Solo Travellers
This Food-Filled Street in Istanbul Is a Haven for Breakfast Lovers
Some streets were made for shopping, others for strolling. But Çelebi Oğlu has the best breakfast in Istanbul. Nicknamed kahvaltıcılar sokağı, or “breakfast street,” this an blink-and-you’ll-miss-it alley wedged between neon-lit kebab shops and old-school bakeries in the Beşiktaş district first rose to fame in the early 2000s when a handful of modest cafés began serving the kind of overflowing, table-creaking spreads once reserved for lazy countryside weekends. Word eventually spread, and today, it’s an essential morning pilgrimage. There, you’ll find a narrow, curving corner of mismatched stools, sweating teapots, and the scent of sizzling sucuk sausage with platters spilling out from dawn to dusk in a cheerful crush of trays, bread baskets, and clinking cups.
The street is a microcosm of a much larger obsession. Istanbul is arguably some of the best breakfasts in the world, rooted in Anatolia’s agrarian past: olives and cheeses from village markets, fresh tomatoes from backyard gardens, crusty bread baked before dawn. What began as a pragmatic farmer’s spread has evolved into an edible showcase of the country’s terroir and culinary generosity. There’s no better place to start the morning than here on Çelebi Oğlu Street. Here’s what to eat and where to order the best breakfast in Istanbul.
A version of this article originally appeared on Condé Nast Traveller Middle East.
What to eat on Çelebi Oğlu Street
Kahvalti tabağı
Every restaurant on Çelebi Oğlu dishes up its own version of the kahvalti tabağı, a crunchy, creamy, and tangy mosaic of Anatolia’s greatest hits served in a sprawl of bowls and plates that often takes up the entire table. Although you can expect to find plenty of variations from place to place, the standard line-up features crumbly beyaz peynir cheese glistening with brine, olives doused in oil, cucumber and tomato slices dusted with sumac, a pat of golden butter, and a ramekin of honey crowned with a dollop of buffalo milk kaymak as thick as clotted cream. There are spoonfuls of sweet-sour jam too—sour cherry, fig, rosehip, perhaps even bergamot—each begging to be slathered onto the copious quantities of bread that come with each tabağı. While some platters stay faithfully traditional, others color outside the lines, adding crimson scoops of muhammara (walnut and red pepper paste) from Gaziantep, ropey curls of herbed string cheese from Van, or golden squares of buttery börek nestled casually between the pickles and pastirma beef.
Where to eat it: Among a sea of options, you can’t go far wrong with the Bi Serpme Kahvalti spread at Bi Kahvalti. Their signature platters are served in generous, crowd-pleasing portions for two or three, and come stacked with enough regional staples to map out half of Türkiye. The standard set includes çeçil peynir, a stringy, slightly smoky cheese from eastern Anatolia; slices of creamy Ezine and sharp kaşar; juicy cherry tomatoes and curls of green village peppers; plus a zeytin tabağı (olive plate), rich acuka (spicy pepper-walnut paste), and sweet finishes like bal-kaymak (honey and clotted cream), homemade jams, and a swipe of Nutella for good measure. A pair of kalem böreği (cigar-shaped cheese pastries) and freshly fried pişi come with every order, alongside French fries and a piping hot skillet of plain menemen. Tea, of course, flows freely.
The scenery and 24-hour sun on these Norwegian isles are no longer a secret
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Solo Travellers
The Best Ear Protection for Kids to Wear at Concerts, Fireworks, and Sporting Events
There’s a reason your child covers their ears every time you walk past a construction site. Little ears are sensitive—and they’re especially vulnerable in the presence of fireworks, race cars, and screaming Taylor Swift fans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prolonged exposure to noise above 85 decibels (dB)—the typical volume of a hair dryer—can cause permanent hearing damage, even for adults. Now imagine your child at a Fourth of July firework festival, where pyrotechnics displays can top 150 dB, and you understand why packing ear protection is just as crucial as sunscreen and snacks.
“Our ears are always on,” says Dr. Brian J. Fligor, a pediatric audiologist, author of Understanding Childhood Hearing Loss, and president of Tobias & Battite Hearing Wellness in Boston. “Hearing is crucial for our language development and navigation of the world. That’s why we must protect children’s hearing from birth.”
The good news? Today’s earmuffs—over-the-ear headsets that help block noise—are lightweight, comfortable, and stylish enough that most kids won’t put up a fight over wearing them. They’re also designed to lower the decibel level without muffling or distorting sound entirely. (The goal is volume reduction, not total silence.)
