Çinili Hamam

I’ll be honest — I hate Turkish baths. This is because I do not like being touched by strangers. Yep, I’m a weirdo.
That said, if I had to choose a bath, I would choose this one. It has been described as the third most important bath in Istanbul. Super traditional and about 400 years old, it will lead you to the amazing burrow of Uskudar, where few tourists dare enter.
Most significantly is the fact that Cinili is dirt cheap — 37TL for the whole shebang (even for foreigners without a lick of Turkish. Other baths will charge you more for being foreign, it’s a classic strategy in Istanbul).
All of my guests — couchsurfers, friends, relatives — have loved their experience at this bath. It’s not tainted by hordes of tourists and the staff are incredibly cute and very Turkish. They will scrub you hard. You will leave red-​faced and super soft. What I mean to say is, they are not holding back on the scrubbing like they do at other, more popular bathhouses in the city. The normal clientele is the slightly overweight housewife, so you’ll fit right in!
One thing: it’s important to bring your own supplies — soap/​shampoo, towel, and slippers, if you don’t want to rent what they have/​pay the small fee.
All in all, my advice is to skip the touristy nonsense of European-​side hamams and go for a more local, frugal adventure. Cinili is the perfect bathhouse in this regard.