight from NY or DC to IST, and back. Normally, this is probably going to be $800–$1500. If you´re not in NY or DC, you´re probably going to have to get yourself on a Delta or United ticket operated, after at least one layover, by Turkish or Lufthansa.

In my experience, the cheapest flights on a normal day (no special deals) are two-stop flights through 1) New York and 2) Hamburg/Frankfurt/Munich to Istanbul. Expect to pay $900-$1200.

If you had money to burn, though, I´d say go Turkish Airlines—they´re easily the most comfortable, and they offer more direct flights. In fact, I´d pay an extra $200 to fly Turkish after doing the United/Delta Germany layovers. Not pleasant.

As for other tips—not much more I can say than a good guidebook could. June will be busy, so prioritize the touristy stuff you want to see: There will be lines. Otherwise, have fun.

Turkish Airlines offers the most direct flights.  KLM and Air France have manageable layovers and so does British Airway (which also has a few direct flights depending one what your city of departure is).  I don´t particularly care for Delta because the layovers (usually in Germany) are pretty horrendous. Keep in mind that June is the middle of tourist season so flights are very expensive on all European/Turkish airlines.  We got direct flights from Houston to Istanbul in February for about $530 as opposed to 800 -1200 in the peak season.  September/October also has some good rates and the weather in most parts of Turkey is still beautiful.    

Thank you both!