Istanbul’s big museums now charge foreign visitors in euros, and a day of palaces and towers adds up quickly. Yet many of the city’s finest experiences cost nothing at all. Its great mosques are free to enter outside prayer times, its markets are free to wander, and the best views of the Bosphorus are from the shore. This guide covers the best free things to do, with a few very cheap extras such as a commuter ferry ride.
Visit the great mosques
The Blue Mosque, or Sultan Ahmed Mosque, is free and open to visitors every day. From October to March its visiting hours are 8.30am to 5pm, with last entry 30 minutes before closing; it closes to visitors for the noon and afternoon prayers, and on Fridays visits start at 2.30pm. Its blue İznik tiles and cascading domes are one of the city’s great sights. Hagia Sophia now charges foreign visitors €25 for its gallery route, but the ground floor remains free for those who come to pray.
The Süleymaniye Mosque, built by Mimar Sinan for Süleyman the Magnificent, is also free and much quieter, with the sultan’s tomb in its garden and a terrace overlooking the Golden Horn. Do not miss the small Rüstem Pasha Mosque near the Spice Bazaar, lined from floor to dome with İznik tiles, or the New Mosque by the Eminönü ferries. Dress modestly and avoid prayer times at all of them.
Wander the bazaars
The Grand Bazaar costs nothing to enter and is open from Monday to Saturday, about 8.30am to 7pm. Its vaulted lanes, old inner courtyards and thousands of shops make a fascinating walk even if you buy nothing. The Spice Bazaar in Eminönü is open every day, including Sundays, and the streets around it, where locals buy coffee, cheese and olives, are even more lively. The Arasta Bazaar behind the Blue Mosque is a calmer row of carpet and ceramic shops.
Walk through history
The Hippodrome, the racecourse of Byzantine Constantinople, is now a public square beside the Blue Mosque, with an Egyptian obelisk around 3,500 years old, the bronze Serpent Column from Delphi and the German Fountain. Further out, the fifth-century Theodosian land walls can be followed on foot for long stretches. In Fener and Balat on the Golden Horn, steep lanes of colourful houses lead past the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the cast-iron Bulgarian Church of St Stephen, both free to enter outside services.
Parks and gardens
Gülhane Park, once the outer garden of Topkapı Palace, runs down from the palace walls towards the sea and is lovely in spring, when the tulips are out. Yıldız Park above Beşiktaş is a large wooded hillside with pavilions and cafés. On the European shore of the Bosphorus, Emirgan Park is the centre of the city’s tulip festival each April.
Views from the water’s edge
Walk across the Galata Bridge, especially at sunset, to watch the fishermen and the ferries, with the skyline of mosques behind you. On the Asian side, the Salacak waterfront looks across at the old city and the Maiden’s Tower and is one of the best places in Istanbul to watch the sun go down. The Ortaköy waterfront, below the first Bosphorus Bridge, is another classic view, and the Kadıköy and Moda shoreline is popular for evening walks.
Neighbourhood walks
İstiklal Avenue, the long pedestrian street from Taksim Square to Tünel, is lined with shops, old arcades, churches and bookshops, and is busy late into the night. The red nostalgic tram runs along it. Kadıköy on the Asian side has a food market, record shops and street art, and the steep lanes around the Galata Tower are full of cafés and small galleries.
Almost free: ride a ferry
A commuter ferry is the cheapest Bosphorus cruise. A ride from Eminönü to Kadıköy costs 65.21 TL and Eminönü to Üsküdar 58.52 TL with an Istanbulkart under the July 2026 tariff, and the crossing gives views of Topkapı, the Maiden’s Tower and the Asian shore. Buy a simit from a street seller and tea on board, and you have one of the best value afternoons in the city.