10 Days Istanbul & Bursa Tour Package

What the 10 Days Istanbul & Bursa Tour Package Adds

Ten days gives the same Istanbul and Bursa route used across Haqqi's packages an extra day of breathing room, most of it spent as a dedicated free day in Istanbul rather than squeezed into evenings after sightseeing. The added time also makes room for a crossing to the Princes Islands, a short trip off the mainland that a shorter package does not fit in. Every hotel, transfer and guided outing across both cities is confirmed in writing before you travel, and the same drivers who handle the road journey to Bursa also manage the day-to-day pickups in each city. The pace across ten days sits between a packed short break and an open-ended stay.

Sultanahmet's Landmarks at an Unhurried Pace

The historic peninsula gets a full day near the start of the stay, moving between Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque across Sultanahmet Square before continuing into Topkapi Palace, the sultans' former residence built as a run of courtyards rather than one grand hall. With ten days to work with, the guide can set a slower pace through the palace grounds than a shorter package allows, stopping longer at the terraces overlooking the Golden Horn. Lunch is arranged near the peninsula so the group is not moving far between the morning's sites and the midday break, and the afternoon is left open for those who want to return to a particular courtyard.

A Crossing to the Princes Islands

Reaching the Princes Islands takes only a short hop by ferry across the Sea of Marmara, landing the group on ground where no cars are allowed and horse-drawn carriages or bicycles cover every distance instead. The pace here is markedly different from central Istanbul, with pine-covered hills, wooden mansions and quiet lanes that give the package a change of scene partway through the stay. It is a day built for slower sightseeing rather than a checklist of landmarks, and families often use it as a rest between the denser sightseeing days on either side. The return crossing in the late afternoon leaves time for the evening free in the hotel area.

Markets, a Mosque Hill and Free Time

Once the group is back on the mainland, an entire day is set aside for Istanbul's trading quarter, winding through the Grand Bazaar's covered passages and the Spice Bazaar's stalls before Suleymaniye Mosque adds its own hilltop courtyard above the Golden Horn to the same outing. The extra day in this package means the afternoon after the markets can be left properly free rather than folded into a travel day, giving shoppers time to return to a stall they noticed earlier or simply rest at the hotel. Guides point out the difference between this bazaar district and the market you will later see in Bursa.

Settling Into Bursa

The road transfer south to Bursa is handled by a Haqqi driver for the whole journey, arriving in a city built around a mountain rather than a waterway, with an older, narrower street pattern than central Istanbul. Settling in usually falls in the afternoon, leaving the evening free to walk the streets near the hotel before the following day's sightseeing begins. Bursa's pace is noticeably calmer than Istanbul's, and guests travelling with ten days rather than fewer tend to notice the shift more, since the stay in the second city is not compressed into a single overnight stop.

The Mountain, the Mosque and the Silk Market

Uludag, the mountain behind Bursa, is reached by cable car, with the upper station giving a view back over the city and the plain that spreads out beneath it. Bursa's old town holds a different chapter of Ottoman religious building than Istanbul showed earlier in the trip, from the tiled walls of the Green Mosque and its tomb to the Grand Mosque's cluster of domes gathered around an indoor fountain. Koza Han, the covered silk market near the Grand Mosque, still trades much as it did when the city's caravan routes first brought merchants through Bursa.

A Free Day Back in Istanbul

With the extra day built into this package, Istanbul gets a second stretch of unstructured time after the return from Bursa, letting guests revisit a district they liked, extend a shopping stop or simply rest before departure. Some families use it for a Bosphorus-side cafe, others for one more look at the Old City's markets, and the desk can help arrange an optional outing for those who would rather keep the day guided. This is the block of time that distinguishes the ten-day package most clearly from the shorter nine-day version, giving the stay a less compressed final stretch.

Planning a Ten-Day Stay Across Two Cities

Booking a ten-day stay means confirming hotel names, transfer times and guide language for both cities in one written plan through Haqqi's desk, reachable on WhatsApp in Arabic and English throughout. A private vehicle can be requested for the whole route from Istanbul through Bursa and back, keeping the same driver across the transfer days rather than changing partway through. Nothing in the confirmed plan changes once your dates and vehicle type are agreed, and early booking helps secure the guide and vehicle across the full stretch of the stay.