The domes take one morning. The strait takes the rest of the week.
Which Bosphorus cruise crosses to the Asian side. What a hammam costs before the upsell. Whether Cappadocia is worth two days of five. Reviews of every tour you can book in Istanbul.
Four bookings a first week in Istanbul hangs off.
The morning inside the domes, the evening on the water, the reservoir under the tram line, and a ceremony that has been turning since the thirteenth century.
01The first morningBlue Mosque & Hagia Sophia Guided Tour w/ TicketsHagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque with a guide who holds the tickets. Go at opening; both empty by eleven and fill again by one.
02The evening sailBosphorus Sunset Cruise on Yacht with Live GuideA small yacht out past Dolmabahçe as the light turns. Two hours, a live guide, and the bridges lit on the way back in.
03UndergroundBasilica Cistern Fast-Track Entry and Audio GuideFast-track entry to the Basilica Cistern, Justinian’s reservoir with the Medusa heads at the back. Cool in any weather, minutes from the tram.
04After darkHodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & ExhibitionThe Mevlevi sema at Hodjapasha, inside a converted fifteenth-century bathhouse. One hour, no interval, no photographs during the turn.
Public ferry, sunset yacht or a dinner boat with a table. Pick your deck.
Everything in this city is measured from the water. Four kinds of sailing, what it costs to board each one, and the hour of the day it suits.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
The sightseeing runNinety minutes up the European shore and back, audio guide on.
Sunset sailingsGolden hour off Ortaköy, bridges lit on the way home.
Dinner cruisesA table, a set menu and a Turkish night show between courses.
Private yachtsSmall groups, a swim stop in summer, nobody else’s coach party.
All 322 sailings on the strait →
Sultanahmet before noon, the Bosphorus after four, Kadıköy for dinner.
The monuments are stacked into one walkable square kilometre; everything else is a ferry ride. Six ways to spend a day here, and the best one of each.
Four monuments, one walk, and a ticket queue you can step around.
Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapı and the Basilica Cistern sit within ten minutes of each other on the Sultanahmet ridge. What separates a good morning from a bad one is which ticket you are holding when you arrive.
Istanbul’s most-booked days out.
Every Istanbul review →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the city, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
Sail Istanbul’s Bosphorus at night with dinner, Turkish dance, live music, bridges, palaces, and a private table for $34.
From · $34
Read our review →
2
Daytime or Sunset Sightseeing Cruise & Audio Guide
from $8
3
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise with Turkish Night Show
from $34
4
Best of Istanbul 1, 2 or 3-Day Private Guided Istanbul Tour
from $100
5
Basilica Cistern Fast-Track Entry and Audio Guide
from $44
6
Hagia Sophia Skip-the-Line Ticket & Museum Option
from $33
7
Hodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & Exhibition
from $32
8
Topkapi Palace & Harem Museum Ticket & Audio Guide
from $61
Hagia Sophia, Topkapı, the Cistern: what each ticket really buys.
Every Old City ticket →
Three entries carry most of Sultanahmet between them, and each sells a plain ticket, a fast-track ticket and a guided version at different prices. The gap between them is queue time and commentary, not access.
Hagia Sophia: plain ticket or fast track
It is a working mosque again, so the ground floor closes to visitors for each of the five daily prayers and for most of Friday midday. The upper gallery, where the Byzantine mosaics are, keeps longer hours. Fast track pays for itself between May and September.
Topkapı: is the Harem worth it
The Harem is a separate ticket inside a separate courtyard, and it is the part people talk about afterwards: tiled corridors, the sultan’s apartments, the courtyard the concubines lived around. Buy it with the palace entry or you will be back at a kiosk.
The Basilica Cistern and the Medusa heads
Justinian’s reservoir holds 336 columns under the tram line, lit and doubled in half a metre of water. Two Medusa heads sit at the far end, one on her side and one upside down, cut for something older and reused here.
What a day in Istanbul actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good number of the best Istanbul days come in under the price of a taxi across the bridge.
Ferry cruises, monument tickets, the Galata workshops and the food walks across both shores.
Full days out: guided Old City runs, dinner cruises with a table, the two-day Cappadocia flights.
Private guides, chartered yachts and the multi-day runs down to Ephesus and Pamukkale.
Cappadocia, Ephesus and Gallipoli all leave Istanbul before dawn.
Turkey’s other famous places are a short flight or an overnight coach away, and operators here sell them as one-, two- and three-day runs out of Istanbul. Closer in: Bursa under Uludağ, the wooden mansions on the Princes’ Islands, and the lake at Sapanca.
