Istanbul and Gallipoli: the old city, the Bosphorus and Troy

1. Day 1: Arrive in Istanbul

   Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen (SAW) to your hotel in the old city

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Istanbul
   Day 1 details

   A driver meets you at Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen (SAW) and takes you to your hotel in or near Sultanahmet, the old city on the peninsula between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara. The drive from IST takes about an hour, and longer from SAW on the Asian side, so aim to land by mid-afternoon. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group in the hotel for a short briefing on the five days: what to wear for the mosques, how the Gallipoli day runs and where the free time falls. Then we walk downhill through the old streets to the Eminönü waterfront as the light goes, with the ferries loading for Asia and the hills of Beyoğlu across the Golden Horn. Dinner is together at a local restaurant nearby, a first round of mezze and grills, and the walk back to the hotel is short.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen (SAW)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Evening walk to the Eminönü waterfront
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the early-evening briefing

   

2. Day 2: Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar

   A walking day in the old city

   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Istanbul
   Day 2 details

   We are at Hagia Sophia when the visitor entrance opens. Finished in 537 for the emperor Justinian, it was a church for nine centuries, then a mosque, a museum from 1934 and a mosque again since 2020; visitors now go up to the gallery, which is where the Byzantine mosaics are, and the ticket is in your price. Before the queues build we cross the square to the Blue Mosque, built between 1609 and 1616 and lined with Iznik tiles, timed to leave before midday prayer. Your guide then walks you along the Hippodrome, where Constantinople raced its chariots, past the Egyptian obelisk and the bronze Serpent Column, and down into the Basilica Cistern, a 6th-century reservoir on 336 columns. Lunch is a sit-down meal nearby. In the early afternoon your guide takes you into the Grand Bazaar, shows you how its streets are laid out and how to bargain, then leaves you to browse. The late afternoon is free.

   Included

   • Hagia Sophia (gallery visit and ticket) at the visitor entrance's opening
   • The Blue Mosque
   • The Hippodrome with the Egyptian obelisk and the Serpent Column
   • The Basilica Cistern
   • Sit-down lunch in Sultanahmet
   • The Grand Bazaar with your guide

   Optional experiences

   • Topkapi Palace and its Harem in the free late afternoon (ticket at your own cost; your guide tells you the current price and closing time)

   Easier option: Go back to the hotel after lunch and join the Grand Bazaar walk at its start, a few minutes away, or skip it.

   More active option: After the bazaar, walk uphill with your guide to the Süleymaniye Mosque and its terrace over the Golden Horn.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 10 km on foot, mostly on cobbles and gentle hills. The Grand Bazaar is closed on Sundays and the Blue Mosque closes to visitors around Friday midday prayer, and Topkapi Palace is closed on Tuesdays, so this day never falls on a Sunday, Friday or Tuesday.

   

3. Day 3: Balat, the Bosphorus and a Kadıköy food walk

   Balat to the Bosphorus by boat, Eminönü, then the ferry to Kadıköy

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Istanbul
   Day 3 details

   We start in Balat and Fener on the Golden Horn before the day visitors arrive: steep lanes of painted wooden and brick houses, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate's Church of St George, and the cast-iron Bulgarian church of St Stephen on the shore. From the Balat pier a boat for our group takes us down the Golden Horn and up the Bosphorus for about two hours, past Dolmabahçe Palace, Ortaköy and the walls of the Rumeli Hisarı fortress, before turning back to Eminönü. We step off by the Spice Bazaar, and lunch is your own choice from the stalls and lokantas around it. The afternoon is free to rest or go back to a sight you want more time with. At about five we meet at the pier and take the public ferry across to Kadıköy on the Asian shore, twenty minutes with the old city skyline behind us. A local host leads a food walk through the market streets: pickles, cheese, meze, a kebab and a sweet at the end. The walk is dinner, and we come back by ferry.

   Included

   • Balat and Fener walk with your guide, including the Church of St George and the Bulgarian St Stephen's Church
   • Boat for our group on the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, about 2 hours
   • The Spice Bazaar
   • Public ferry from Eminönü to Kadıköy and back
   • Evening food walk in Kadıköy with a local host

   Easier option: Skip the Balat lanes, which are steep, and join the group at the Balat pier for the boat.

