Dolmabahce Palace Tickets: 2027 Price, Hours and Closed Mondays

Dolmabahçe Palace tickets cost 2,000 Turkish lira for foreign visitors in October 2026, about €36 or $40, and that single ticket covers the Selamlık, the Harem and the National Palaces Painting Museum. The palace is closed on Mondays, the ticket office opens at 09:00 and stops selling at 17:00, and children under six go in free.

If you are reading this in your hotel in Sultanahmet or on a ship at Galataport and wondering if you can still go today, the short answer is yes, as long as it is not Monday and you can reach the gate by about 15:30. The rest of this guide covers what the ticket includes, where to buy it without paying a reseller's mark-up, how long the visit takes, how to get there by tram or ferry, and what to do if you turn up on the one day it is shut.

Every price below comes from the official tariff of the Presidency of National Palaces (Milli Saraylar Başkanlığı), which runs Dolmabahçe, checked on its website on 19 October 2026. Euro and dollar figures use the Central Bank of Turkey rate of 14 October 2026 (1 EUR = 55.30 TL, 1 USD = 49.39 TL) and are rounded.

Quick facts: Dolmabahçe Palace in October 2026

Dolmabahçe Palace tickets and prices in 2026

The National Palaces sell one standard ticket to foreign visitors and three combined passes for people who want to see more than one palace. There is no cheaper "Selamlık only" option on the official list any more; the old split between a Selamlık ticket and a Harem ticket has gone.

Turkish citizens pay 250 TL for the same ticket. That is a resident price and a foreign passport cannot use it, so ignore social media posts quoting it.

The combined tickets are worth a look if you are staying four days or more. A Dolmabahçe Combined Ticket is valid for one month from the day you buy it, and you can enter each venue on it once. Combined Ticket III, for example, pairs Dolmabahçe with Beylerbeyi Palace on the Asian shore, the summer palace you see from every Bosphorus boat. If you would only visit Dolmabahçe, the standard ticket is the right one.

Prices are set in lira and the National Palaces revise them, usually once or twice a year. Read these numbers as the October 2026 tariff. Ticket prices for 2027 have not been announced; we will update this page when they are.

What the ticket includes: Selamlık, Harem and the Painting Museum

Dolmabahçe was built between 1843 and 1856 for Sultan Abdülmecid, on a filled-in bay where the Ottoman fleet used to anchor. That is where the name comes from: "dolma bahçe" means "filled garden". According to the National Palaces, the main building has 285 rooms, 44 halls, 68 toilets and 6 hamams spread over 14,595 square metres, which makes it the largest palace in Turkey. Six sultans and the last caliph lived here, and Atatürk used it in the final years of his life.

Your ticket opens three parts of it.

The Selamlık (Mabeyn-i Hümayun)

This was the state side of the palace, where the sultan worked and received ambassadors. It is the part most people have in mind when they picture Dolmabahçe. The route starts at the Crystal Staircase, a double flight of stairs with crystal balusters climbing under a glass roof, then runs through reception rooms full of Hereke carpets, Sèvres vases and European paintings. It ends in the Ceremonial Hall (Muayede Salonu), the room with the giant chandelier. The chandelier is usually described as weighing about 4.5 tonnes with some 750 lamps.

The Harem (Harem-i Hümayun)

The private side is quieter and, for many visitors, more interesting. Here you see the apartments of the sultan's mother, the bedrooms, the blue-tiled hamam, and the small rooms where Atatürk lived and worked. The room where Atatürk died at 09:05 on 10 November 1938 is on this route, and the palace clocks are still set to that time. Turkish visitors often pause here for a long while, so the corridor can back up. On 10 November itself, the anniversary of his death, expect very long queues of Turkish visitors; foreigners who only want to see the building are better off choosing another day that week.

