Bosphorus Dinner Trip — The Route, Stop by Stop

Most boat trips go somewhere and come back the same way. This one does not. It goes north along Europe and comes home along Asia, so the second half of the evening is new shoreline rather than the first half in reverse. Both continents, both Bosphorus bridges, and nothing seen twice but the short run through the Golden Horn at either end.

ILeaving: Lines off at Cibali Pier at 21:00, on the old-city shore of the Golden Horn. The meze is already on the table as the boat heads out under the Atatürk and Galata bridges, with Süleymaniye on the skyline and the Galata Tower above Karaköy.
IIOutbound: Round Sarayburnu and north along the European bank: Dolmabahçe, Çırağan, Ortaköy, under the Bosphorus Bridge, then the bay at Bebek and the fortress at Rumeli Hisarı where the strait is at its narrowest.
IIIThe turn: Beneath the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, the second and higher of the two, the boat comes about and crosses to the Asian side. The bridge lights are directly overhead for a moment. This is the point to be on deck.
IVHomeward: South along the Asian bank: Beylerbeyi Palace almost at the water line, then the mosques and piers of Üsküdar.
VAlongside: Maiden's Tower on its rock is the last landmark of the strait and the closest pass of the night, then the boat crosses back, re-enters the Golden Horn under the Galata Bridge and is alongside at Cibali between 23:45 and midnight.

A trip, not a transfer

Nobody gets off anywhere. You board at Cibali and you step ashore at Cibali three hours later, and everything in between happens from the boat: the boat is the destination. If what you want is a ferry to the Asian side, the city's own ferries do that from Eminönü for the price of a tram ride. This is the other thing: the strait as an evening, with a table and a stage on it.

"Stop" is the traveller's word; the boat does not moor at any of these. They are the places that pass the window and the deck in the order they pass, with a line on what each one is and why it is lit. Open any of them.

Cibali to Cibali, by both shores

Cibali Pier

Departure · Golden Horn

The pier on the old-city shore of the Golden Horn, beside the long brick building of Kadir Has University, once the Cibali tobacco factory. Doors at 20:00 while the boat is alongside; the ropes come off at 21:00 with the meze already on the table.

Galata Bridge

Golden Horn

The way out of the Golden Horn, minutes after the lines come off: under the Atatürk Bridge and then the Galata Bridge, with Süleymaniye on the old-city skyline and the Galata Tower on the hill above Karaköy, before the boat rounds Sarayburnu and the palaces begin.

Dolmabahçe Palace

Europe · 1856

Six hundred metres of white marble built to be seen from exactly where you are sitting. The sultans moved here from Topkapı in 1856 and the empire was governed from behind these windows until its end.

Çırağan Palace

Europe · 1871

The last palace the Ottomans built on the strait, and the most ornate. It burned in 1910 and stood as a shell for most of a century; today it is a hotel, and at night the restored façade is lit from the water line up.

Ortaköy Mosque

Europe · 1856

A small baroque mosque on a spit of land with the first bridge rising behind it. It is the most photographed pairing on the Bosphorus, and from the water the two line up the way the postcards promise.

Bosphorus Bridge

Overhead · 1973

The first bridge to cross the strait, 1,560 metres of it, and the boat passes beneath the deck with the lights changing colour above. On the open deck this is the moment the trip stops being a dinner and becomes a trip.

Bebek

Europe

A curved bay of yachts, waterside cafés and old timber mansions, the quiet, expensive end of the European shore. The strait widens here for a moment before it narrows hard.

Rumeli Fortress

Europe · 1452

Mehmed II built this in four months on the narrowest point of the strait, the year before he took Constantinople, to close the Bosphorus to any ship coming down from the Black Sea. Floodlit, its three towers climb the hill above the water.

Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge

The turn · 1988

The second bridge, higher and longer than the first. The boat comes about beneath it and crosses to Asia. Everything after this is the other continent.

Beylerbeyi Palace

Asia · 1865

The summer palace on the Asian shore, where the sultans put up visiting emperors and empresses. It sits almost on the water beneath the first bridge's Asian tower, and from the boat it is the whole of the Asian side's answer to Dolmabahçe.

