If you enjoyed Büyükada and want a similar experience, or if you think that it is a bit too crowded for your taste, Istanbul’s Prince Islands offer you an alternative! Well, to be perfectly honest with you, technically, it offers at least three alternatives that can be reached with ease, and up to five or even six alternatives depending on how many boats you want to take at any one day. However, none of those smaller islands really come close to what Büyükada and Heybeliada offer to their visitors, as both can be visited for up to an entire day, and perhaps even more, something the smaller ones simply cannot provide. Let us now dive deep into my day in Heybeliada, to see a good chunk of what it offers to those that visit it, though keep in mind that this is far from an exhaustive list of things to do on this wonderful piece of dry land in the middle of Marmara Sea.
As was the case with my piece on Büyükada, it is not a bad idea to start the day at a high point by enjoying some baked goods at a local bakery, this time it is called Nazlıgül Börek Pasta Salonu. As a change for the better, this fine establishment is situated right on the pier itself, so you can enjoy some decent views as you eat your flaky goodies. I recommend their cheese pastries, they sure use a decent amount of cheese as well as a good kind of it, which is very rare these days.
After stuffing my face with an ever so decadent “main meal,” I decided to go for a dessert at the same spot as well. Basically, they have two counters, one that sells savoury goods, and the other full of sweets of different types. I went with a tres leches, which is one of my favourite desserts of all time. As the name may suggest to some of you, it is prepared using three milk-based ingredients: good old milk, cream, and condensed milk. For those who prefer milky desserts like me, it is a dream come true. I am not the best judge when it comes to desserts, but I guess this place did the recipe some justice!
After a fulfilling but perhaps not the healthiest lunch, I decided to visit the summer house of İsmet İnönü, the second president of Turkey. It was bought by him back when he was quite sick in 1934, though he rented the same place for ten years before that. The weather quality in Heybeliada is noticeably better than the rest of the region, and that was the case even back then. That is why there was also a sanatorium on the island for those that had issues with their lungs. Unfortunately, the said site does not work anymore but it alludes to the “healing” benefits of living on Heybeliada better than anything else. This was the case for İnönü as well. Despite his doctors saying that he could not make it to his forty, living here for a few years allowed him to overcome his sickness, and that in itself meant that he could lead Turkey during the WWII, painstakingly making sure that the country stayed out of a disastrous war thanks to his unmatched experience in diplomacy and statecraft. His summer house has all the original furniture intact, and a lot of photos scattered around to get to know him better. Being a free museum, it is a no brainer to visit it even for those who are not interested in history.
Erected in the memory of the fallen Russian soldiers during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, this is yet another hidden treasure on Heybeliada that is well worth a visit. It is pretty far away from other sights, and is almost hidden near a military garrison, but it is worth the hike. This relatively short war featured a ton of Russians making the arduous journey from the north in an attempt to aid their Orthodox Greek brethren with their bid for independence. It was a huge success for the Russian side, whose armies came all the way to Yeşilköy where the Ataturk Airport once stood proudly in Istanbul. Of course, no war is without its martyrs regardless of whether one wins or loses, and hence Russian prisoners of war as well as those that died during this campaign were memorialized by this stele in Heybeliada. I did hear that it was sometimes used as a gathering point for Russian residents of Istanbul who want to come together for important Russian holidays such as the Victory Day, though I was not there to photograph such events myself.
Perhaps it is my mind deceiving me, but out of all the islands I visited on the Marmara Sea, Heybeliada is the one not only with the best air quality but also with the finest fauna. These two are likely interrelated, nevertheless, it is well worth a mention. Views from the walking paths are quite breath-taking so I suppose it never hurts that every gasp goes a long way on this green jewel of Marmara! One of the highlights of Heybeliada is a Greek Seminary that used to operate atop its highest hill but sadly I was not allowed to see it properly the last time I visited the island due to me wearing some of the shortest shorts I had at the moment… It would be wise to wear more modestly if you want to visit such religious places yourself in the future.
Well, that is it. There is more to see and to do on the island, but for me all that remained at that point was to enjoy a small cone of ice cream and wait for my ferry to come by. It was a rather short but very well planned out visit that allowed me to enjoy some of the finest sights of the island without exhausting myself in that scorching hot weather… If you can time your visit better, you can easily spend more time here, and even enjoy some of its beaches. I do hope that you find Heybeliada enjoyable, and perhaps even better than Büyükada thanks to its more laid back nature.