The day has finally arrived for my easyJet blogger challenge. For those of you who don’t know what this is, easyJet, the UK’s low cost airline, have set me the challenge of flying to an undisclosed destination in Europe armed with just £100 and 15 hours tourist time to see as much as possible. It’s a fantastic idea for any short break. Not knowing where you’re going adds to the excitement.

I arrived at Luton Airport in England to meet the guys from easyJet and discover my destination would be….. Istanbul in Turkey! Fantastic! If they’d have asked me where I wanted to go that would have been the city of choice for me. A place I’ve always wanted to visit.

The journey to Istanbul

The weather was absolutely perfect for flying, not a cloud in the sky over Luton with a smooth and turbulence free flight all the way to sunny Istanbul. The flight from London is around 3 hours 20 minutes. Unfortunately we arrived around 4pm with traffic getting worse by the minute. We opted for a cheap public bus to get us half the way there. The international airport is some way out of the city centre and with rush hour looming our journey by taxi the rest of the way soon slowed right down. In fact it took us over 2 hours to get from the airport to our hotel.

The Hotel Prince situated in the heart of Istanbul is in a great location for lots of tourist activities tomorrow and lots of great bars and restaurants to enjoy tonight. It’s time to grab a drink and some great local Turkish cuisine.

I need your help

This trip is all about seeing as much of this great city as possible so I need your help in finding the best tourist spots. You can tweet your recommendations at www.twitter.com/travelwithamate or leave a comment here if you like. Let me know the places I really should go and also the places to avoid. This adventure is all about maximising my tourist time and getting the most out of a short stay. I look forward to your suggestions and I’ll be posting a list of great tweeted recommendations too. Search for the hashtag #easyjetchallenge on twitter for a live feed of tweets as I travel.