Two continents, one afternoon.
Which Bosphorus cruise is worth the fare. Whether the skip-the-line ticket really skips the line. Where the İznik tiles glow without the crush. Every tour in Istanbul, reviewed and priced.
The Istanbul everyone comes for.
The domes of Sultanahmet, the strait that splits the city, the covered bazaar you can get lost in on purpose. The handful of sights every first trip is built around, and the best way to book each one.
The Bosphorus: pick the boat that fits.
All 181 Bosphorus cruises →
Nearly every Istanbul trip ends up on the water at least once. These three carry the most travellers; the full list sorts the rest by how you want to spend the ride — guided, unhurried, or over dinner.
Two hours, both shores, a guide aboard
The daytime workhorse: up the European shore past the waterside palaces and the old fortress, back down the Asian side, with commentary naming what slides past. The cheapest way to read the shape of the city.
Small group, open deck, golden hour
The same strait with room to breathe: a handful of people on a private-feeling boat, drinks in hand, as the call to prayer crosses the water and the domes turn to amber.
A set meal, live music, the skyline lit
The full evening out, both banks strung with light. A set menu, live music, often a folklore show — choose a private table if the big party boats are not your idea of a night.
The old city, in a single day.
Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapı and the Cistern sit within one walkable square kilometre — and the queues at each can eat the day whole. A guided loop or the right skip-the-line combo is the difference between four sights and one.
What Istanbul actually books.
Every review →More travellers take these than anything else in the city — and what each one is really like once you are aboard or through the door.
1
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
Sail Istanbul’s Bosphorus on a mega yacht for a 3-course dinner with live Turkish dance, flamenco, and an optional audio guide.
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
Istanbul between the postcards.
The city the guidebooks skip: the painted timber houses of Balat, the antique lanes of Fener, and a ten-minute ferry to the Asian side where the market smells of pickles and roasted coffee and nobody is selling you a carpet.
The trips worth leaving Istanbul for.
Some of Turkey's best days out are a flight or a dawn coach from the city. Cappadocia's balloons and cave hotels, the ruins of Ephesus, the white terraces of Pamukkale, the island ferries and the mountain lakes — all bookable from Istanbul as one clean package. The Gallipoli peninsula and its war memorials sit among them, a longer day given over to remembrance.
- 12-Day All-Inclusive Cappadocia Guided Tripfrom $709
- 22-Day Cappadocia Trip with Flights and Cave Hotelfrom $328
- 32 Days Cappadocia from Istanbul with Cave Hotel+Optional Balloonfrom $330
Istanbul is a different city once the lights come on.
All evening cruises →Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
Read our review →Hodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & Exhibition
Read our review →Sunset or Day Small-Group Yacht Cruise with Snacks
Read our review →What your money buys in Istanbul.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what it actually costs. A great Istanbul day can start at the price of a plate of kebab.
Ferries, walking tours, hammam sessions and skip-the-line tickets — the everyday best of the city.
The classic days out: guided old-city loops, sunset cruises, food walks with a table of tastings.
Private guides, luxury yachts and the multi-day trips to Cappadocia and the Aegean.
Things you can only do in Istanbul.
You can find a mosque and a market across half the world. The marble hammam, the turning dervishes and the ferry between two continents belong to this city alone.
The Turkish Bath
The hammam is a civic ritual, not a hotel add-on, and it comes with its own architecture. You undress in a domed hall, sweat on a heated marble slab under pierced-star skylights, and a tellak scrubs a startling amount of city off you with a coarse kese mitt. The historic baths around Sultanahmet and Beyoğlu — Çemberlitaş, Cağaloğlu, Kılıç Ali Paşa — still run on that same slow rhythm.
- 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 Whirling Dervishes
The sema is a form of worship. The Mevlevi order has turned this way since the thirteenth century, the right palm raised to receive grace and the left turned down to pass it to the earth. Istanbul stages it a few evenings a week in restored spaces such as the Hodjapasha, a former bathhouse near the Spice Bazaar. It is watched in silence, not clapped along to; applause is held to the very end.
- 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
The Crossing
Istanbul is the only city that stands on two continents, and the ferry across is the cheapest good thing you can do here. Ten minutes on the water lands you in Kadıköy, all fish stalls and record shops and third-wave coffee. The Asian side is where the city actually eats, drinks and lives once the tour coaches have gone home.
- 1Bosphorus Yacht Cruise Experience: Visit the Asian Side★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,251 reviews
- 2Bosphorus Yacht Cruise with Stopover on the Asian Side – (Morning or Afternoon)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,657 reviews
- 3Bosphorus Explorer: 3-Hour Cruise with Asian Side Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,195 reviews
Book these before you land in Istanbul.
Most of Istanbul can be arranged from your hotel the night before. These cannot — they run on flights, fixed showtimes and timed tickets that do not care when you arrive.
- 012-Day All-Inclusive Cappadocia Guided TripThe two-day trips fly you to central Anatolia and back; the flights and cave-hotel rooms sell out well ahead, and the dawn balloon lift is a separate ticket.
- 02Hodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & ExhibitionThe Mevlevi ceremony runs to a fixed timetable a few evenings a week, and the small halls fill; an evening seat is booked days ahead, not at the door.
- 03Hagia Sophia Skip-the-Line Ticket & Museum OptionThe upper gallery now runs on timed-entry tickets. The early slots go first, and the queue at the door is not the same thing as a booked entry.
- 04Istanbul to Gallipoli Full Day Tour with Lunch and TransfersThe battlefields are a long dawn-to-dusk day from the city, and departures are limited. Plan this one before you arrive — it fills around the April anniversary.
Istanbul in the rain goes indoors and underground.
The winter here is genuinely wet, and the city is built for it. The Grand Bazaar has been keeping shoppers dry for five centuries; the Basilica Cistern is already underground; and there is no better place to sit out a downpour than face-down on a warm marble slab in a hammam.
By part of the city
The Old City56 tours
The Bosphorus181 tours
The Asian Side44 tours
Balat & Fener10 tours- On Foot42 tours
The Bazaar Quarter20 tours
Beyond the City55 tours- Browse every tour →
Three days in Istanbul, done right.
Latest Istanbul tour reviews.
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