Best Bosphorus Tours

The Bosphorus is a 31-kilometre strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, and seeing it from the water is the only way to understand how Istanbul is laid out. The tours on this page get you onto it in different ways: a shared boat with lunch, a dinner cruise with a show, a private guided day that includes a cruise, or a whole yacht for your group.

Shared cruises

The lowest-priced ways onto the water are shared boats with hotel pick-up. The Istanbul Bosphorus Lunch Cruise is $60 per person for three hours, with a licensed guide, lunch on board and all entrance fees; drinks at lunch are extra. The Luxury Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show is $90 per person for about six hours including transfers, with dinner, soft drinks and a folk and belly dance programme. Both boats carry other groups, and the dinner cruise is loud by design.

Guided days that include the water

If you want the Bosphorus explained rather than just seen, pick a private tour that includes a cruise. The Istanbul Combo: City Tour and Bosphorus Cruise from $200 per person spends the morning in the old city and the afternoon on the water. The Istanbul Dolmabahce & Bosphorus Tour with Private Guide, also from $200 per person, combines the Spice Market, a cruise, Dolmabahce Palace and Taksim. On both, the standard cruise is a public or shared boat; a private yacht can be added.

One thing to check: Dolmabahce Palace is closed on Mondays, so the Dolmabahce tour runs on other days.

A boat of your own

The 2-Hour Private Bosphorus Yacht Cruise is priced per group at $600, with a licensed guide and coffee or tea on board. It is the only yacht option on this page with a guide; the hourly charters in our yacht tours list come with a captain and crew but no guide, and start from $190 per hour.

For a layover, the Private Istanbul Layover Tour from $550 per person includes a Bosphorus cruise between the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar, with airport transfers both ways.

What you see, and from which side

Heading north from Eminonu, the European shore has Dolmabahce Palace, the Ortakoy Mosque under the first bridge, the old villages of Arnavutkoy and Bebek and the walls of Rumeli Fortress at the narrowest point. The Asian shore has Beylerbeyi Palace, Kuzguncuk and the wooden mansions of Kandilli. On a standard cruise of two to three hours, most boats turn around near the second bridge rather than continuing to the Black Sea.

Sit on the left side going north for the European palaces and on the right for the Asian shore. The boats usually return along the opposite side.

Timing

Mornings are the calmest on the water. Sunset cruises fill first between May and September. In winter, the wind on deck is cold even on sunny days, and the enclosed decks of the shared boats are more comfortable. Our Bosphorus lunch cruise guide compares the $60 cruise with other options, and the night tours and shows list covers the evening. For the geography in detail, see our Bosphorus Strait guide.