Visit Istanbul GuideAbout Visit Istanbul Guide
An independent, unofficial guide to visiting Istanbul: what to see, which ticket to buy for which palace or museum, and how to spend one, two or three days without queueing for things that do not need queueing for. We are not the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Palaces administration (Millî Saraylar) that runs Topkapı and Dolmabahçe, the General Directorate of Foundations that now runs the Basilica Cistern, the Presidency of Religious Affairs or any tour operator, and we sell nothing directly. The whole guide starts on the Istanbul city guide homepage.
Why this site exists
Istanbul punishes a vague plan in a few specific ways. Its big sights are run by different bodies with different tickets. Hagia Sophia costs €25 on its own ticket. Topkapı Palace and Dolmabahçe belong to the National Palaces and sell their own combined tickets in lira. The €105 MuseumPass İstanbul covers 13 Ministry museums and none of those three. The Basilica Cistern has passed to a new operator, and its new fee is not on any official page we can reach. And the working mosques are free but close to visitors around the five daily prayers.
So every price, hour and closed day here is read off the official page of the body that runs the building. Where the official source does not state a figure, the page says not stated instead of borrowing a plausible one. The detail is on Istanbul tickets, the Museum Pass Istanbul page and mosque etiquette.
Where the information comes from
Opening hours, closed days and admission prices come from the official sites of the bodies that run the buildings: muze.gov.tr and the Ministry's DÖSİMM tariff pages for Hagia Sophia, Galata Tower and the state museums, millisaraylar.gov.tr for Topkapı and Dolmabahçe, vgm.gov.tr for the foundations' monuments and kapalicarsi.com.tr for the Grand Bazaar. Prayer times come from the Presidency of Religious Affairs (namazvakitleri.diyanet.gov.tr), metro and tram information from metro.istanbul, and tourist office details from istanbul.ktb.gov.tr. Each page names its sources.
Tour prices, durations, ratings and review counts are the booking platform's own published numbers. Practical detail about the city, such as which entrance moves fastest or which ferry pier to use, is cross-checked against several published sources rather than taken from any one of them.
What we do not claim
There is no invented author here, no character who lives in a particular quarter and no claim that someone from this site stood in a particular queue on a particular morning. We do not operate or personally conduct these tours, and we do not inspect museums or audit any operator.
We also hold no bookings. Every Check Availability button hands you to the platform the tour is sold on, where the price, the terms and the cancellation window are theirs. Official ticket offices are linked plainly, without any tracking on the link, whenever buying direct is the better move, which for several of the Istanbul tickets covered here it is.
How the site pays for itself
Tour and activity links on this site are affiliate links through GetYourGuide: book through one and the platform pays us a commission, at the same price you would have paid going there yourself. Hotel links on where to stay in Istanbul run through Stay22, which forwards you to Booking.com on the same terms. That pays for the research and buys nothing else, not placement, not a rating, not the wording of a recommendation.
Where the official ticket office is cheaper or the only sensible option, the page says so even though that link earns nothing. The mechanics are set out on the affiliate disclosure page.
Corrections
Museum hours in Istanbul change with the season, palace tickets are priced in lira and rise often, and operators change. If a number here is out of date, write to us with what you found and when you were there. A corrected figure is worth more than a defended one.