Dr. Fligor advises using protection any time an event is loud enough to startle a child or requires shouting in order to be heard. He also recommends it when riding ATVs, snowmobiles, or other powersport vehicles where engines are not particularly well-muffled. And while hearing protection is not necessary on commercial flights, he absolutely recommends muffs for smaller bush and prop planes, or when attending a jet flyover show. If you’re not sure how to gauge the noise risk in any given situation, there’s an app for that: Decibel X sound meter for iOS and Android offers a real-time frequency analyzer for spot checks.
We asked Dr. Fligor, a father of four, along with other travel-savvy parents about the muffs that work best for their kids and why. Below, the best kid-approved picks for the ultimate ear protection.
FAQ:
What should I look for to find the best ear protection for kids?
Aim for a minimum noise reduction rating (NRR) of 22 to 27 dB for general use, says Dr. Fligor. For especially loud environments—like fireworks shows or racing events—higher is better.
What ages need ear protection?
Exposure to loud noise—anything over 85 dB—can cause permanent hearing damage in children and adults alike, which is why it’s so essential to protect our hearing from birth onward. Proactive protection for kids is especially important because they are less likely to self-regulate and move away from noise if it gets too loud.
Which type of ear protection is better for kids: earplugs or earmuffs?
For babies, toddlers, and grade schoolers, over-the-ear muffs are the safest and easiest option. They’re more comfortable, stay in place better, and don’t pose a choking hazard the way earplugs might. Dr. Fligor advises against using earplugs for children until they are old enough to report accurately on their comfort and effectiveness, typically around age seven or older. For tweens and teens, high-fidelity earplugs like Loop or Etymotic work well because they dampen volume without distorting sound (ideal for concerts).
How can I tell if the ear protection fits correctly?
“Earmuffs should form a snug but gentle seal around the ears without any gapping,” says Dr. Fligor. That means the cups are large enough to fit around the entire ear— including the flap of cartilage around the edge, called the pinna—and sit along the jaw. If they slip forward or the ears poke out, it’s not tight enough. If they leave indentations or the child complains about pressure, it’s too tight. To double check the fit, ask your child to shake their head while wearing them: If the earmuffs shift easily or slide off, they’re too loose.
For Jo Piazza and Nick Aster, a camper van trip through the national parks of Colorado and Utah wasn’t just a summer escape—it was a way to reconnect with the adventures they loved pre-kids. “It was time for a trip out west,” Jo says. “We’d visited a lot of these national parks when we lived in San Francisco, but now it was about showing our kids—Charlie, 5, and Beatrix, 3—what makes these places so special.”
The couple, who live in Philadelphia and were expecting their third child at the time (Eliza, now born), mapped out a 10-day loop that started and ended in Denver. Along the way, they visited Rocky Mountain National Park, Steamboat Springs, Dinosaur National Monument, Moab, Arches, Canyonlands, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and Breckenridge. “It was a bit of an epic romp,” Jo laughs. Here’s how they spent their family vacation—and how much it cost.
Why rent a camper van?
Pregnant, outdoorsy, and realistic about the physical demands of camping with two small kids, Jo knew she needed more than a tent. “Sleeping on the ground just wasn’t going to cut it,” she says. “A van gave me a good place to sleep—and full disclosure, Nick often slept out in the tent with the kids to give me a bit of luxury.”
They rented their “cabin camper” through Outdoorsy—a fully tricked-out truck with a massive cap in the back that felt like a log cabin on wheels. “People commented on it everywhere we went,” Jo says. “We’d get high fives, people asking to take pictures. At one point, someone said, ‘Hey man, we saw you in Canyonlands two days ago! That thing is awesome.”
Planning a flexible route around national parks
Unlike their usual meticulously planned vacations, this one was intentionally open-ended. “We had a general loop in mind,” Jo explains. “We knew we wanted to hit Rocky Mountain right away since it’s so close to the airport, and we knew Charlie would go bananas for Dinosaur. But the rest we figured out as we went. That’s the beauty of traveling by van—you don’t need to lock in hotels every night.”
This flexibility came in handy during a July heatwave in Moab. “We broke up the camping with a stay at the super-unhip Marriott,” Jo says. “It had a fake red rock pool and a mini water park. It flew in the face of the National Park ethos, but with 100-degree heat and two little kids, we just leaned in. They loved it.”
Top highlights for parents and kids
The kids’ favorite moments weren’t always the ones Jo and Nick would’ve picked, but they rolled with it. “They’re still talking about the pool in Moab and the fossil quarry at Dinosaur National Monument,” Jo says. “Also, they were weirdly into how much attention the van got.”
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