Things worth booking in Istanbul

The Blue Mosque remains free to enter, modest dress required, the same as any active mosque. Hagia Sophia changed in January 2024: worship entry is still free, but foreign tourists now pay an entry fee for the dedicated upper-gallery visitor route — the building's status as a working mosque didn't change, but sightseeing it now comes with a ticket.

The first courtyard is public and free; the palace itself, holding the Treasury and the Sacred Relics chamber, is a separate paid ticket, and the Harem — 400 rooms of İznik-tiled corridors — costs extra again, though a combined palace-and-Harem ticket covers both. Visit early morning or late afternoon to get ahead of the tour groups that fill the middle of the day.

The underground Basilica Cistern, with its 336 columns and Medusa-head bases, is paid entry, same as Hagia Sophia's tourist route above ground nearby. The Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar cost nothing to wander — bargaining, not a ticket, is the only transaction skill needed — but both close on Sundays, which is the one date worth planning around rather than a time slot.

The public ferry from Eminönü to Anadolu Kavağı covers the full Bosphorus in about three hours round trip for the price of a bus ticket, with no booking required and stops past Ottoman palaces and centuries-old wooden mansions along the way. Evening dinner cruises exist and are bookable, but they're a different, more touristy experience than the same water crossed on the regular commuter ferry.

The Galata Tower's elevator to its 360-degree observation deck is a paid ticket. For the same kind of panoramic view — both continents, the Bosphorus, the Princes' Islands — Çamlıca Hill on the Asian side costs nothing and is reached by a short cable car from Üsküdar.