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Explore Istanbul and Bursa over six days, starting with an airport pickup at Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen (SAW) and a free first day to settle in. Day two is a full guided walk through the old city: Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome with its Obelisk of Theodosius and Serpent Column, Topkapi Palace after a Turkish lunch, then the Grand Bazaar.
The next morning brings the Spice Market at Eminönü and a shared Bosphorus Cruise past Dolmabahce and Beylerbeyi palaces, back at the hotel by around 12:30 pm. A free day follows, and the itinerary continues to Bursa with the Green Mosque, Cumalikizik village and Uludag by cable car. Breakfasts, guided sightseeing, transfers and hotels are included.
Whenever your flight lands at Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen (SAW), our representative will be waiting at the international arrivals exit with a sign showing our agency code. After a quick hello, you'll ride to your hotel in the Old City. The drive is about an hour from IST and can run 60 to 90 minutes from SAW, depending on traffic.
Check-in is usually from 2 PM. If you arrive earlier, the front desk will store your bags so you can head out. The rest of the day is yours, with no set schedule and no guide.
If you're not too jet-lagged, the Old City is easy to walk. Byzantine Hippodrome and the outside of Hagia Sophia are both within about 10 minutes on foot from most hotels in Sultanahmet. Grab a simmit from a street cart for a few lira and get your bearings.
You can also add the Night Cruise on the Bosphorus with dinner and a show for an extra fee. It runs about three hours with live music and Turkish dishes on board. Just ask us at booking, since seats fill up. No meals are included today.
After breakfast, around 8:30 AM, you'll be picked up from your hotel for a full day with your guide. It's a small group, so questions get answered. Nearly everything today is within walking distance in Sultanahmet, so wear shoes you can put in eight to ten thousand steps in.
First stop is Hagia Sophia, finished in 537 AD under Justinian. It served as a cathedral, then a mosque, then a museum, and is a working mosque again today. You'll see Byzantine mosaics and Ottoman calligraphy panels in the same room. Next is the Blue Mosque, built between 1609 and 1616, with six minarets and thousands of İznik tiles inside.
Then you'll walk the Byzantine Hippodrome, once a chariot racing track for tens of thousands of spectators. Three monuments still stand on the old track line: the Obelisk of Theodosius, brought from Egypt, the bronze Serpent Column from Delphi, and the German Fountain from 1901. Lunch follows at a local restaurant and is included. Expect Turkish plates like mercimek soup, grilled chicken or köfte, and rice; drinks are extra.
In the afternoon you'll tour Topkapi Palace, home to Ottoman sultans for close to 400 years. You'll see the courtyards, the kitchens, and the treasury rooms. The Harem is optional and costs 15 EUR extra. The day ends at the Grand Bazaar, with roughly 4,000 shops selling carpets, gold, ceramics and spices.
You'll be back at your hotel around 5 PM. Fair warning: the bazaar gets crowded and warm in summer, and vendors will call out to you. Bring a hat, water, and a scarf if you'd rather not use the loaner ones at mosque entrances. Shoulders and knees covered for everyone, headscarf for women.
Breakfast first, then pickup from your hotel around 8:30 AM for a half-day out on the water. You'll drive down to Eminönü, the ferry district beside the Golden Horn, about 10 to 15 minutes away.
Your guide will walk you through the Spice Bazaar, built in the 1660s as part of the New Mosque complex. Stalls are stacked with saffron, sumac, dried apricots, pistachio lokum and Turkish tea. Shopkeepers hand out samples freely, and yes, they hope you'll buy. Figure 30 to 40 minutes here.
Then you'll board a shared boat for the Bosphorus cruise, the strait that splits Europe from Asia and links the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. From the deck you'll pass Dolmabahce Palace, Beylerbeyi Palace on the Asian side, and under the Bosphorus Bridge. Your guide points out the wooden yalı mansions and the old Ottoman fortresses along both shores.
Drop-off at your hotel is around 12:30 PM, so lunch and the afternoon are on your own. Walking today is light, maybe a mile total. Bring a windbreaker even in summer, since it's cooler and breezier on deck than on shore, and the upper seats have no shade. Only breakfast is included.
Breakfast runs at the hotel from about 7 AM, and after that the whole day is yours. No pickup, no guide, no fixed times. Sleep in if you've been walking hard.
If you want ideas, the Basilica Cistern is a five-minute walk from Hagia Sophia and takes under an hour, with 336 columns underground and two Medusa heads. Suleymaniye Mosque, finished in 1557 by the architect Sinan, sits on a hill with a wide view over the Golden Horn and is usually much quieter than the Blue Mosque.
