Beylerbeyi Palace Tickets 2027: Price, Opening Hours and How to Get There

A Beylerbeyi Palace ticket costs 800 TL for foreign visitors in 2026, according to the official National Palaces (Milli Saraylar) page we checked on 29 October 2026, and a garden-only ticket is 100 TL. The ticket office opens 09:00 to 17:00, Tuesday to Sunday, and the palace is closed on Mondays. Plan about 1.5 hours for the rooms and gardens, and if you would rather have a guide and a car waiting outside, our private Istanbul tour can add the palace to an Asian-side day.

Beylerbeyi is the summer palace of the Ottoman sultans on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, just north of the first bridge in Üsküdar. It gets a fraction of the crowds that queue at Dolmabahçe, which is the main reason people who go tend to like it.

How much is a Beylerbeyi Palace ticket in 2026?

The official tariff on millisaraylar.gov.tr lists 800 TL for foreign visitors, 200 TL for Turkish citizens and 100 TL for the discounted ticket. Students aged 7 to 25 with a student card get the discounted rate; foreign students pay double the discounted price and must show a physical ISIC card if they are between 12 and 25. Children up to 6 enter free, whatever their nationality.

At autumn 2026 exchange rates, 800 TL is well under US$20, which makes Beylerbeyi one of the cheaper palace tickets in the city. Compare that with 2,000 TL for Dolmabahçe on the same official site. Lira prices are usually raised in January, so if you are reading this in 2027, assume the figure has moved and check the gate.

Tickets are sold on the spot at the palace. Online resellers offer "skip-the-line" tickets with an audio guide for a little more, but there is rarely a line worth skipping here. On a weekday in October our guides normally walk straight in.

A garden-only ticket of 100 TL gets you onto the terraces and the waterfront without entering the rooms. It is a fair choice if you are short on time or travelling with small children who will not enjoy a guided walk through carpeted halls.

Combined tickets and the Museum Pass: which ones work?

This is where most visitors get caught out. The Museum Pass Istanbul is sold by the Ministry of Culture and covers places such as Topkapı Palace and the Archaeological Museums. Beylerbeyi belongs to the National Palaces Administration, which reports to the Turkish Parliament, so the Museum Pass is not accepted here. Our page on the Istanbul Museum Pass lists what that pass does cover.

The National Palaces sell their own combined tickets. According to the official Dolmabahçe page, checked on 29 October 2026:

The arithmetic is simple. Dolmabahçe (2,000 TL) plus Beylerbeyi (800 TL) bought separately comes to 2,800 TL, so Combined Ticket III saves you 50 TL and adds the small Küçüksu Pavilion further up the Asian shore. Worth it only if you will really visit both palaces within the validity period; ask at the counter how many days it runs. The National Palaces also have their own Müze Kart, which the official page says is valid at all their palaces, pavilions and museums.

Opening hours and the closed day

The ticket office works 09:00 to 17:00. The National Palaces website header shows 09:00–17:30 as visiting hours, and several guides quote last entry around 16:30, so do not arrive at 16:50 and expect a full tour. The palace is closed every Monday, on New Year's Day, and on the first day of both Eids (Ramazan Bayramı and Kurban Bayramı). It stays open on the other public holidays, including 29 October, Republic Day.

The Monday closure is the one that ruins plans. Dolmabahçe and the other National Palaces also shut on Mondays, so we usually build Asian-side days for Tuesday to Sunday and keep Monday for the Grand Bazaar area, Hagia Sophia and a cruise.

Mornings from 09:00 to 11:00 are the quietest. Weekend afternoons bring local families and wedding photographers to the gardens, which is pleasant but busier. In winter the waterfront is cold and windy, though the interior is the same at any time of year.

What you see inside: Mabeyn, Harem and the gardens

Sultan Abdülaziz had the present palace built between 1861 and 1865 by the Balyan family of architects, the same family behind Dolmabahçe. It was meant as a summer residence and guest house for visiting royalty. Empress Eugénie of France stayed here in 1869, and the deposed Sultan Abdülhamid II spent his last years here under watch, dying in the palace in 1918.

The building has 24 rooms and 6 halls over two main floors, divided as in every Ottoman palace into the Mabeyn (the men's and official quarters, often called the Selamlık) and the Harem. Both parts are on the visit route, according to the official National Palaces page. Highlights:

• The Pool Hall on the ground floor, with a marble fountain in the middle, built to cool the room in summer.
• The Reception Hall and Blue Hall, with Hereke silk carpets, Bohemian crystal chandeliers and painted ceilings with naval and calligraphy motifs.
• Abdülaziz's own rooms, where you notice how much smaller and more personal Beylerbeyi is than Dolmabahçe.
• The terraced gardens behind the palace, with magnolias, old trees, a pool and steps climbing towards the hill.

