Bosphorus Cruise 90 Minutes from Kabatas or Uskudar with Audio Guide

Kabataş pier and the departure

Kabataş is the most convenient pier on the European shore: the T1 tram from Sultanahmet, Eminönü and Karaköy ends here, and the F1 funicular from Taksim Square arrives in two minutes, so you can be on the quay a quarter of an hour after leaving the old city or Istiklal Street. The English-speaking host meets you at the pier, and the boat casts off past the ferry terminals with Dolmabahce Palace already in view a few hundred metres up the shore. The Üsküdar option on this page starts from the Asian side instead, next to the Marmaray station and the ferry terminal, and sails the same loop.

Both departures give the same 90-minute route; choose the pier that is closer to your hotel. Our Istanbul team recommends the 14:45 or 16:45 sailing from Kabataş in summer for the softer afternoon light.

Dolmabahce, Çırağan and Ortaköy

The first stretch of the Bosphorus cruise is a parade of Ottoman palaces. Dolmabahce Palace, built in the 1850s when the sultans left Topkapi, presents a 600-metre marble façade to the water with its ornate gate and clock tower. Just beyond, Çırağan Palace, built in the 1860s and now a hotel, shows its long arcaded front, and the shore then curves into Ortaköy, the lively quay where the small baroque mosque stands right at the water's edge with the Bosphorus Bridge rising behind it, the most photographed view in Istanbul.

The audio guide, on your own phone in English, German, French, Russian, Spanish or Italian, tells the story of each building as it passes, while the host's live English commentary points out what to look for next. Keep your camera ready: the Ortaköy mosque under the bridge is over in a minute.

The Bosphorus Bridge and Rumeli Fortress

Passing under the Bosphorus Bridge, officially the 15 July Martyrs Bridge, opened in 1973 as the first road link between Europe and Asia, the boat continues up the European shore past the waterfront mansions of Kuruçeşme, Arnavutköy and Bebek to Rumeli Fortress. The fortress was built in 1452 in a few months on the orders of the sultan who would conquer Constantinople the following year, at the narrowest point of the strait, to control shipping from the Black Sea; its towers and walls still climb the hillside opposite the older Anadolu Hisarı.

Just beyond the fortress, the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge spans the strait at its narrowest, and here the boat turns to cross to the Asian side. This is the halfway point of the 90-minute Bosphorus cruise and the best moment for photographs of the bridge and the fortress together.

The Asian shore: Anadolu Hisarı, Küçüksu and Beylerbeyi

Coming down the Asian shore, the boat passes Anadolu Hisarı, the small fortress built at the end of the fourteenth century at the mouth of the Göksu stream, with wooden houses clustered around it. A little further on stands Küçüksu Pavilion, a small ornate hunting lodge of the 1850s set on the water's edge, and then, just before the Bosphorus Bridge, Beylerbeyi Palace, the summer residence of the sultans built in the 1860s, where visiting empresses and kings were lodged; its marble terrace and garden pavilions face the water.

The Asian shore is quieter and greener than the European side, with Çengelköy's old plane trees and the terraces of Kuzguncuk, and it is the part of the Bosphorus boat tour that most visitors have not seen on land.

The Maiden's Tower and the return

The final landmark is the Maiden's Tower, the small white tower on an islet two hundred metres off Üsküdar at the entrance to the Bosphorus, a lighthouse and customs point in Ottoman times and the subject of several Istanbul legends. Behind it rises the silhouette of the old city: Topkapi Palace on its point, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Süleymaniye Mosque on their hills, especially beautiful on the 16:45 sailing as the light turns gold.

The boat then returns to Kabataş (or to Üsküdar in the second option), about 90 minutes after departure. From Kabataş you are two minutes from the tram and the funicular, and Dolmabahce Palace, Beşiktaş and the Dolmabahçe mosque are a short walk along the shore.