Üsküdar

Asia

The Asian city's old centre, with its mosques by Sinan lined up along the shore and the ferries crossing to Eminönü. From here the boat begins to angle back towards Europe.

Maiden's Tower

Mid-strait

A small lit tower on a rock a couple of hundred metres off the Asian shore, with a different legend for every guide who tells it. The boat passes it closer than anything else on the trip, and it is the last photograph of the night.

Cibali Pier

Arrival · Golden Horn

Alongside between 23:45 and midnight, at the same pier you left from, after the run back in under the Galata Bridge. The T5 tram stop is a short walk along the shore, and if you booked the transfer, the ride back to your hotel starts here.

Thirteen landmarks in three hours, with dinner served across the first half and the show running through it. The order may change with weather and sea conditions. The palaces along the way have their own guide: the Bosphorus palaces from the water.

You have two places to watch the trip from and you can move between them all night. The table you chose when you boarded stays yours whether you are at it or not.

The window: Both salons are enclosed, heated in winter and air-conditioned in summer, with panoramic windows onto the water. Dinner is served here and the show runs here, and the shore goes past behind both at a walking pace. In winter this is where most of the trip is watched from, warm, with a fork in your hand.
The open decks: One at the bow and one at the stern, open to the air. This is where the bridges are: from the deck you see the underside of them go over, which you cannot from a window. It is also where the photographs are taken. The DJ and the dancing stay inside, on the dance floor in front of the stage.

Three moments for the deck: The first bridge pass, with Ortaköy Mosque falling behind and the lights overhead. The turn beneath the second bridge, when the boat swings and the whole strait opens up behind you. And Maiden's Tower on the return, which is the closest the boat comes to anything all night.
Photographs: Everything on the route is floodlit, so a phone's night mode does well from the deck rail. The marble palaces read amber, the bridges change colour on a cycle, and the water carries all of it doubled. Bring a layer: it is cooler on the water than on the pier, in every season.

This is a dinner trip, not a trip with a snack bar. Dinner is a four-course Turkish meal served at your table across the first half of the sailing, and an eight-act live show runs on the stage while it is served. Neither asks you to choose between eating and the view.

Dinner: Ten cold mezes on the table before the boat leaves, warm börek once under way, a main course chosen from four at your table, and the house semolina dessert to finish. Unlimited soft drinks for everyone. The whole menu, dish by dish, is on the dinner cruise page.
The show: Eight acts, live, while you eat: belly dance, the whirling dervish ceremony, Turkish Romani dance, Caucasian dance with its knife show, Turkish folk dances, a rhythm show on darbuka and drums, and live violin, in an order that changes from night to night, with the DJ as the eighth. It runs through dinner, so the Asian shore comes home to the DJ rather than to the stage.
After dessert: The DJ takes over and the dance floor in front of the stage fills, while the open decks at the bow and stern are there for the last stretch past Üsküdar and Maiden's Tower. The last hour has a page of its own.
Drinks: Water, cola, juice and tea are in the price. The drinks package at €15 per adult is unlimited all evening: beer, rakı, vodka, gin, red and white wine. Imported drinks such as whisky, tequila and champagne, and cocktails, are extra at the bar.

The boat leaves at 21:00 whether you are on it or not, so the part of the journey that matters most is the twenty minutes before it. Cibali Pier is on a quieter stretch of the Golden Horn shore than the ferry quays at Eminönü, beside Kadir Has University, and the exact map pin is sent on WhatsApp after you book.

