Bosphorus Sunset or Night Boat Cruise from Eminonu with Live Guide

Eminönü, the Galata Bridge and Galata Tower

The boat leaves from the Eminönü shore, the busiest waterfront of the Old City, where the ferries to Üsküdar and Kadıköy dock beside the Spice Bazaar and the New Mosque. Our pier is a few minutes' walk from the Eminönü tram stop, behind the commerce university building near Ahi Çelebi Mosque; on some days the boat sails from the Karaköy pier across the Galata Bridge instead, and we tell you the day before. A Bosphorus cruise from Eminönü starts with the best skyline in the city behind you.

As the boat passes under the Galata Bridge and out of the Golden Horn, the guide points out Galata Tower above the Karaköy rooftops, the 1348 Genoese watchtower that is the landmark of the northern shore, then the cruise terminal of Galataport and the walls of Dolmabahçe. Take the open deck for this stretch; the light on the Old City is at its best.

Dolmabahçe Palace, Çırağan Palace and Ortaköy Mosque

The first great sight on the European shore is Dolmabahçe Palace, the 1856 marble palace built to replace Topkapi, whose 600-metre façade, ceremonial water gate and clock tower are seen from exactly the angle its architects intended: from the water. The guide explains who lived there and why the Ottoman court left the old palace; beside it stand the Dolmabahçe Mosque and, past the Beşiktaş ferry pier, Çırağan Palace with its arcaded front.

Then comes Ortaköy Mosque, the small baroque mosque of 1856 on the quay of Ortaköy square, directly beneath the Bosphorus Bridge. On the sunset cruise the sun is low here and the mosque's pale stone turns gold against the bridge; on the twilight sailing the bridge cables are lit in changing colours. The boat slows so everyone on deck can photograph it.

Bebek, Rumeli Fortress and the turning point

Beyond the bridge the European shore becomes a line of waterside villages, Kuruçeşme, Arnavutköy with its wooden yalı mansions and Bebek with its bay of moored yachts and seafront cafés, which the guide describes as the most expensive shoreline in Turkey. The boat continues to Rumeli Fortress, the great fortress built in 1452 in four months to control the narrowest point of the strait before the siege of Constantinople; its three towers climb the hillside right to the water's edge.

Just beyond stands the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge of 1988, the second crossing, and this is where the cruise turns. The strait is only 700 metres wide here and the current is strong, which is why the fortresses were built on this spot, and why the guide notes that the timing may vary by fifteen minutes.

The Asian shore: Anatolian Fortress, Küçüksu and Kuleli

Coming back down the Asian side the boat passes Anadolu Hisarı, the Anatolian Fortress of 1395, the oldest Ottoman structure in Istanbul, a small keep at the mouth of the Göksu stream among wooden houses and rowing boats. A little further is Küçüksu Palace, the ornate little hunting lodge of 1857 on the waterfront, and then the long Kuleli waterfront, named for the twin-towered 19th-century building that housed a military school, with the quiet residential shores of Çengelköy and Beylerbeyi beyond.

This side of the Bosphorus is calmer and greener than the European shore, and on the twilight cruise this is where the lights come on in the yalı windows. The guide explains how the Asian villages grew around the summer palaces and ferry piers.

Maiden's Tower and the return past Süleymaniye

The last landmark is Maiden's Tower, the white tower on a rock 200 metres off Üsküdar that has been a lighthouse, customs post and quarantine station since Byzantine times, rebuilt in its present form in 1725; the guide tells the legend of the princess and the serpent as the boat makes a slow pass with the Old City behind it. This is the photograph everyone takes on a Bosphorus sunset cruise.

The boat then crosses back towards the Golden Horn with the whole historic peninsula ahead: Topkapi Palace on its point, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and, highest of all, Süleymaniye Mosque on the third hill, which the guide points out before the boat passes back under the Galata Bridge and ties up at Eminönü or Karaköy about two hours after departure.