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Historic houses and villas along the shore of the Bosphorus in Istanbul

Sample journey · 5–7 days

Istanbul unhurried: a week of neighbourhoods, ferries and islands

Sultanahmet, Balat & Fener, Beyoğlu, Kadıköy, the Bosphorus shores & Büyükada

Photo: Hulki Okan Tabak / Unsplash

Illustrative journey ideas — not bookable packages. No prices, dates or accommodation are implied.

Most journeys through Turkey give Istanbul two or three days – enough for the great mosques and the bazaar, but not for the city itself. This one stays in Istanbul for a week and moves the way Istanbullus do: on foot up steep streets, by ferry across the Bosphorus and to the rhythm of the tea glass. Every neighbourhood here is its own world: Byzantine and Ottoman Sultanahmet; Balat and Fener, full of Greek, Jewish and Armenian traces; nineteenth-century Pera with its arcades and galleries; Kadıköy on the Asian side, where the market and cafés belong to locals; and the wooden yalıs along the Bosphorus.

It's a journey for couples and curious travellers who care as much about where to eat as what to see: each day has its own table, from breakfast with kaymak and honey to long meyhane dinners of meze and rakı. You change stays only a few times, and each is chosen to open a different side of the city: an old house on the historic peninsula, a hotel in a Beyoğlu building with a view of the Golden Horn, a night right on the water of the Bosphorus and a wooden villa on Büyükada. We'd suggest a guide for the days where one truly adds something – the old city and Balat – and leave the rest for you to explore at your own pace.

The route

The journey

  1. Sultanahmet
  2. Balat & Fener
  3. Beyoğlu & Karaköy
  4. Kadıköy & Moda
  5. The Bosphorus: Kandilli & Rumeli Hisarı
  6. Büyükada
  1. The domes and minarets of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Sultanahmet

    01Days 1–2 · Sultanahmet

    The old city while it's still quiet

    Two nights on the historic peninsula, in a small house near Sultanahmet. On arrival, an evening walk across the Hippodrome and a first dinner. The next morning we set out early with a guide, before the great sights fill up: the Sultan Ahmed Mosque with its blue tiles; Hagia Sophia, where visitors are now usually taken up to the upper galleries; and the Basilica Cistern with its hundreds of columns underground. Mosques close to visitors at prayer times, and arrangements and hours change, so we plan the day around them. The afternoon is slower: the Süleymaniye Mosque on its hill above the Golden Horn, whose courtyard offers one of the finest views in the city, and a walk past old caravanserais to the Grand Bazaar as the traders begin to close.

  2. A row of brightly painted houses on a cobbled street in Balat

    02Day 3 · Balat & Fener

    Neighbourhoods of the Golden Horn

    On the third morning, along the Golden Horn to Fener and Balat, where Greeks, Jews and Armenians lived for centuries. With a local guide: the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Church of St George, the red-brick Greek school that rises above the roofs like a castle, and the Bulgarian Church of St Stephen, assembled from cast-iron parts. Nearby is the Chora (Kariye), whose Byzantine mosaics rank among the finest anywhere; it serves as a mosque again, so we check visiting arrangements in advance. Balat's streets are steep and colourful: timber house fronts, antique shops, children playing football in the lanes and cafés worth lingering in. Lunch is at a simple lokanta, where you choose dishes from the pots in the window. In the afternoon you move across to Beyoğlu, on the other side of the Golden Horn.

  3. The Galata Tower seen through a narrow gap between buildings

    03Days 3–4 · Beyoğlu & Karaköy

    Pera, arcades and the meyhane

    Two nights in Beyoğlu, in a historic building with a view of the Golden Horn. In the evening, a first meyhane: a long dinner of cold and hot meze, fish and rakı, which Istanbullus drink slowly, with water and conversation. The next morning, the Galata Tower, the Camondo Steps, down which nineteenth-century bankers walked to Karaköy, and the old bank buildings that now hold galleries and cafés. Then Istanbul Modern by the water or the Pera Museum with its Ottoman painting, and in the afternoon the antique shops of Çukurcuma and the quieter streets of Cihangir with their views of the Bosphorus. Busy İstiklal Avenue is best crossed early or late; the time is better spent in the side streets and arcades, where the spirit of old Pera lingers.

