Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey

Visiting Topkapi Palace needs to be planned as if you were going to war – that is, if you’re intent on conquering either the Harem or the Treasury sans competition from a million other tourists. Since my idea of conquering is via camera and getting photos without random people in them, it was easy for us to choose the Harem over the Treasury since the latter forbids photography. Two things were necessary to enable my success – picking a day where there were as few cruise ships in port as possible as well as getting a Museum Pass. A little bit of research solved the first problem and we bought our passes on our first day in the city. Having the pass is the more crucial of the two as it allows you to skip the ticket counter which is only open once Topkapi itself is open. By skipping this line, we got to stand in the MUCH shorter line at the Palace entrance. And because we had a plan, we were able to head directly for the Harem once the gates opened and we managed to be the first people inside and I got my people-less photos! ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).