14 Best Shopping in The Bazaar Quarter and Environs, Istanbul

This delightful boutique sells high-quality towels, tablecloths, throw rugs, and other traditional Turkish home textiles with a simple, modern aesthetic. The immensely appealing and stylish collection also includes luscious, all-natural olive-oil soaps.

One of Istanbul's most reputable carpet dealers espouses a "hassle-free shopping" policy and is favored by the diplomatic community. The company and its friendly staff offer a large selection of antique, semi-antique, and new carpets and kilims, mainly from Anatolia.

At Derviş, the emphasis is on handcrafted towels, bathrobes, soaps, and traditional Turkish bath accessories, as well as antique and vintage kaftans and robes from Anatolia. There's a second shop inside the Bazaar's tucked-away Cebeci Han (at No. 10), just off Yağlıkçılar Sokak.

Design brand Dhoku stands out among the traditional carpet merchants of the Grand Bazaar for its radically different, contemporary styles, which include bold geometric designs and stylized floral patterns. The high-quality rugs are handmade near İzmir using organic handspun wool and natural dyes. Directly across the street is sister company Ethnicon ( Takkeciler Cad. 49–51), which pieces together different-sized squares of colorful rug material to create carpets reminiscent of American-style quilts. Both stores offer fixed prices; at Dhoku, pricing is by the square meter.

The Grand Bazaar is a neighborhood unto itself and a trove of all things Turkish—carpets, brass, copper, jewelry, textiles, and leather products. Many of the stores have resorted to selling cheap goods aimed at the tourist market, but the bazaar still holds many treasures.

In the back wing of the Spice Bazaar, Hayfene (previously known as Ucuzcular Baharat) not only has great prices, but it's also just about the friendliest and most hassle-free shop in the bazaar. It's run by the energetic Bilge Kadıoğlu, a U.S.–educated, fifth-generation spice purveyor who is the bazaar's first (and still only) female shop owner. Kadıoğlu prides herself on the shop's extremely fresh spices and specially prepared mixes—which she is happy to have you taste—as well as pure, alcohol-free essential oils and a variety of Turkish sweets.

There are piles and piles of antique rings, bracelets, necklaces, and earrings from Central Asia at Horasan, as well as walls covered in strands of colorful beads made out of precious and semiprecious stones from which the staff will help you create your own jewelry. Prices are fair.

With two shops in the Grand Bazaar, İgüs offers one of the widest selections of scarves and pashminas found anywhere in Turkey, along with reasonable prices.

This store specializes in hand-worked copper and brass pieces, both old and new. It's also full of stylish lanterns in traditional Middle Eastern and contemporary styles.

On a backstreet just outside the western entrance of the Spice Market is the tiny flagship store of Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi, Turkey's oldest coffee producer (founded 1871), whose finely ground coffee—which can be seen being ground on the premises—is legendary. You can buy whole-bean or ground coffee, which makes a good souvenir of a trip to Turkey.

One of the most unusual stores in the Grand Bazaar—indeed, anywhere—is Nick Merdenyan's tiny shop. The artist produces intricate calligraphic works and miniature paintings incorporating motifs and themes from major world religions, as well as universal nonreligious messages. Each small masterpiece is done on dried Dieffenbachia leaves, which he calls "Nick's missionary leaves of tolerance and peace." 

One of the major streets leading to the Grand Bazaar, Nuruosmaniye Caddesi has a pedestrian boulevard section lined with some of the Old City's most stylish (and high-end) shops, with an emphasis on fine carpets, jewelry, and antiques.

Reached through a doorway just outside the Fesciler Kapısı (Fezmakers' Gate) at the western end of the Grand Bazaar, the Sahaflar Çarşısı is the traditional home of Istanbul's secondhand booksellers. The market now mainly houses bookshops selling new editions in Turkish, primarily school textbooks, though a handful of secondhand and rare book dealers carrying books in English and other languages, as well as prints and other ephemera, is still located here. The market is open every day.

Established in 1918 and now run by the fourth generation of the Şengör family, this experienced and trustworthy dealer has a large inventory of carpets from different regions of Anatolia.