  4. Sunset over a harbour with boats and a waterside path at Kalamış in Kadıköy

    04Day 5 · Kadıköy & Moda

    To Asia by ferry for breakfast

    On the fifth morning, the ferry from Karaköy to Kadıköy, about twenty minutes across the mouth of the Bosphorus, with gulls and tea on deck. Kadıköy is the Istanbul of Istanbullus: market lanes with fishmongers, olive, spice and cheese sellers, bakeries, coffee roasters and old cafés. Breakfast here is long, with kaymak, honey, menemen and endless refills of tea. Later, a walk to Moda, a calm, tree-lined neighbourhood with a seafront park where locals sit on the rocks in the evening to watch the sun set over the historic peninsula. If you like, there's time for Yeldeğirmeni and its murals. Meanwhile your luggage goes ahead to the next stay, further north on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus.

  5. The fortress of Rumeli Hisarı above the Bosphorus, seen from above

    05Days 5–6 · The Bosphorus

    Yalıs, fortresses and an evening by the water

    On the afternoon of day five, the Bosphorus up close. One night in a hotel right on the water on the Asian shore, near Kandilli, where wooden yalıs, some standing right in the water, line the shore. Until evening, a walk past Anadolu Hisarı and the little Küçüksu Pavilion, tea under the plane trees and fishermen on the quay. Dinner comes with the lights of the bridges and ships sliding past the window. On the sixth morning, a ferry or small boat across the strait to the European shore: Rumeli Hisarı, the fortress Mehmed II built in 1452, a year before the conquest of Constantinople, from whose towers you see the strait at its narrowest. Then a walk along the water past the bay of Bebek to the wooden houses of Arnavutköy, and a fish lunch on the quay before it's time to head for the islands.

  6. Boats moored at a pier on Büyükada in the Princes' Islands

    06Days 6–7 · Büyükada

    An island without cars

    The last night is on Büyükada, the largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara. The ferry from the city takes about an hour and a half, past the smaller islands. Cars aren't allowed on the island's roads, so it moves on foot, by bicycle and in small electric vehicles. Here stand late-nineteenth-century wooden mansions with gardens, built by wealthy Greek, Armenian, Jewish and Turkish families from Istanbul. In the afternoon, a path through the pines up the hill to the monastery of St George and a view over the whole archipelago; in the evening, fish by the jetty and a quiet you won't hear for long in Istanbul. On the last morning, an early ferry back to the city and on to the airport.

Experience highlights

  1. 01

    Sultanahmet in the early morning

    The great mosques and the Basilica Cistern with a guide, while it's still calm.

  2. 02

    Balat & Fener

    The Patriarchate, the cast-iron church, the Chora mosaics and steep painted streets.

  3. 03

    Across the Bosphorus by ferry

    Breakfast in Kadıköy, sunset in Moda and an evening in a Bosphorus village.

  4. 04

    A night on Büyükada

    Wooden mansions, pine woods and a quiet evening on an island without cars.

First, we listen. Then, we explore what's possible.

Make it your own

  • Shorter, in five days

    The Bosphorus night can go and Büyükada can be a day trip, leaving one stay on the historic peninsula and one in Beyoğlu.

  • For food lovers

    A morning market walk with a food guide, a cooking lesson in a home and more meyhane evenings on both shores.

  • By season

    Tulips in April; May and September to October bring the kindest walking weather. Summer is hot and crowded; winter is quieter but often wet.

  • With Cappadocia or the Aegean

    Cappadocia is a short flight from Istanbul, and the towns of the Aegean coast are reached by flying to İzmir or driving via the Dardanelles.

Practical considerations

  • The best time is roughly April to June and September to November. July and August are hot and humid; in winter it often rains and the wind comes off the sea.
  • Mosques have a dress code: shoulders and knees covered, a headscarf for women, shoes off. They close to visitors at prayer times, for longer at Friday midday.
  • Opening hours, closing days and visiting arrangements at museums and the major sights change, so we check them before you travel and plan the days around them.
  • Ferries are the easiest and loveliest way to move around the city; timetables vary by season and line, so we check them as the journey approaches.

General guidance only. Seasons, weather and wildlife are never guaranteed, and travel requirements are always worth checking before you go.

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