Istanbul · Kabataş to Kabataş · three hours

Up one shore, down the other Bosphorus Dinner Trip tonight

The Bosphorus is a strait thirty kilometres long with a city on both banks, and the only way to see it whole is from the middle of it. This trip leaves Kabataş at 21:00, follows the European shore north as far as the second bridge, comes about beneath it and returns along the Asian shore, with dinner served on the way. €24.30 a person, paid on board. Here is the journey, stop by stop.

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21:00, every night Two continents Dinner on board 4.9 Google rating
The shape of it

A loop, not a line

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 bridges, no repeats.

ILeaving
Lines off at Kabataş at 21:00, the European shore. The meze is already on the table and the first palace is minutes away.
IIOutbound
North along the European bank: Beşiktaş, Dolmabahçe, Çırağan, Ortaköy, under the first 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: the older fortress at Anadolu Hisarı, the headland at Kandilli, Beylerbeyi Palace, the wooden houses of Kuzguncuk and the piers of Üsküdar.
VAlongside
Maiden's Tower on its rock is the last landmark and the closest pass of the night, then the boat crosses back to Kabataş and is alongside between 23:45 and midnight.

A trip, not a transfer

Nobody gets off anywhere. You board at Kabataş and you step ashore at Kabataş 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 the next pier 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.

Sixteen landmarks · two shores

The trip, stop by stop

"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.

Kabataş to Kabataş, by both shores
Kabataş
Departure · Europe
The pier at the end of the tram line and the bottom of the funicular from Taksim. Doors at 20:00 while the boat is alongside; the ropes come off at 21:00 with the meze already on the table.
Beşiktaş
Europe
The first stretch of shore, and the busiest: ferry piers, the stadium behind the trees, the city at street level going past a few metres away before 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.
Anadolu Fortress
Asia · 1394
The older and smaller fortress, built by Bayezid I sixty years before the one across the water, with a village grown up inside its walls. The two castles face each other across the strait's narrowest gap.
Kandilli
Asia
A headland on the Asian shore with an old observatory on the hill and waterside houses at its foot. The run home along Asia begins in earnest here.
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.
Kuzguncuk
Asia
A village of painted wooden houses that has kept its scale: a mosque, a church and a synagogue within a few streets of each other, and a waterfront the boat passes close enough to read the shop signs.
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.
Kabataş
Arrival · Europe
Alongside between 23:45 and midnight, at the same pier you left from. The tram is a minute away, taxis wait at the entrance, and if you booked the transfer your driver is already there.

Sixteen 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.

Where to watch it from

The deck and the window

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

The window
The dining salon is glazed along both long walls, so every table faces 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 deck
Up top, open to the air on every side. 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, and where the DJ set ends up after dessert.
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.
Guests at the deck rail with the lit shoreline passing behind The boat mid-strait at night, both shores in frame Çırağan Palace from the water on the outbound leg
Served on the way

Dinner, while the shore goes by

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 a four-act stage show runs in the salon 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, hot börek once under way, a main course chosen from five at your table, and warm semolina dessert. Unlimited soft drinks for everyone. The whole menu, dish by dish, is on the dinner cruise page.
The show
Four acts in the salon while you eat: the whirling dervish to open, folk dances from Anatolia and the Caucasus, the Oba Dombra rhythm, and belly dance as the peak. It runs through dinner, so the Asian shore comes home to the DJ rather than to the stage.
After dessert
The DJ takes over with a live saxophone, the floor fills, and the open deck becomes the place to be for the last stretch past Üsküdar and Maiden's Tower. The last hour has a page of its own.
Drinks
Water, cola and juice are in the price. The bar on board sells wine, beer, rakı and spirits, either through the drinks package at €10 per person for two glasses or by the glass.
Getting there, getting back

The trip around the trip

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. Kabataş is the easiest pier in Istanbul to reach, which is the reason the trip leaves from it.

By tram
The T1 line from Sultanahmet, Eminönü and Karaköy ends at Kabataş. The pier is a minute on foot from the stop. From the old city it is the simplest way there and back.
From Taksim
The F1 funicular runs from Taksim Square down to Kabataş in about two minutes and comes out beside the tram stop.
By taxi or transfer
Taxis drop at the pier entrance. Or add the hotel transfer at €5 per person: a driver to the pier before 20:00 and from the pier when the boat comes in, 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. The water is sheltered and the salon is enclosed and heated, so the trip sails in ordinary rain with only the open deck affected.
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.
About the journey

Questions about the trip

Bosphorus dinner trip — frequently asked
How long is the Bosphorus dinner trip?
Three hours on the water. The boat leaves Kabataş 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 Kabataş and Kabataş. The sixteen "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 the next pier 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. 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 deck.
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. The salon is glazed along both walls, the open deck is open on every side, and over three hours the boat runs one shore going out and the other coming back. Wherever your table is, 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 down for a course and go back up. In winter the deck is cold and most guests take the trip through the windows.
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?
€24.30 per person with the three-hour trip, the four-course dinner, the four-act show and unlimited soft drinks all included, paid on board. Children aged 0–3 travel free and ages 4–9 pay €5 less.
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.
Kabataş · 21:00

Both shores, one evening

Reserve in about a minute, or send one message on WhatsApp with a date and a number of guests. Nothing is charged until you are on board.

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€24.30 per person, all in · same-day booking until 21:00 · free cancellation until 19:00

Our Pier · Istanbul
Kabataş

Find the Pier

Where the evening begins — on the European shore, at the foot of the tram line.

Kabataş İskelesi, Beyoğlu / İstanbul

— 01 —
1-min walk From Kabataş tram stop (T1 line)
— 02 —
5 minutes From Taksim via F1 funicular
— 03 —
5-min walk From Dolmabahçe Palace
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€24.30 per person · all in
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