The National Palaces Painting Museum

The Painting Museum sits in the former Crown Prince's Apartments (Veliaht Dairesi), at the Beşiktaş end of the palace, with its own entrance on Dolmabahçe Caddesi. It holds Ottoman and Turkish paintings from the 19th and early 20th centuries, including works by Osman Hamdi Bey and Ivan Aivazovsky. Most visitors skip it because they do not realise it is on the same ticket. If you like painting, give it 30 to 45 minutes after the palace.

Dolmabahçe Palace opening hours: is it open today?

The palace is open Tuesday to Sunday. Under the winter timetable, which is in force now, the ticket office is open 09:00 to 17:00, and the National Palaces list the visiting day as 09:00 to 17:30. In practice the last useful entry is around 15:30, because the Selamlık and Harem routes together take at least 90 minutes and staff start moving people towards the exit before closing.

The summer timetable is different. In 2026 the palace opened every day from 09:00 to 19:00 between 26 June and 14 September, with the ticket office closing at 18:00, according to the summer-hours announcement reported by Turkish press on 26 June. That meant it was open on Mondays during those weeks. The 2027 summer dates have not been published yet, so do not assume a summer Monday visit until the palace announces it.

On public holidays the official list is short and clear:

• Closed: 1 January, the first day of Ramadan Bayram, the first day of Kurban Bayram.
• Open: 23 April, 1 May, 19 May, 15 July, 30 August, 29 October, and the remaining days of both Bayrams.

If a holiday falls on a Monday, the palace stays closed. Our Turkey public holidays 2027 calendar lists next year's Bayram dates and what else shuts in Istanbul on each one.

Where to buy Dolmabahçe Palace tickets

You have three ways in, and the first two cost the same.

1. At the ticket office by the Clock Tower gate. Cards are accepted. On a weekday morning in October the line is usually short; on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and when several cruise ships are in port, it can take 30 minutes or more.
2. Online at millisaraylar.gov.tr, using the "Bilet Al" button at the top of the page. You get a QR code on your phone. An online ticket saves the ticket queue, not the security check at the gate.
3. With a guided tour that includes the ticket. The guide buys the tickets, you skip the desk, and you have someone explaining the rooms. Our Dolmabahce Palace tour guide compares self-guided, shared and private visits with sample routes.

Be careful with lookalike sites. Several resellers use "Dolmabahçe Palace tickets" or "official" in their names and sell the same entry with an audio guide for €45 to €50, which is more than the gate price. Some of them are perfectly legitimate businesses, but they are not the palace. The only official seller is the National Palaces website.

The Museum Pass Istanbul, sold by the Ministry of Culture, does not include Dolmabahçe, which is run by a different body. The Turkish Müzekart is also not accepted in the Selamlık. Our comparison of the Istanbul Tourist Pass and Museum Pass explains which passes cover which sites, and whether any of them pay off for a short stay.

If you need lira for the trip there, our guide to exchanging money in Istanbul covers which ATMs charge the least.

How long does a Dolmabahçe Palace visit take?

Plan on 1.5 to 2 hours for the Selamlık and the Harem, plus 20 minutes in the gardens. Add 30 to 45 minutes if you also go into the Painting Museum. With a guide, the visit is closer to two hours because you stop to hear the stories behind the rooms.

The route through the palace is one way, and in busy periods visitors move in groups along a fixed path. You cannot double back to a room you liked. Wear shoes you can walk in for two hours; the floors are polished parquet and marble, and there are few places to sit inside.

Photography rules have changed more than once. For years photos were banned inside the palace; several travel guides report that phone photos without flash have been allowed since early 2026, while other recent reports still describe restrictions. Follow the signs and the staff on the day. Flash, tripods and selfie sticks are not allowed in any case, and professional shoots need a permit from the National Palaces.

Best time to visit, and when to avoid it

Tuesday morning is the best slot of the week. The palace has been shut on Monday, and many groups that would have gone that day go to Topkapı instead, because Topkapı is closed on Tuesday and open on Monday. Arrive at 09:00 and you will be in the Selamlık before the coaches.

