Istanbul, Bosphorous cruise?

We did it last year and thought it was great. It's more of a large, local ferry, which has a large number of tourists on it. It's not like a Caribbean cruise where you get off, buy some trinkets and get back on. The ship stops only long enough to unload and load passengers. It's more like a train on water. We followed the recommended route in the RS book, getting off before the final stop (I forget the name of the stop). We took the bus back to town, stopping at Dohlmabace Palace on the way back, then taking the tram from Dohlmabace back to our hotel in Sultanahmet.

The entire trip did take most of a full day. But if you have 6 full days in Istanbul, then you should have more than enough time to take the cruise. I would recommend it.

Thanks for your helpful response, Rick. Would you recommend the Dohlmabace Palace as well? I am interested in architecture and art in situ.

Hi There,

There are many things to do in Istanbul. I will recommend you to join bosphorus cruise istanbul as well. That is lovely trip in istanbul.

Visit these pages for idea
http://www.cruiseistanbul.com/istanbul-day-tours-6.html

http://www.cruiseistanbul.com/all-istanbul-tours.html

Have a nice trip to Turkey

Matti, I would recommend Dohlmabace. I'll admit that there are better palaces in other parts of Europe. but Dohlmabace is no slacker. It would be a shame to miss it since you'll be so close.

Matti, I think the Tur-yol website has a schedule. Unfortunately, the website is still only in Turkish.

You can check the schedule, though, by looking for Eminonu as the point of departure and Bogaz turlari (Bosphorus tours) as the destination and select your date at "gunus." In the summer the ferries are pretty frequent--one an hour generally. And the cost is 7.5 lira from Eminonu dock in Istanbul.

Matti, The ferryride up the Bosphorus is well worth doing. But you do have another option to the 6 hour roundtrip ferry. Tur-Yol offers a faster trip--one and a half hours complete. You don't get off at the end, you just stay on the whole way. They leave more frequently than the main ferry, too, from the same docks. Just a tad pricier--when I last did the cruise a couple years ago I think there was a 2 lira per ticket difference. This may have changed, but it is probably still a negligible difference.

The best sights are within the first 20 minutes or so of leaving Istanbul, so have your camera ready for the first and last bit of the trip.

Also, keep in mind that there is no narration on these ferries, so be sure to have a written guide along with you so you know what you're seeing.

Regarding Dolmabahce Palace: It's a Western style palace built in the 19th century to impress Western dignitaries with how "modern" the sultanate was. You have to visit it in a group with a guide. I have to admit not being terribly impressed with either the guide or the palace. Others may differ, though.

Finally, "tom" keeps posting to this site here advertising websites selling tours. It's against the rules here to post ads, but "tom" doesn't seem to care. Buyer very much beware...

Thanks JER. Yes, it sounds like the shorter cruise would be a good option for me. Do you recall how you found the cruise shedule?

I also noticed the bogus posting from "Tom" and reported them to the webmaster.

We did not have the time to do a full-day cruise on our four-day stay in Istanbul last September, so we took the Turyol 90-minute cruise which goes up the European side of the Bosphorus to the second bridge and back down the Asian side. I recommend it; we took it on a Saturday after touring the Dolmahbahce Palace, so we were ready to sit down and relax for a while. The boat left when it was full, so I'm not sure a schedule would help you. I assume you realize that the weather can still be pretty iffy in March for a day on the water.

Have a great trip!

Thank you Pamela and JER. The 90 minute cruise sounds perfect. I'll ask the concierge at the hotel to assist me in reading the Tur-yol schedule.