Dolmabahçe Palace Tour: Ottoman Empire's Royal Past

Experience the grandeur of the Ottoman Empire on a guided Istanbul tour. Visit Dolmabahce Palace, cruise the Bosphorus, and explore the city’s highlights in just 2.5 hours.

Duration: 5 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Dolmabahce Palace - Meet at the designated point and join other groups to visit Dolmabahçe Palace, one of the finest Ottoman palaces (ticket not included).
  • Rumeli Fortress - Rumeli Fortress is a stop every Monday and Thursday with our tour guide.
  • KIz Kulesi - Discover the tower that has inspired many myths and has been used by various civilizations with your guide. It’s a must-see with its unique location between two continents.
  • Beylerbeyi Palace - A highlight of our boat tour where our tour guide will provide information.
  • Kucuksu Pavilion - A stop during our boat tour to visit this Ottoman palace on the Bosphorus.
  • Galata Tower - One of the sights on our boat tour, with information provided by our tour guide.
  • Bosphorus Strait - Separates the European and Asian continents. Our tour guide will share many interesting facts.
  • Halic - The Golden Horn is a natural lagoon separate from the Bosphorus Strait.
  • Suleymaniye Mosque - The mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent from the 16th century.
  • Bosphorus Bridge - The first suspension bridge in Istanbul, built in the 1970s.
  • Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge - The second suspension bridge in Istanbul.
  • Hagia Sophia Mosque - The famous Hagia Sophia, a mosque and former church from the 6th century.
What's Included
  • Breakfast
  • English Speaking Tour Guide
What's Not Included
  • Hotel pick-up and drop-off
  • Dolmabahce Palace Ticket
Additional Information

Discover the grandeur of the Dolmabahçe Palace (ticket not included) and immerse yourself in the royal history of the Ottoman Empire. This guided tour allows you to bypass the long lines and explore the palace with ease. Following your palace visit, enjoy a 2.5-hour boat cruise showcasing the key highlights of the city from both the European and Asian sides. Additionally, take the chance to visit an Ottoman palace located on the Asian side of Istanbul.