For a change of scene, take the T1 tram to Karaköy and walk up to Galata Tower, then continue to Istiklal Avenue for cafés and bookshops. Get an Istanbulkart at any tram stop; it works on trams, buses and public ferries and saves fumbling for change.
Food-wise, try a fish sandwich near Galata Bridge, or find a lokanta for home-style stews sold by the plate. Only breakfast is included today. Your guide can suggest neighborhoods and rough travel times the evening before.
This is the early one. Pickup is around 7:00 AM after breakfast, or with a packed breakfast box if the hotel kitchen isn't open yet. You'll head to the ferry terminal and cross the Sea of Marmara to Yalova, roughly an hour and a half on the water. From Yalova it's about another hour by road to Bursa.
In Bursa you'll visit the Bursa Grand Mosque (Ulu Camii), completed in 1399 under Sultan Bayezid I, with 20 domes and huge wall calligraphy panels. Nearby stand the Green Mosque and the Green Tomb, the burial place of Sultan Mehmed I, faced in turquoise tiles. Bursa was the first Ottoman capital, and these buildings are why people call it the city where the empire started.
Lunch is included at a local restaurant. Ask about İskender kebab, sliced döner over bread with tomato sauce and melted butter, which was invented here. Bursa is also known for candied chestnuts, easy to pack home.
You'll also stop at Cumalıkızık, a village of restored Ottoman houses on cobbled lanes at the foot of the mountain, and ride the cable car up Uludağ for views over the plain. The cobblestones are uneven and the mountain air is cooler year-round, so bring a light jacket and sturdy shoes.
Departure back is in the late afternoon, with a return to Istanbul around 8:30 PM. It's a long day, roughly five hours of ferry and driving in total. Bring something to read and motion-sickness tablets if boats bother you.
Have breakfast at the hotel, then check out before 11:00 AM. The desk will hold your luggage if your flight is later in the day, so you can walk the neighborhood one more time.
Your airport transfer is timed to your flight details. We'll pick you up from the hotel lobby about three hours before an international departure, four if you're flying at rush hour. Please have your flight number with us at booking so we can set the time correctly.
Allow an hour to Istanbul Airport and up to 90 minutes to Sabiha Gökçen, longer on weekday mornings. If you bought carpets, ceramics or spices, keep receipts handy and pack liquids and jars in checked bags.
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It runs as a small-group tour with set departure times, a licensed English-speaking guide, and pickups from your hotel or a nearby meeting point. If you'd prefer a private guide and vehicle, we can quote that at extra cost.
You'll have all five nights in the same Old City hotel, typically Antea Hotel Oldcity, Muyan Suites or Deluxe Golden Horn Hotel, or something similar in the same standard-quality class. Breakfast is included every morning.
Day 1 afternoon, Day 3 after 12:30 PM, and all of Day 4 are unscheduled. That's a real advantage of a single-base trip: you can go back to a site you liked or try a neighborhood like Kadıköy or Balat.
Broken-in walking shoes come first, since the Old City is all cobblestone and hills. Bring a scarf for mosques, a light jacket for the Bosphorus boat and Uludağ, sunscreen and a refillable water bottle. Summer afternoons in Istanbul can hit the 90s Fahrenheit.
If you want to see where the Ottoman Empire began, yes. Bursa's Grand Mosque dates to 1399, the Green Tomb holds Sultan Mehmed I, and Cumalıkızık is a village of restored Ottoman houses. It's a long day of travel, so plan on a relaxed evening after.
April to early June and mid-September to early November give the most comfortable weather for walking. July and August are hot and busy, though the Bosphorus breeze helps. Winter is quiet and much cheaper, with cold, rainy days and occasional snow on Uludağ.
Cards work at hotels, restaurants and most shops. Keep some Turkish lira for street food, small cafés, tips and bazaar bargaining, where cash usually gets a better price. ATMs are everywhere in Sultanahmet.
If you need to cancel your tour or change your travel dates, please notify us at least 5 days before the tour start date. As this tour includes domestic flights and bus tickets, which are non-refundable, the cost of these tickets will be deducted from your payment and the remaining balance refunded to you. For cancellations or date changes made less than 5 days before the start date, no refund will be issued and the booking will be treated under our no-show policy.
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We had a wonderful and unforgettable holiday in Turkey. Istanbul and Bursa were the highlights. The tour guides were good and transfers were on time. I would highly recommend All Istanbul Tours to anyone wishing to visit Turkey.