ISTANBUL · TÜRKIYE
Minarets, mosaics, and the Bosphorus.
The cruises on the strait, the monuments of the old city, the hammams and the food walks, plus the big days out to Cappadocia and Gallipoli. The experiences worth your time in Istanbul, with prices and who runs them.
Only here
Only Istanbul has these three.
Ferries, old churches and a spa afternoon you can find in a hundred cities. A crossing between two continents, the dome of Hagia Sophia and a bathhouse Sinan built five hundred years ago, you cannot.
Two continents
The Bosphorus
No other city stands on two continents, and the Bosphorus is the seam between them. A ferry or a cruise carries you from Europe to Asia in twenty minutes, past Ottoman waterfront palaces, wooden yali mansions and the fortress Mehmed built to take the city. The strait is the reason Istanbul is Istanbul.
- 1 Istanbul: Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
- 2 Istanbul: Bosphorus Dinner Cruise with Turkish Night Show
- 3 Istanbul: Sunset or Day Small-Group Yacht Cruise with Snacks
Fifteen centuries
Hagia Sophia
For nearly a thousand years it held the largest dome ever raised. Justinian finished it in 537 as the great church of Byzantium; it became an Ottoman mosque, then a museum, then a mosque again. Gold mosaics of emperors sit beneath vast calligraphy roundels under one ceiling. Nothing else like it is still standing.
- 1 Istanbul: Blue Mosque & Hagia Sophia Guided Tour w/ Tickets
- 2 Istanbul: Hagia Sophia Skip-the-Line Ticket and Audio Guide
- 3 Istanbul: Basilica Cistern & Hagia Sophia Combo Ticket
The old ritual
The Hammam
The Turkish bath is an Ottoman inheritance the city never gave up. You sweat on a heated marble slab beneath a dome pierced with star-shaped light, get scrubbed and foam-washed by an attendant, then cool down over tea. Some of the working hammams were built by Mimar Sinan, the sultans’ own architect, in the 1500s.
- 1 Istanbul: Private Turkish Bath, Massage, and Spa in Old City
- 2 Istanbul: Private Turkish Bath, Sauna, and Massage
- 3 Istanbul Gedikpasa Historical Turkish Bath with Privacy Option
Start here
The experience most people book first.
More travellers plan an Istanbul trip around this one than anything else.
The classics
Istanbul's Most Popular Tours & Tickets
The Bosphorus cruises, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar. The experiences most travellers come to Istanbul for.
Where to begin
The experiences a first trip is built around.
The Bosphorus, Hagia Sophia, the palaces, the covered bazaar, the hammams and the balloon country a short flight away. The handful most Istanbul trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big decision
Which Bosphorus cruise?
Half the trips to Istanbul include a turn on the strait, and it looks different at every hour. Three ways onto the water, depending on whether you want the sunset, the dinner and the show, or a deck to yourselves.
Beyond the city
Sunrise over the fairy chimneys.
An hour’s flight from Istanbul, Cappadocia is a moonscape of wind-carved rock cones, cave churches and whole cities hollowed out underground. Most people go for the dawn launch, when hundreds of hot-air balloons lift off together over the valleys. Two-day trips run from the city with the flights and the hotel handled.
Read the guide: Cappadocia trips from Istanbul →Eat the city
Istanbul runs on its kitchens.
A breakfast that fills the whole table, fish sandwiches off the boats by the Galata Bridge, meze and raki by the water, baklava worth the trip. Food walks lead you through the spice market and the back lanes of Karakoy and Kadikoy on the Asian side, tasting as you go.
See the best Istanbul food tours →Europe and Asia
Breakfast in Europe, dinner in Asia.
Istanbul is the only city that stands on two continents, hinged on the Bosphorus. Cross the strait by ferry for the price of a coffee, watch the cargo ships thread between the bridges, and trace the line where Europe ends and Asia begins. After dark the bridges turn to ribbons of light.
Onto the Bosphorus →The old city
A peninsula of emperors and sultans.
Three empires ran the world from this one hilly peninsula above the Golden Horn. Within a short walk sit Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the sunken Basilica Cistern, Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar. A guided highlights tour strings them into one day with the tickets and the queues handled for you.
- 1 Istanbul: Full-Day Highlights Tour with Guide and Lunch
- 2 Istanbul Highlights! Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapı and More!
- 3 Istanbul: Best of The City Full-Day Tour with Transfers
After dark
The city does not quiet down at sunset.
When the last call to prayer fades and the lights come up, Istanbul moves to the water and the meyhanes. Dinner cruises with a Turkish night show, the whirling dervishes of the Mevlevi order, rooftop tables over the old city and the long crawl through the back bars of Beyoglu.
See all 41 evening experiences →The sights
The Istanbul you came to see.
Hagia Sophia for the great dome. The Blue Mosque for the tiles. Topkapi for the palace intrigue. The Basilica Cistern for the cool dark underground. The Grand Bazaar for the haggle, and Fener and Balat for the colour.
By experience
Or choose how to spend the day.
Cruise the strait if you want the water. Walk the old city if you want the history. Eat through the markets, soak in a hammam, fly to Cappadocia for sunrise, or take the ferry out to the islands.
Plan it
Three days in Istanbul.
First time in the city? Here is a long weekend that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
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