Turkey
Istanbul is the only great city on two continents, and for sixteen centuries it was the capital of two empires, so it does history on a scale that leaves first-timers speechless.
Justinian's Hagia Sophia still lifts its vast dome over the old city after nearly fifteen hundred years; the Ottoman sultans ruled from the courtyards, Treasury and Harem of Topkapi Palace; the Blue Mosque answers Hagia Sophia across a garden with six minarets and a sea of Iznik tiles; and beneath the streets the Basilica Cistern hides a forest of 336 columns and two Medusa heads. This guide books the city properly in its current form: Hagia Sophia on the separate foreign-visitor ticket that now takes you up to the mosaic galleries, Topkapi on any day but Tuesday, Dolmabahce on any day but Monday, the Galata Tower at opening or after dark, and a cruise up the Bosphorus between the palaces, fortresses and wooden mansions of Europe and Asia. Then it gives you the free Istanbul that Istanbullus love: the Blue Mosque between prayers, Sinan's Suleymaniye with its terrace over the Golden Horn, haggling in the Grand Bazaar, the scent of the Spice Bazaar, an evening on Istiklal Avenue and the colored houses of Fener and Balat. Finally it matches you to the right hotel, from the Pera Palace, where Agatha Christie wrote, to a Bosphorus palace, a former prison in Sultanahmet and a family-run boutique steps from the Blue Mosque, because in a city this big, where you sleep decides what you see.
Hagia Sophia
Justinian's great church of 537, a mosque for nearly five centuries, a museum for eighty-six years and a working mosque again since 2020. Foreign visitors now buy a separate ticket for a route through the upper galleries and their Byzantine mosaics, looking down into the prayer hall below.
Topkapi Palace & Harem
The palace of the Ottoman sultans for nearly four centuries: four courtyards on the tip of the old city, the Treasury with the Spoonmaker's Diamond and the Topkapi Dagger, the Holy Relics, tiled kiosks over the Bosphorus and the Harem. Closed Tuesdays; book the combined ticket.
Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque)
Six minarets, a cascade of domes and an interior washed in blue Iznik tiles: Sultan Ahmed's mosque faces Hagia Sophia across a garden and is free to visit between prayers. It fully reopened in 2023 after a five-year restoration.
Bosphorus Cruise
Sail the strait between Europe and Asia past Dolmabahce, Ortakoy Mosque, the Ottoman fortresses of Rumeli Hisari and the wooden waterside mansions called yali. A sightseeing cruise of ninety minutes to two hours is the classic; dinner and Black Sea cruises go further.
Justinian's great church of 537, a mosque for nearly five centuries, a museum for eighty-six years and a working mosque again since 2020. Foreign visitors now buy a separate ticket for a route through the upper galleries and their Byzantine mosaics, looking down into the prayer hall below.
The palace of the Ottoman sultans for nearly four centuries: four courtyards on the tip of the old city, the Treasury with the Spoonmaker's Diamond and the Topkapi Dagger, the Holy Relics, tiled kiosks over the Bosphorus and the Harem. Closed Tuesdays; book the combined ticket.
Six minarets, a cascade of domes and an interior washed in blue Iznik tiles: Sultan Ahmed's mosque faces Hagia Sophia across a garden and is free to visit between prayers. It fully reopened in 2023 after a five-year restoration.
A sunken Byzantine palace of water: 336 marble columns rising from the dark in twelve rows, two Medusa heads in the far corner, and art installations among the arches. Justinian built it in 532; a restoration finished in 2022 exposed the original floor.
Sail the strait between Europe and Asia past Dolmabahce, Ortakoy Mosque, the Ottoman fortresses of Rumeli Hisari and the wooden waterside mansions called yali. A sightseeing cruise of ninety minutes to two hours is the classic; dinner and Black Sea cruises go further.
The Ottomans go European: a 600-metre marble palace on the Bosphorus built in 1843-1856, with a Ceremonial Hall under a 4.5-tonne chandelier, crystal staircases and the room where Ataturk died, its clock stopped at 9:05. Closed Mondays.
The Genoese tower of 1348 that crowns Galata, now a museum over eleven levels with a wraparound balcony and a 360-degree view of the Golden Horn, the old city and the Bosphorus. Go at opening or after dark to beat the sunset queue.
Three museums in the old palace gardens below Topkapi: the main archaeology building with its great sarcophagi, the Museum of the Ancient Orient and the tiled Cinili Kosk of 1472. Restorations completed in 2026 renewed the galleries and moved the entrance to the Gulhane side.
One of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world: around 3,600 shops, 22 gates and a maze of vaulted streets, hans and the fifteenth-century Ic Bedesten. Free to wander, closed Sundays, and best explored with time, tea and a little bargaining.
The seventeenth-century L-shaped market beside the New Mosque at Eminonu, piled with spices, dried fruit, nuts, teas, Turkish delight and caviar. Smaller and calmer than the Grand Bazaar, open on Sundays, and the start of the best food streets in the old city.
Sinan's masterpiece for Suleyman the Magnificent, crowning the third hill above the Golden Horn: a serene domed prayer hall, the tombs of Suleyman and Hurrem, the architect's own tomb and a terrace with one of the finest free views in Istanbul.
The old Grande Rue de Pera: a mile-and-a-half pedestrian boulevard from Taksim Square to Tunel, with the red nostalgic tram, nineteenth-century passages, churches, consulates, bookshops, galleries and the meyhane taverns of the side streets. Free, and best at dusk.
