Galata is a neighborhood of Beyoğlu district located in the european side of Istanbul by the
shores of the Bosphorus strait.
As in many other areas of the city, this place also promises to
offer some of the most outstanding views of the city thanks to its privileged location by the
shores of the Bosphorus strait.
In today's video, let's discover together Galataport. An innovative
cruise port in Karaköy coastline that is said to vitalize cruise tourism across an extensive
region from the Mediterranean to the black sea and all the activities that visitors can enjoy.
Galata and Karaköy have been home to different cultures over the centuries for example Jews,
Genoese, French, Roman, Venetians, Ottomans and others. In the early 1900s, around this area,
there was a huge complex serving different purposes including passenger terminal, hospital
and even post office. This complex expanded over the years. With an investment of 1.7 billion USD,
this historical city harbor will be open to public for the first time in approximately two centuries.
Galataport Istanbul has transformed this historical city harbor into a world-class cruise
port and touristic destination where visitors can expect to have a healthy and safe environment for
culture and art exhibitions, dining and of course lots of shopping. This port is ready to receive
25 million visitors per year of which 7 million are expected to be foreign tourists.
The project is expected to attract around 1.5 million cruise liner passengers to Istanbul every year.
This complex will also have an underground parking lot for over 20 thousand vehicles.
Galataport is the world's first underground cruise ship terminal and per day is expected to receive
up to three cruise ships and 15 000 passengers per day which to be honest i really think that
receiving, let's imagine that this port per day will receive 15 thousand passengers and
of course all of those tourists might go to the historical peninsula that means
Sultanahmet and maybe Taksim square and Galata area. Istanbul it's already a very crowded city
that even just with us, I mean we struggle with the traffic and even entering places and finding
places even just to spend the time, so I don't know about you but maybe they will need to limit
a little bit this port so they can manage and handle all the people and the tourists at the same time.
For example, in my case, I have also visited other cities that are famous for receiving cruise ships,
for example like Dubrovnik. It's a very small city in Croatia but I remember a few years ago
when we went there, there was one cruise ship one or two cruise ships and it was impossible to visit
the old town. Of course, you cannot compare Dubrovnik with Istanbul because istanbul is
three or four times bigger than Dubrovnik but still, i mean at some point they will
need to regulate the passengers, how many passengers are arriving in those cruise ships.
So let's see what what this new port will bring and hopefully everything will be great.
So this place basically is like an open-air mall, huge huge place. Here it's
a little bit over one km and you can just take a walk along the seaside. You can
enjoy many restaurants you can sit at any of them as well there are many shops and of course these
views are some of the most beautiful in the city as well here we can see the golden horn,
the historical peninsula and also the other side where the Bosphorus bridge is. So this is a great
place for tourists if you just want to enjoy a nice walking through the shores of the Bosphorus, I recommend it.
As we mentioned before also this complex was made to host different exhibitions
and this time we can enjoy one called "Path leading to Sea" offering a nostalgic take on Beyoğlu
from the lens of Ara Güler, one of the most known Turkish photographers who was also called "the eye
of Istanbul" or "the photographer of Istanbul" We can admire some of his unpublished photos
alongside some of the iconic ones organized by Ara Güler archives and research center.
Also in this section, we'll be able to find the museum square of this complex. Here we can also
find the modern art museum of Istanbul among other interesting places about art and exhibitions so
currently they are still working on them. They are under restoration and hopefully very soon
we can enjoy them as well.
So this was our day exploring this new Galataport in Istanbul.
Many of its sections are not finished yet and also many of the stores are not open
because it barely opened a couple of weeks ago but once the cruise ships resume of course this
place will be much more crowded and mostly active to receive tourists and new visitors as well.
So thanks a lot for watching our video and don't forget that if you want to
keep receiving more tips and recommendations about Turkey and specifically in Istanbul
then don't forget to subscribe to our channel. See you next time bye.