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Museum entry in Istanbul has become expensive, particularly for foreign visitors, who pay separate and considerably higher rates at most state and municipal sites. What has not changed is that a great deal of the best of the city costs nothing at all. Every mosque is free. So are both bazaars, the parks, the bridges […]
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Almost every monument in Istanbul closes in the late afternoon, which leaves visitors standing in Sultanahmet at six in the evening with nothing to do. The city itself does not stop. It just moves, onto the water, up the hills and into neighbourhoods most day itineraries never reach. Here are twelve things worth doing after […]
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Hagia Sophia is a working mosque, officially Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Serifi, and has been since July 2020. Since January 2024 foreign visitors have followed a separate ticketed route through the upper gallery, priced at 25 euro, entered from a booth opposite the Fountain of Ahmed III rather than through the worshippers’ door. Prayer in the […]
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A weekend in Istanbul works if you give Saturday to the historic peninsula and Sunday to the water and the modern city. That split covers the four monuments everybody comes for, puts you on the Bosphorus once, and avoids the two mistakes that ruin short trips here, which are crossing between continents by road at […]
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If this is your first visit, three days is the minimum that works and the split is straightforward. One day for the historic peninsula, one for the Bosphorus and the palaces, one for Beyoglu and the modern city. Everything else is an extension of that spine. The mistakes first timers make in Istanbul are predictable […]
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Five days is the point where Istanbul stops being a checklist and becomes a city you have actually spent time in. Four days covers the monuments. The fifth day buys you the Princes’ Islands, or the city walls and the Chora mosaics, or a slow morning in a neighbourhood market with nothing scheduled after it. […]
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Four days is enough to see Istanbul properly without rushing. It gives you one day for the historic peninsula, one for the Bosphorus, one for the modern European side, and one for the Asian shore, which is the split that produces the least backtracking across a city divided by water. The plan below groups sights […]
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The Asian side of Istanbul is the half of the city most visitors never cross to, and it is reachable in about 20 minutes by ferry from Eminonu or Kabatas for the price of a normal transit fare. A full day there covers the Kadikoy market, the Moda shoreline, the mosques and waterfront of Uskudar, […]
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A perfect day in Sultanahmet begins at the Blue Mosque before nine, moves through Hagia Sophia and Topkapı Palace while the light is still kind, and winds down with the Grand Bazaar and sunset from the Süleymaniye terrace. Everything on this plan sits within a fifteen minute walk, so the day needs no taxis, no […]
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Three days is the sweet spot for a first visit to Istanbul. It gives you the old city without rushing, a full day for Galata and the Bosphorus, and a third day for the parts most short itineraries skip, the Golden Horn and the Asian side, which is where the city stops performing and simply […]
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The Istanbul bucket list comes down to a handful of unmissable things. See Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, sail the Bosphorus at sunset, get scrubbed in a Turkish bath, haggle in the Grand Bazaar and eat your way through the city’s food. Most of the essentials sit close together in the old city and […]
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Two days in Istanbul is enough to see the headline sights without rushing, as long as you split the city in two. Spend the first day in Sultanahmet, the old city, where the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace stand within a short walk of one another. Give the second to Beyoğlu, Dolmabahçe and […]