Hotels we would book ourselves, from splurges to good-value bases.
Tepebasi, Beyoglu
The grand hotel built in 1892 for passengers off the Orient Express, where Agatha Christie wrote and Ataturk stayed: a restored belle-epoque palace in Tepebasi with the Kubbeli Lounge, the Orient Bar, the Patisserie de Pera and a spa, a short walk from Istiklal and Galata.
Check rates →Sultanahmet
A former Ottoman-era prison turned into a 65-room luxury hotel around a garden courtyard, minutes from Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, with a rooftop bar facing both, a hammam spa and a hotelwide renovation completed in 2022.
Check rates →Besiktas, Bosphorus waterfront
A nineteenth-century Ottoman palace on the Bosphorus shore in Besiktas, with a modern hotel wing, imperial suites, a waterfront infinity pool, a private boat quay and gardens facing Asia. The city's classic palace hotel.
Check rates →Karakoy, Galataport
Four waterfront buildings at Galataport in Karakoy, three of them early-1900s landmarks, turned into a 177-room luxury hotel with a quarter-kilometre of Bosphorus gardens, a rooftop restaurant, a 25-metre outdoor pool and a vast spa. Opened in 2023.
Check rates →Sultanahmet (Kucuk Ayasofya)
A warm, family-run 34-room boutique hotel on a quiet Sultanahmet street steps from the Blue Mosque, with family rooms, a rich buffet breakfast and the seasonal Amiralto roof bar overlooking the Sea of Marmara. Exceptional reviews at a fair price.
Check rates →Sirkeci, by Gulhane Park
A friendly boutique hotel on a quiet lane beside Gulhane Park, ten minutes on foot from Topkapi, with an indoor pool, a hammam and wellness center, the Neyzade Restaurant, complimentary teatime and local activities. Strong value in the old city.
Check rates →Galata, Beyoglu
A stylish 20-room boutique hotel on Serdar-i Ekrem Sokak, one of the prettiest streets in Galata, with balconies facing the Bosphorus, a rooftop French restaurant and bar with views of the old city, and the Galata Tower around the corner.
Check rates →Sultanahmet (Divanyolu)
A five-star family favorite two minutes on foot from Hagia Sophia, with a pool looking at the great dome, a spa and hammam, a rooftop restaurant and a rare range of family rooms, from connecting rooms to a three-bedroom garden apartment for six.
Check rates →Sultanahmet (by the Hippodrome)
A stylish, intimate boutique hotel made from two turn-of-the-century Ottoman houses on a quiet street by the Hippodrome, with a guests-only roof terrace bar overlooking the Blue Mosque and the Sea of Marmara and breakfast included.
Check rates →Sultanahmet (Cankurtaran)
A characterful, good-value hideaway of 23 rooms in old Turkish townhouses wrapped around a secret garden with the ivy-clad ruins of a fifteenth-century bathhouse, below the Blue Mosque, with roof terraces looking over the Sea of Marmara.
Check rates →Sultanahmet (near the Hippodrome)
A comfortable four-star hotel of 54 rooms just off the Hippodrome, best known for its sea-view and corner rooms looking over the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Sea of Marmara, with family rooms, an accessible room and its own spa.
Check rates →Sultanahmet
A modern, budget-friendly small hotel in Sultanahmet, minutes on foot from Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, with good-value standard rooms, triples with balconies and deluxe rooms looking over the mosques to the Bosphorus.
Check rates →Karakoy, next to Galataport
A family-friendly five-star hotel of about 200 rooms in Karakoy, next to the Galataport waterfront, with an indoor pool, spa and hammam, Bosphorus-view suites with sofa beds and the tram five minutes away.
Check rates →Cihangir, Beyoglu
Design-led suites with kitchenettes on a steep street in bohemian Cihangir, a short walk from Istiklal Avenue and the Tophane tram, with skyline views and a roof garden. Space to spread out, ideal for longer stays and families who like to self-cater.
Check rates →Cengelkoy, Asian shore of the Bosphorus
A family-run design hotel in a converted nineteenth-century distillery on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, where every room looks down the water to Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, with a waterfront garden and a sea taxi across to Europe.
Check rates →The first-timer itinerary that works around the closing days and prayer times — Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque early, Topkapi on any day but Tuesday, the bazaars before Sunday — and adds a Bosphorus cruise, Galata at night and the Suleymaniye at sunset.
What a first-timer needs to know before landing in Istanbul: the new Hagia Sophia rules, the Museum Pass, closing days, prices in euros and lira, the accommodation tax, the Istanbulkart, taxis, mosque etiquette and the scams worth knowing about.
The neighborhood decision that shapes an Istanbul trip: the monuments on your doorstep in Sultanahmet, the restaurants and nightlife of Galata, Karakoy and Pera, or a palace on the Bosphorus — with our hotel picks for each.
A food lover's guide to Istanbul: the great Turkish breakfast, street food from simit to fish sandwiches, kebabs and home-style lokanta cooking, meyhane nights of meze and raki, baklava and Turkish delight, coffee and tea, and the neighborhoods to eat in.
When to go to Istanbul: why spring and autumn are ideal, how to handle summer heat and cruise crowds, the quiet beauty of winter, what Ramadan and the religious holidays mean for visitors, and how weekly closing days shape any trip.
A deep dive into visiting Istanbul's great mosques as they work now: Hagia Sophia's separate foreign-visitor gallery route, the free Blue Mosque and Suleymaniye, prayer-time closures, Fridays, dress code, photography and the hidden tiled gems.