   More active option: Before the food walk, walk with your guide along the Moda seafront south of Kadıköy.

   Free time: Afternoon free in the old city

   Activity: Balat's lanes are steep and cobbled, with long flights of steps. Tell us about dietary needs when you book so the food walk can plan around them.

   

4. Day 4: The Gallipoli battlefields

   Istanbul to the Gallipoli Peninsula, then the ferry from Eceabat to Çanakkale

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Çanakkale
   Day 4 details

   We leave Istanbul at 8 am and drive about four hours west along the Sea of Marmara, past Tekirdağ and over the hills to the Gallipoli Peninsula, with a coffee stop on the way. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Eceabat. In 1915 Allied troops landed here to force the Dardanelles and were held by the Ottoman army until they withdrew in January 1916, at a cost of more than 100,000 dead on both sides. We start at the Kabatepe promotion centre (the Çanakkale Epic Promotion Centre) to see how the campaign unfolded, then go to Anzac Cove and the Ari Burnu cemetery, the Lone Pine memorial, the trenches at Johnston's Jolly, where the lines were a few metres apart, the 57th Regiment cemetery and Chunuk Bair with the New Zealand memorial. Where time allows we look north to Suvla Bay, where the Newfoundland Regiment served. If the day runs late, we shorten the promotion centre visit first, then the Chunuk Bair walk, so the ferry is never missed. Your guide can help you search the registers for a family name. In the late afternoon the public ferry takes us across the Dardanelles to Çanakkale, and the evening is free on the waterfront.

   Included

   • Drive from Istanbul to the Gallipoli Peninsula with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Eceabat
   • Kabatepe promotion centre (Çanakkale Epic Promotion Centre)
   • Anzac Cove and the Ari Burnu cemetery
   • Lone Pine, Johnston's Jolly trenches, the 57th Regiment cemetery and Chunuk Bair
   • Public ferry from Eceabat to Çanakkale across the Dardanelles

   Easier option: Stay with the vehicle at the trench stops; every memorial on the route can be reached a few minutes from the road.

   More active option: Walk the ridge road between Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair with your guide while the vehicle meets you at the top.

   Free time: Evening free on the Çanakkale waterfront

   Activity: About 4 hours on the road, broken by a coffee stop and lunch. On the peninsula, short walks on uneven ground and grass; bring a sun hat and water. If the schedule slips, the promotion centre is shortened first, then the walk at Chunuk Bair.

5. Day 5: Troy and back to Istanbul

   Çanakkale to Troy, then back to Istanbul over the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 5 details

   We drive about half an hour south to Troy and are at the gate when it opens, before the coaches. Listed by UNESCO in 1998, the mound holds layers of settlement from about 3000 BC to Roman times; Heinrich Schliemann dug through several of them in the 1870s looking for Homer's city. Your guide walks you round the walls, the ramp, the sanctuary and the Roman odeon, and points out which layer is which. Then we visit the Troy Museum at the foot of the site, opened in 2018, where the finds give the ruins their context. After an early sit-down lunch we drive back to Istanbul, about 350 km and four and a half hours over the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge across the Dardanelles (the toll is included) and along the Sea of Marmara. It is the one day over our four-hour driving limit, because Troy has to be seen in the morning, so we break it with lunch and a coffee stop. We reach Istanbul Airport at about 5 pm or your city hotel at about 5:30.

   Included

   • Troy with your guide, at opening
   • The Troy Museum
   • Sit-down lunch on the way
   • Drop-off at Istanbul Airport (IST) or a central Istanbul hotel

   Easier option: Walk only the first part of the Troy circuit, then wait for the group in the museum.

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 8:30 pm, or stay on in Istanbul or join our Istanbul, Cappadocia and Ephesus trip.

Wildlife and weather: Spring and autumn are mild for walking. July and August are hot on the open Gallipoli ridges, and winter brings rain and wind on the Dardanelles. The peninsula is crowded around 18 March and 25 April, so we do not run then.

• Istanbul3 nights
• Çanakkale1 night