The two sea pavilions on the shore (the Yellow Pavilion and the Marble Pavilion) and the Stable Pavilion are closed to visitors, according to the official page. You see them from the garden and, better, from the water.

Can you take photos? Inside the rooms, expect a no-photography rule, as at Dolmabahçe; most visitor guides report it and staff watch the groups. The official page does not spell out a policy, and rules can change room by room, so follow the attendants. In the gardens and on the waterfront terrace, photos are fine.

The best photograph of Beylerbeyi is not taken at the palace at all. It is taken from a boat in the middle of the Bosphorus, with the white facade, the two sea pavilions and the bridge in one frame. That is a good reason to pair the visit with one of our Bosphorus tours.

Tripods, drones and commercial shoots need a permit from the National Palaces. Wedding and fashion photographers apply for these, and you will see them in the garden at weekends.

How to get to Beylerbeyi Palace from Sultanahmet and Beşiktaş

All public transport routes go through Üsküdar, then north along the coast road for about 4 km. Pay everything with an Istanbulkart.

From Üsküdar, buses run along the shore past Kuzguncuk and stop on the coast road beside the palace walls. Ask the driver for "Beylerbeyi Sarayı". In evening rush hour the coast road crawls, so leave the palace by 17:00 if you have a dinner booking on the European side.

A taxi from Sultanahmet is the simplest option for a family, but bridge traffic makes the time unpredictable; on a weekday afternoon it can take an hour. This is the main reason travellers ask us for a car and driver on the Asian side.

Combine it with Üsküdar, Kuzguncuk and Çamlıca

Beylerbeyi sits at the end of a natural half-day on the Asian side. A route our guides use:

1. Üsküdar waterfront in the morning: the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque by the pier, the Şemsi Pasha Mosque on the water, and the Maiden's Tower offshore.
2. Kuzguncuk, a 15-minute bus ride or a pleasant walk north: wooden houses, a mosque and a church side by side on one street, small cafés and bakeries.
3. Beylerbeyi Palace for 1 to 1.5 hours, then tea or fish by the Beylerbeyi pier just past the palace.
4. Çamlıca Hill in the late afternoon for the view over both continents and the huge Çamlıca Mosque. It is uphill and awkward by public transport; a car makes it 15 minutes from the palace.

Done this way, the day shows the Asian side as a lived-in part of the city rather than a ferry stop. It also suits second- and third-time visitors who have already done the Old City.

Seeing Beylerbeyi from a Bosphorus cruise

Almost every Bosphorus boat heading north from Eminönü or Kabataş passes the palace, which stands right on the water just after the first bridge on the Asian side. Our 2-hour private Bosphorus yacht cruise for your group starts from $600 per group and slows down off Beylerbeyi and its sea pavilions for photos. The shared Bosphorus lunch cruise with hotel pick-up is from $75 per person and follows the same shore.

A cruise and a palace visit fit on the same day if the cruise is in the morning and you land on the Asian side, or if you go to Beylerbeyi first and take an afternoon boat. Our Bosphorus tours page lists the boats and timings, including dinner and sunset options.

Beylerbeyi vs Dolmabahçe: which palace should you visit?

If you have time for only one, Dolmabahçe is the bigger story: the state rooms, the chandelier hall and the room where Atatürk died. Our Dolmabahçe Palace private tour is from $150 per person. If you have already seen it, or you dislike queues, Beylerbeyi is the calmer and cheaper choice, and the gardens are better.

Private tour or on your own?

On your own, Beylerbeyi is easy: ferry, bus, ticket at the gate, an hour inside. It is not hard to reach, only slow. A private guide earns their fee when you want the stories behind the rooms in your language and a route that strings Üsküdar, Kuzguncuk, the palace and Çamlıca together without waiting for buses.

For that kind of day, our Istanbul private city tour by Mercedes Vito is from $220 per group for 8 hours with a driver, and a licensed guide can be added. Tell us you want Beylerbeyi and the Asian side and we will plan it, avoiding Mondays. Prices vary by season, group size and what's included, so ask us for today's price. Entrance tickets are paid at the gate.

The full list of guided days is on our Istanbul tours page. To book, use our contact page or message us on WhatsApp with your date and hotel, and we will reply with a plan and a price.

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