By tram: The T5 tram stops at Cibali, a short walk from the pier and two stops from Eminönü by way of Küçükpazar. From Sultanahmet, Sirkeci or Karaköy, take the T1 to Eminönü and change to the T5 there. From the Asian side, take a ferry to Eminönü and the T5 from there.
From Taksim, or on foot: From Taksim, take the M2 metro to Haliç station and leave by the Fatih-side exit; the pier is ten to twelve minutes on foot along the shore. From the Eminönü end of the Galata Bridge the walk is about 20 to 25 minutes, flat, along the water.
By taxi or transfer: Tell the driver "Cibali, Kadir Has Üniversitesi": about 10 to 15 minutes from Sultanahmet and 15 to 25 from Taksim, longer in evening traffic. Or add the hotel transfer at €5 per person, both ways, which is the easy answer to getting back at midnight. Same-day transfer can be added until 18:30.

The water: The Bosphorus is a strait, not open sea, and the trip stays inside it and the Golden Horn. The water is sheltered and both salons are enclosed and heated, so the trip sails in ordinary rain with only the open decks closed.
If it can't sail: On the rare night that conditions make sailing unsafe, you hear from us before you leave your hotel. Nothing is charged, because nothing was paid.
Getting around Istanbul: Trams, ferries, funiculars and the Istanbulkart, explained for a visitor: Istanbul public transport.

Bosphorus dinner trip — frequently asked

How long is the Bosphorus dinner trip?

Three hours on the water. The boat leaves Cibali Pier at 21:00 and is alongside again between 23:45 and midnight. Boarding opens at 20:00, an hour before departure.

Does the boat stop anywhere along the way?

No. There are no landings and nobody boards or leaves between Cibali and Cibali. The thirteen "stops" on this page are the landmarks that pass the boat, in order. If you need to cross to the Asian side, the city ferries from Eminönü do that.

Does the trip go all the way to the Black Sea?

No. The boat turns beneath the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, the second bridge, and returns along the Asian shore. The Black Sea mouth of the strait lies well beyond that. The turn is placed there so that both shores fit in three hours with dinner.

Do we pass under both bridges?

Yes, both Bosphorus bridges: under the Bosphorus Bridge on the outbound leg, shortly after Ortaköy, and beneath the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge at the turn. Both are lit and both are best watched from the open decks. The Atatürk and Galata bridges on the Golden Horn come before either, at the start, and again on the way home.

Will I see Maiden's Tower?

Yes, on the return, close to the end of the trip. It is the closest pass of the night and the one most people wait on deck for.

Is it the same route every night?

Yes, weather and sea conditions permitting. On a rough night the captain may shorten or reorder it; on an ordinary night, including ordinary rain, the route is the one on this page.

Which side of the boat should I sit on?

It matters less than you would think. Both salons have panoramic windows, there is an open deck at the bow and another at the stern, and over three hours the boat runs one shore going out and the other coming back. Tables are chosen on arrival, so boarding soon after 20:00 gives you more choice, but wherever you sit the whole trip passes you.

Is dinner served during the trip or before it?

During. The meze is on the table before departure, and the hot courses follow once the boat is under way, so you are eating while Dolmabahçe and the first bridge go past. The show runs at the same time.

Can I stay on deck for the whole trip?

Yes, weather permitting. Your table in the salon stays yours whether you are sitting at it or not, and you can come in for a course and go back out. In winter the decks are cold and most guests take the trip through the windows, and in rain the open decks close.

Is the water rough?

Rarely. The Bosphorus is a sheltered strait rather than open sea, and the trip stays inside it. The boat sails in ordinary weather; on the rare night it cannot sail safely, you are told before you leave the hotel and nothing is charged.

What does the trip cost?

€24.60 per person with the three-hour trip, the four-course dinner, the eight-act show and unlimited soft drinks all included, paid on board. Children aged 0–3 travel free and ages 4–9 pay €19.60.

Can I book the trip for tonight?

Yes, until the 21:00 departure, subject to space. One message on WhatsApp or the form on this page confirms it. Cancellation is free until 19:00.

Up one shore, down the other Bosphorus Dinner Trip tonight

A trip, not a transfer

Find the Pier

Up one shore, down the other Bosphorus Dinner Trip tonight

A loop, not a line

A trip, not a transfer

The trip, stop by stop

The deck and the window

Dinner, while the shore goes by

The trip around the trip

Questions about the trip

Both shores, one evening

Find the Pier