ラマダン中のイスタンブール：変わること、楽しめること

Visiting Istanbul during Ramadan is easy, and for many travellers it is the best time of year to see the city. In 2027, Ramadan begins on Monday 8 February and the Ramadan Bayramı (Eid al-Fitr) runs from Tuesday 9 to Thursday 11 March, according to the official calendar of Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). Restaurants, shops and museums stay open as usual; what changes is the rhythm of the evening, when the whole city stops to break the fast at sunset.

A common worry is that the city shuts down in Ramadan. It does not. Istanbul is a city of more than 15 million people, and many of them do not fast, so cafés serve coffee at noon and lunch is easy to find in every tourist area. The real differences are smaller and more interesting: crowds and traffic in the hour before iftar, lights strung between minarets, special bread in the bakeries and packed mosques at night. For the rest of the year, see our list of things to do in Istanbul.

Ramadan 2027 dates in Istanbul

Turkey fixes its religious calendar in advance, so the dates below will not shift with a moon sighting. They come from the 2027 list of religious days published by Diyanet.

Iftar, the meal that breaks the fast, is at sunset. In Istanbul that is about 6:30 pm at the start of Ramadan 2027 and just after 7 pm by the end; Diyanet publishes the exact minute for each day in its imsakiye timetable. For comparison, Ramadan 2026 ran from 19 February, with the Bayram on 20 to 22 March.

Eid al-Adha, the Kurban Bayramı, is a separate holiday. In 2027 it begins on Sunday 16 May.

What changes for visitors

During the day, less than you might expect. Museums keep their normal hours, the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar trade as usual, and restaurants in Sultanahmet, Beyoğlu and Kadıköy serve lunch. Nobody expects a foreign visitor to fast. In conservative districts such as Fatih and Eyüp, it is polite not to eat, drink or smoke conspicuously in the street, but that is courtesy, not law.

The evening is where Ramadan shows. From about an hour before iftar, traffic thickens as everyone heads home, taxis are hard to find and restaurants fill with tables booked for the moment of sunset. Then, for twenty minutes after the call to prayer, the streets go strangely quiet while the city eats. After that, families come out, and squares and mosque courtyards stay busy late into the night.

Two practical points. First, book dinner for after the first rush or arrive early: many restaurants set a fixed iftar menu and are fully booked at sunset. Second, a few neighbourhood restaurants stop serving alcohol for the month, while bars and hotels in Beyoğlu and the main tourist areas carry on as normal.

Visiting mosques during Ramadan

The big mosques stay open to visitors in Ramadan, with the same rules as the rest of the year: visits pause at the five daily prayers, shoulders and knees are covered, women cover their hair and everyone takes off their shoes. Hagia Sophia is a working mosque, and foreign sightseers pay €25 (2026) for the visitor route through the upper gallery.

What is different is the evening. After the night prayer, mosques hold teravih, a long extra prayer that is only said in Ramadan, and the larger mosques are full. That is not the time for sightseeing inside, but standing in the courtyard of the Blue Mosque or Süleymaniye while it goes on is a moving experience. On the Kadir Gecesi, 5 March 2027, mosques across the city are packed through the night.

The best time for a calm visit to the mosques in Ramadan is the morning. Fasting people tend to start the day later, and the queue at Hagia Sophia is usually shorter before midday than in the afternoon. Our guides on Istanbul day tours plan mosque visits around the prayer times for you.

Iftar in Istanbul: where to break the fast

Sharing an iftar is the best thing to do in Istanbul during Ramadan, and you do not need to be fasting to join. A traditional iftar opens with a date and water, then soup, then the main meal, often followed by tea and dessert well into the evening.

Your options, from simplest to grandest:

• A neighbourhood restaurant. Most lokantas offer a set iftar menu. Arrive 20 minutes before sunset, order, and wait with everyone else for the call to prayer.
• Sultanahmet Square. In recent years the city and Fatih municipality have run Ramadan events in the square, with food stalls, a large iftar tent and crowds of local families. Free public iftars are meant for those in need, so if you join, take a modest portion or buy from the stalls.
• A picnic. Locals spread blankets in parks and on the waterfront at Üsküdar and Kadıköy. Buy pide and something to go with it and sit facing the Bosphorus.
• A restaurant with a view. Hotel and rooftop restaurants run special iftar menus. Book days ahead for weekends.

Ramadan food: pide, güllaç and sahur

Some foods appear only in Ramadan. The most visible is Ramazan pidesi, a round flatbread with a lattice pattern and black seeds, sold warm in the late afternoon. Bakery queues before iftar are part of the scene; join one, the bread is excellent.

Güllaç is the Ramadan dessert: thin sheets of starch pastry soaked in sweet milk with rosewater, layered with walnuts and topped with pomegranate seeds. It is light and much less sweet than baklava. You will find it in pastry shops and on almost every iftar menu.

Sahur is the meal before dawn. In many neighbourhoods a drummer still walks the streets in the small hours to wake people for it. If your hotel is in a residential area, you may hear him around 3 or 4 am. Some people find it charming; light sleepers should pack earplugs.

Ramadan evenings: mahya lights and the dervishes

Look up between the minarets of the imperial mosques after dark and you will see mahya: messages written in lights strung on wires, a tradition that goes back to Ottoman times. The Blue Mosque and Süleymaniye are the easiest places to see them.

Ramadan nights are also a natural fit for the Sema, the ceremony of the whirling dervishes. It is a form of prayer, performed slowly to live music, not a folk show. Our whirling dervish ceremony lasts one hour with reserved seats, from $60 per person; book it for after iftar. It is listed with our other religious and heritage tours in Istanbul.

Evening walks through Sultanahmet are at their best in this month, with families out late and the mosques lit up. Pickpockets like crowds too, so keep your phone in a front pocket.

Ramadan Bayramı (Eid): what closes

The three days of Bayram, 9 to 11 March 2027, are a public holiday, and the afternoon of the arefe, 8 March, is a half day for public offices. Expect closures on the first day in particular. On the official National Palaces website, Topkapı Palace, Dolmabahçe Palace and Beylerbeyi Palace are listed as closed on the first day of the Ramadan Bayramı and open on the second and third. In 2026, museums run by the Ministry of Culture opened at 13:00 on the first day; check the 2027 announcement before you plan around it.

Banks and government offices close for the holiday. Many family-run shops and restaurants close or open late on the first day, while shopping malls and most hotel restaurants stay open. Bayram morning starts with the holiday prayer soon after sunrise, and the big mosques are full; sightseeing visits pick up later in the day.

Bayram is also a travel holiday for Turks. Flights, intercity buses and coastal hotels fill weeks ahead, and Istanbul itself is busy with domestic visitors. If your dates fall on Bayram, book transfers and tours early.

Tours and packages during Ramadan

All our tours run during Ramadan. Guides who are fasting work as usual, lunch is served on tours that include it, and we plan mosque visits around the prayer times. On the first day of Bayram we reshape itineraries around the closed palaces. You can see every option on our Istanbul private tours page.

Prices vary by season, hotel and what is included, so ask us for today's price. You can book now and pay later, and day tours can be cancelled free up to 7 days before.

If you want Ramadan evenings without organising each day, a package is the simplest choice: the 4-day Istanbul city tour package covers the Old City and the Bosphorus by day and leaves your evenings free for iftar. All options are on our Istanbul tour packages page. For a single day, the Classic Istanbul private tour is the one we adapt most easily to prayer times, and it sits among our Istanbul mosque and heritage tours too.

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