  • We visit Rumeli Fortress only on Thursdays On Mondays Both Rumeli Fortress and Küçüksü Palace will be closed and visits replaced with freetime in Bebek neighborhood.
Location
Dolmabahçe Mosque
Meclis-i Mebusan Caddesi
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.1
(34 Ratings)
5 stars
4 stars
3 stars
2 stars
1 star
666shunichia
Jun 27, 2024
very good - It was sprendid. I wiil remember this tour eternally. If I am asked which tour is best, I will recommend this tour. When I come back to Japan I will tell about this tour and Emirhan.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
523asadr
Jun 25, 2024
Best tour for Palace and Bosphorus - What a great tour of the Dolmebache Palace and Bosphorus. Friendly tour guide Emirhan Sanli and his colleagues were excellent and knowledgeable. Highly recommended.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Ingridhl9100cm
Jun 24, 2024
Amazing day - It was an enjoyable experience, the tour guide, Emirhan, was really attentive and knowledgeable about anything and everything we were asking about
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Inspire28544227467
Jun 19, 2024
Emirhan’s knowledge is like a treasure chest of fun facts and fascinating historical stories - Our family of four truly enjoyed the fantastic guided tour. Emirhan’s knowledge of the places (Dolmabache Palace, Bosphorus - Asia and Europe) and his captivating story telling on the history, culture and beauty + even the jokes make the journey truly magical. The cruise had fantastic view with the entire deck reserved for the few of us, almost like a private one. You have to experience the ES MMXVII flag and experience :)
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Ann
Jun 6, 2024
IBO Tours are Brilliant - Booked a few tours with this company and are really good, everything was booked and planned, we also did a private Istanbul old city walk with private guide, Cappadocia transfer and 3 days in Cappadocia with tours. Would definitely book with this company again and all the staff are wonderful.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Maureenmj9894qj
Jun 3, 2024
Relaxing way to take in some of Istanbul's sights along with a good history lesson - Great start to our trip. Amirhan Sanli was our friendly knowledgable and enthusiastic tour guide. His knowledge of the history of Istanbul was great and helped us create a picture in our heads of how it was. He happily took questions and was always able to answer them The boat trip was relaxing and very enjoyable while other attraction were pointed out to us. Recommend this trip
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Travler10101
Jun 2, 2024
GREAT DAY - This excursion was booked on a whimp the night before and it was perfect! We didn’t have anything planned so we thought we would try it and we have no regrets! Our tour guide came to pick us up from our hotel and then we headed straight to the palace. On the way there he was talking about the city and giving us good information. At the palace he was very enthusiastic about telling us all grh information and he knew a lot. [ Our tour guides name was Emirhan Sanli ] after the palace tour we bused to teh boat and did a boat cruise and got to stopover in Asia which was great to see ! Our guide supplied us with so many facts along the cruise and answered all of our questions. 10/10 recommendation!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Harry
Jun 2, 2024
Amazing Cruise - This was an amazing experience. Great tour of the palace and awesome boat cruise giving good perspective of the size and diversity of this amazing city. Emirhan Sanli was a great guide. His enthusiasm and knowledge were very appreciated!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Matt_s
Apr 11, 2024
Save your money. Disorganized, RUSHED & limited - CLIFF NOTES: Like others have stated, this tour is disorganized. You're basically buying an extremely rushed "tour", followed by a boat ride..... My problems are listed below: 1. I arrived at the meeting point almost 40 minutes early. These people were aware in advance that I was going to be meeting at the IBO Tour location, so I'm unsure why I had to wait past the instructed meeting time. After waiting 20 minutes past the meeting time and worrying, I ended up using the Viator app to reach out to the tour guide. The person who eventually came out was not the guide. I was rushed on to a train. The tour guide called me and asked who I spoke with. I told him that I had no idea. He said that I needed to go to the Kabatas train station, and I had no idea where that was (I expected to follow a group to the boat). He asked what direction the train was going and what the next station was. I had no idea because I wasn't familiar with the area at all, the train didn't tell me in English where it was going and the person who put me on the train didn't tell me. At first, he thought it was going the wrong direction. LUCKILY, I was going the right direction. I pulled up Google maps to 2. The tour guide was new. He was a good guy, but he was very nervous. I don't know why. We were a small group of 4. He had trouble spitting out words coherently without stumbling all over the place. I really wanted to tell him to RELAX and enjoy the day with us! No one is out to judge him. It was a very nice day out and a good little group. 3. Dolmabahçe Palace was VERY VERY rushed. We were given about 15 minutes to tour it. Remind you that this building has 285 ROOMS with 40 or so corridors. We had no chance to listen to the audio and learn about the history or use of the rooms. I literally SPEED WALKED a portion of the building and at most got a one-second glance at some of the rooms. I believe the ad stated that we were supposed to be in there an hour, and even an hour is honestly WAY too short. It was also disappointing that we didn't get a chance to go into the front of the palace. We went around to the back. I would have loved to spend more time in there. 4. Per the tour, we were supposed to go through Küçüksu gardens. We did not. The place was closed, so we were told just to walk around for 30 minutes. The most exciting thing that I saw was a dead cat... and it was sad. So between arriving at a place where I was supposed to be and no one was there, having a sloppy tour guide, being rushed, and not being able to tour 1 of 2 things that we were supposed to do, I'm disappointed and cannot recommend it. I should have just paid to see Dolmabahçe Palace without a rushed tour. The boat ride was the best thing about the whole adventure.
Review provided by Viator
Richard_k
Jan 12, 2024
No tour - Despite a late night confrontation and a very early morning call confirming the tour, it was canceled 10 minutes before the pick up.
Review provided by Viator
Select Date and Tickets
up to 15 guests
1 Adult
September 2024
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Today