Things to Do in Istanbul at Night

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 dark, in the order most people should do them.

The twelve, at a glance

1. Take a dinner cruise on the Bosphorus

The most efficient evening in the city. Three to four hours from Kabatas with a seated meal, live music and the shoreline lit as you pass it, covering the palaces, the bridges and both continents without you moving. It is the one activity that gives you the shape of Istanbul, which is difficult to grasp from street level in a city this size. Book ahead between May and September.

2. Watch sunset from the Suleymaniye terrace

The Suleymaniye Mosque complex sits on a hill above the Golden Horn, and the terrace on its northern side looks straight down the water at Galata and the Bosphorus beyond. It costs nothing, it is rarely crowded, and it beats every paid viewpoint in the city. Go about forty minutes before sunset and stay for the blue hour afterwards.

3. Walk the Galata Bridge after dark

Fifteen minutes from Eminonu to Karakoy, past anglers who fish the upper deck well into the night and the restaurant strip below. Behind you the old city is lit, ahead of you Galata Tower is floodlit on its hill, and the ferries cross underneath. It is free, it takes a quarter of an hour, and it is the single best introduction to the city’s geography.

4. Cross to the Asian side by ferry

The evening ferry from Eminonu or Kabatas to Kadikoy takes about twenty minutes and costs a normal transit fare. It is the cheapest thing you can do on the water in Istanbul and, at night, one of the best. The old city recedes behind you lit up, and you arrive somewhere that feels like a different city.

5. Spend the evening in Barlar Sokak

The bar streets behind the Kadikoy market are where Istanbul actually drinks, busy every night of the week rather than just weekends, and priced for residents rather than visitors. It is the strongest argument for crossing the water in the evening. Check the last ferry back if you are staying on the European side, since the alternative is a slow bridge crossing by taxi.

6. Climb Galata Tower, or just stand under it

Galata Tower stays open into the evening and the viewing gallery gives you the peninsula lit across the Golden Horn. It is narrow and it queues. The alternative costs nothing, which is to sit in the square at its foot with the tower floodlit above you and the streets of Galata running downhill in every direction.

7. Walk Istiklal and turn off it

Istiklal Caddesi runs 1.4 kilometres from Tunel up to Taksim Square and is busiest between nine and midnight. The street itself is a thoroughfare. What is worth your time is the covered passages and side streets off the eastern side, which hold the meyhanes, the music bars and the fish restaurants, and which most visitors walk past.

8. Watch the city light up from Camlica Hill

Camlica Hill is the highest point overlooking Istanbul, taking in both bridges, the Golden Horn, the peninsula and the Princes’ Islands from one spot. Arrive forty five minutes before sunset and you get daylight, golden hour and then the lights coming on across sixteen million people. The tea gardens under the pines are where Istanbul families spend the evening.

9. Book a hammam for the evening

A Turkish bath is the correct thing to do to legs that have walked a hilly city all day, and several of the historic baths run late, with one open until midnight. Ninety minutes to two hours, and you come out at ten in the evening in the right state for dinner rather than for a museum.

10. Stand under the bridge at Ortakoy

The waterfront square at Ortakoy has a small floodlit mosque with a suspension bridge arching directly above it, and a row of stalls selling loaded baked potatoes to a crowd that stays late. It is free to stand there, it is the defining image of modern Istanbul, and the combination of nineteenth century mosque and 1970s engineering is entirely accidental.

11. See a whirling dervish ceremony

Sema is a Sufi ritual rather than a performance, and a full ceremony runs close to an hour with live musicians, in a fixed sequence of four salutes. Several venues in the old city hold them in the evening, including one underground in a fifth century Byzantine cistern where the acoustics do most of the work. A dervish segment inside a dinner show is a short excerpt, not the same thing.

12. Finish on the Moda shoreline

If you crossed to Kadikoy, walk twenty five minutes south along the water to Moda. The coastal park looks back at the old city across the mouth of the Bosphorus, the Princes’ Islands sit offshore, and people stay out on the grass late into the night. It is the quietest good thing on this list and it costs nothing.

What is closed, and what is not

Worth knowing before you plan an evening around something that will not be open.

The practical consequence is that evenings belong to the water, the hills, the neighbourhoods and the two things you can still buy a ticket for, which are a tower and a boat.

Getting around after dark

The T1 tram runs until around midnight and connects Kabatas, Karakoy, Eminonu, Sultanahmet and Beyazit, which covers most of this list. The F1 funicular links Kabatas to Taksim in under two minutes.

Ferries run until roughly midnight on the main Kadikoy and Uskudar lines, with reduced frequency after the evening peak. Check the last departure before committing to a long night on the Asian side.

Taxis are cheap and slow. Both Bosphorus bridges stay heavy past midnight at weekends, so a crossing that takes twenty minutes by boat can take an hour by road. Take the boat while it is running.

What to wear

One layer more than the street suggests if any part of your evening is on the water. The Bosphorus channels wind between two seas, and a July evening at 28 degrees on shore feels considerably cooler on a moving deck. Flat shoes with grip if you are boarding a boat, since decks get wet and the boat moves.

For the neighbourhoods, smart casual covers everything on this list. For a working mosque in the evening, the usual rules still apply, which is shoulders and knees covered and heads covered for women.

Building it into a longer trip

Two of these evenings are enough for most visitors. One on the water, one on the Asian side.

If you have three days, put the dinner cruise on the second evening rather than the first, so you have some sense of the city before you see it from the water. If you have a weekend, the two day itinerary sets out where the evenings fit around the daytime sights.

And if you are still building the list, the Istanbul bucket list covers what earns its place across the whole trip rather than only after dark.

Frequently asked questions

Is Istanbul safe at night?

Central Istanbul is a normal large city in the evening and the areas on this list are busy and well used. Ordinary awareness applies, particularly around crowded transport and late night taxi negotiations. Nothing here takes you anywhere that warrants special concern.

What is open late in Istanbul?

Ferries and the T1 tram until around midnight, Galata Tower into the evening, several historic hammams with one running until midnight, and the whole restaurant and bar economy in Beyoglu, Karakoy and Kadikoy. The monuments and bazaars all close in the afternoon or early evening.

Can you visit mosques in the evening?

Yes. Mosques are open for the five daily prayers including the two after dark, and remain accessible to visitors between them. Dress modestly and do not enter during prayer itself.

Is a Bosphorus dinner cruise worth it?

If you understand what it is. The food is decent banquet standard and the value is in the setting and the show, with the palaces and bridges lit as you pass. People who book it expecting fine dining are disappointed. People who book it for the water are not.

Where do locals go at night in Istanbul?

Kadikoy on the Asian side, particularly the bar streets behind the market, which are busy every night rather than only at weekends. Also Karakoy for rooftops, and the passages off Istiklal. Sultanahmet is quiet in the evening because almost nobody lives there.

How late do the ferries run?

Until around midnight on the main Kadikoy and Uskudar lines, with reduced frequency after the evening rush. Check the last departure before planning a late night on the opposite shore, since the road alternative is slow at any hour.

Is there anything free to do at night?

A good deal. The Suleymaniye terrace at sunset, the Galata Bridge, Ortakoy square, Camlica Hill, the Moda shoreline and every mosque in the city all cost nothing. The ferry crossing costs a single transit fare, which is close enough.

What should you avoid at night?

Crossing between continents by taxi at rush hour or on a weekend night, when the bridges are slow and the ferry takes twenty minutes. Also planning an evening around a monument, since almost all of them close before dinner.