- 1Princes Islands Tour with Heybeliada and Buyukadafrom $18
- 2Bursa & Uludag Tour with Lunch & Cable Car Optionfrom $30
- 3Full-Day Princes Island Tour with Lunchfrom $26
Istanbul does its best work after the evening call to prayer.
The dinner boats push off around eight, the sema at Hodjapasha starts at seven, and the rooftops on the Galata side fill as the minarets light up. None of it needs a car. Most of it needs a booking.
Every Istanbul evening →
Three things that only happen in Istanbul.
Domes and boat trips exist all round the Mediterranean. A 1741 bathhouse still taking customers, an order that worships by turning, and glass being cut into a lamp in a Galata back room do not.
The Ottoman Hammam
Cağaloğlu opened in 1741 and Çemberlitaş in 1584, both still working and both built the same way: a domed hot room pierced with star-shaped holes, a heated marble slab in the middle, and an attendant with a coarse mitt. You lie on the göbektaşı until the heat gets into you, then you are scrubbed, foamed and rinsed. Book the scrub. Without it you have paid to sit in a warm room.
- 1Private Turkish Bath, Massage, and Spa in Old City★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 3,225 reviews
- 2Private Turkish Bath, Sauna, and Massage★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,306 reviews
- 3Istanbul Gedikpasa Historical Turkish Bath with Privacy Option★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,285 reviews
The Mevlevi Sema
The sema is a ceremony, not a floor show: dervishes turn with the right palm up and the left palm down, one hand receiving and one giving, for as long as the ney and the kudüm keep going. The orders were closed in 1925 and the ritual came back as heritage. Halls in Sultanahmet and Hodjapasha run it most evenings, without applause and without photographs once the turning starts.
- 1Hodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & Exhibition★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 4,790 reviews
- 2Whirling Dervishes Ceremony and Mevlevi Sema★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 1,694 reviews
- 3Whirling Dervish Ceremony next to Hagia Sophia★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 906 reviews
Mosaic Lamps and Ebru
Two crafts, about two hours each. A mosaic lamp is built by gluing cut glass onto a glass globe and grouting it, which sounds fiddly and is; yours goes home in a box. Ebru is paint floated on thickened water, combed into a pattern with a horsehair brush and lifted off on paper in a single pull. Both run in small studios around Galata and Sultanahmet.
- 1Original Turkish Mosaic Lamp Workshop w/ Snacks★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 3,077 reviews
- 2Perfume Making Workshop with Bosphorus View★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,985 reviews
- 3Turkish Coffee Making and Fortune Telling Workshop★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,308 reviews
Four Istanbul bookings that will not wait.
Most of this city can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on balloon permits, prayer times, ferry timetables and a dinner room with a fixed number of window tables.
- 012 Day All Inclusive Cappadocia Tour from Istanbul with Optional Balloon FlightThe balloons fly at dawn and only when the wind allows, so the two-day runs sell their flight slots weeks out. A cancelled flight is refunded; a full basket is not.
- 02Hagia Sophia Skip-the-Line Ticket & Museum OptionIt is a working mosque. The ground floor closes to visitors for each of the five daily prayers and for most of Friday midday, so a timed ticket is the only way to plan around it.
- 03Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private TableWindow tables on the dinner boats are allocated when you book, not when you board. Late bookings get the inside rows beside the kitchen.
- 04Princes Islands Tour with Heybeliada and BuyukadaThe islands run on the public ferry timetable, and out of season the last boat back to the European side is early. Miss it and you are staying the night.
Five times a day the Old City shuts its doors for twenty minutes.
Every working mosque in the city, Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque included, closes to visitors for each call to prayer and for most of Friday midday. The gaps are short and entirely predictable, and Istanbul has an obvious answer to them: go underground, go indoors, or go to the bazaar.
Breakfast runs to three hours here and dinner starts at nine.
Street food across both shores in one afternoon, a rooftop with mezze and the Golden Horn underneath it, and coffee read from the grounds afterwards. Book the food walks early: they run small.
By shore, neighbourhood and ferry
By kind of day — water, monument, table or road
Sultanahmet, the strait, Galata, then the Asian side for dinner.
The CisternThe newest Istanbul tour reviews.
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Premium Line : Private Istanbul Tour : All Inclusive Package
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Private One Day Ephesus Tour From Istanbul with Domestic Flights
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Rug Shopping with Expert, Grand Bazaar; Private Tour
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Turkish Night Tour on the Bosphorus w/Private table and pick-up
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