The worst times are:

• Weekends from 11:00 to 14:00, when Turkish families visit.
• Cruise days. Galataport, Istanbul's cruise terminal, is about 2.5 km away. When two or more large ships are in, shore excursions arrive mid-morning.
• 10 November, the anniversary of Atatürk's death, for the reason explained above.
• The days after a Bayram closure, when both domestic and foreign visitors catch up.

Morning is also better for photos of the seaward façade from the garden, since the palace faces the Bosphorus to the east and is in full sun before noon. If you are combining the palace with a cruise, a morning visit and an afternoon boat works well.

How to get to Dolmabahçe Palace by tram, funicular or ferry

The palace sits on the European shore between Kabataş and Beşiktaş. The visitor entrance is the gate next to the Dolmabahçe Clock Tower, on the Kabataş side of the complex. All public transport below takes an Istanbulkart, the city's tap-on card.

From the Kabataş tram stop, walk north along Dolmabahçe Caddesi with the palace wall on your right. The Clock Tower and the gate appear after the mosque. Taxis can drop you at the gate, but traffic on this road is heavy from 16:00, so leave yourself time if you have a dinner cruise or a flight afterwards.

For a full route from the Old City, our comparison of Sultanahmet to Taksim by tram, funicular or taxi has the same tram and funicular legs with timings.

Is Dolmabahçe Palace worth it? Dolmabahçe or Topkapı

For most first-time visitors, yes, but it depends on what you came to Istanbul for. Topkapı and Dolmabahçe tell two halves of the same story, and they feel nothing alike.

If you have only one palace in your plan, choose Topkapı for the older story and Dolmabahçe for the rooms. Our guide to Topkapı Palace tickets and the Harem covers the other half in the same detail.

When Dolmabahçe is not worth it: if you have small children who will not walk two hours through rooms they cannot touch, if you dislike being moved along a fixed route, or if you have already seen Versailles-style interiors and want something Turkish rather than European. The view of the palace from the water is free, and many people are happy with that.

Closed on Monday? What to do instead

If today is Monday, or you arrived after the ticket office closed, the area still has plenty to fill a few hours.

• See the palace from the water. A Bosphorus cruise passes right in front of the seaward façade, and this is the angle most famous photos are taken from. Our page on Bosphorus cruise tickets for today lists departure piers and times; the Kabataş and Beşiktaş piers are a short walk from the palace.
• Go to Topkapı instead. It is open on Mondays and closed on Tuesdays, so swapping the two days solves the problem.
• Walk to Beşiktaş. The market streets behind Beşiktaş pier have fish restaurants and breakfast cafés, and the Naval Museum stands on the seafront.
• Book a lunch cruise. Our Bosphorus lunch cruise with hotel pick-up runs for about three hours and starts from $75 per person.

A guided Dolmabahçe tour: what we include

Our guides take guests through Dolmabahçe most weeks, and the same question comes up every time: is it worth paying for a guide when the ticket is only 2,000 TL? Inside, the rooms have short labels, and the stories that make the place make sense (who lived in which apartment, why the empire built a European palace while running out of money, what happened in Atatürk's last months) are not on the walls.

Our private Dolmabahçe Palace tour starts from $150 and includes:

• A licensed, English-speaking private guide for your group only.
• The Dolmabahçe Palace entrance ticket.
• Meeting at your central Istanbul hotel or at Galataport for cruise passengers.
• Bosphorus waterfront photo stops and a flexible plan of 6 to 8 hours.
• An optional afternoon visit to Topkapı Palace (Topkapı ticket +€50).

Lunch, drinks and a private vehicle are not included; we can add a car and driver if you would rather not use the tram. Prices change with the season and group size, so write to us for today's price. Same-day and next-day bookings are possible on WhatsApp when a guide is free. For other half-day and full-day options, see all our Istanbul tours and the Istanbul destination guide.

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