Animals in Istanbul

Animal programmes in Istanbul split into city ones and day trips. In the city it means the aquarium at Florya on the Marmara shore: the display is built as a route through geography — from the Black Sea through tropical rivers to ocean tunnels where sharks and rays pass directly overhead. The format is short, a couple of hours, and it works year round whatever the weather.

The out-of-town half heads east to Lake Sapanca, about a hundred kilometres from the city. This is fresh water ringed by wooded hills, and beside it the village of Maşukiye at the foot of Kartepe, where trout farms line the streams: you pick the fish live from the tank and it is cooked in front of you. Horse riding along forest paths runs there too, and it is the closest place to Istanbul where that is possible.

Points to note. The Sapanca trip fills a full day with the drive both ways, and on Friday evenings or at weekends the eastbound road jams — set out early. The private format lets you linger by the water longer; the group one runs to a timetable. Flash photography is banned in the aquarium, and at Maşukiye it stays cool by the streams even in summer, so a jacket does no harm.