Things to Do in Istanbul

Six things on this list cost nothing: the Blue Mosque, Süleymaniye, Rüstem Paşa, both bazaars and the Hippodrome — and a ferry crossing at ₺46.20 is close enough to free to belong with them. A first day built only from those is a good day, and it is the day most guidebooks bury under ticket prices.

What that leaves is a simple budgeting question: with the Hagia Sophia at €25 and Topkapı at ₺2,750, two paid sights a day is a normal pace and three is a hard one. What a day costs, converted at today's rate, is on what Istanbul costs.

Sultanahmet, one long morning

Numbers 1 to 6 sit inside a ten-minute circle: the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome between them, the Basilica Cistern a street north, the Archaeological Museums through the Gülhane gate and Topkapı above. All of them in one day is possible and unpleasant. The honest split is the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome and the cistern in one morning — then Topkapı, which needs three hours, on its own.

The bazaar quarter, downhill

Numbers 7 to 10 run as a walk rather than a set of visits: the Grand Bazaar at the top, Süleymaniye's terrace fifteen minutes north for the view, then down through the market streets to Rüstem Paşa's hidden staircase and the Spice Bazaar at the bottom. Two to three hours with stops, and it ends at the Eminönü ferry piers, which is the right place to end anything.

Beyoğlu and the shore, an afternoon

Numbers 11 to 13 are the modern city: the Galata Tower, İstiklal Street above it and Dolmabahçe along the water at Beşiktaş. The palace closes on Mondays and its box office at 17:00, so it goes first; the tower and the street are better in the evening anyway.

The water, any time

Numbers 14 to 17 are what people remember: a ferry crossing, the Maiden's Tower, Kadıköy's market lanes and — with a whole day — the Princes' Islands. None of them needs booking, all of them run on the same ₺46.20 card ride, and the sunset crossing to Kadıköy is the single best thing on this page that costs almost nothing.

Three of the sights on this list have a queue worth planning around, and they are not the three you would guess.

At the Hagia Sophia the queue is for tickets, and it triples between 10:00 and 13:00 when the coaches arrive. The box office shuts at 19:00, an hour before the building does, which is the trap that catches people who arrive at dusk.

At Topkapı there are two checks, not one: the Imperial Gate and then the Harem door inside, each of which can run past twenty minutes in July. That is what a fast-track product removes.

At the Galata Tower the ticket queue is short and the lift queue is not — it carries a handful of people at a time up to a narrow balcony, and no ticket type shortens it. Arriving at 08:30 does what no upgrade can.

Everywhere else, including all six free sights, you walk in. Mosques have no queue at all — only the prayer pause, which is a different kind of waiting and is published in advance.

On a first trip of three days, skip the Maiden's Tower: €27 plus a ₺110 boat for a view you get free from any ferry, unless you are holding the Museum Pass anyway. Skip Miniatürk and the aquarium unless you are travelling with children who have run out of patience for mosques — both are decent and neither is Istanbul.

On a Tuesday, skip Topkapı because it is closed; on a Monday, Dolmabahçe; on a Sunday, the Grand Bazaar. Those three closures are the only ones on the list, and they never overlap, which means there is no day in Istanbul when the city is shut.

What not to skip, whatever your schedule: a ferry. It costs one card ride, it takes twenty minutes, and it is the only way to see why the city is where it is.