What this site is
bosphorus.cruises is an editorial website about one stretch of water: the Bosphorus and the boats on it. We cover sightseeing, sunset, dinner, night, morning and yacht cruises; the public ferries of Şehir Hatları, Turyol and Dentur Avrasya; Golden Horn and Black Sea trips; the Princes' Islands; the combos with Dolmabahçe Palace, the Old City and the Asian side; the piers you board from; and the operators and platforms that sell all of this.
The aim is simple: help you decide quickly and book the right boat. That means telling you which pier a cruise really leaves from, how far up the strait it goes, what the price includes and what it doesn't, when the public ferry beats a tour, and what can go wrong.
What we are not
We are not affiliated with any boat operator, ferry company, pier, palace, museum or public authority, including the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB), Şehir Hatları, Turyol, Dentur Avrasya or the National Palaces (Milli Saraylar). We do not run boats, sell tickets ourselves or take bookings. When you book through a link on this site, your contract is with the booking platform or the operator, never with us. The terms of use explain this in full.
How we work
Facts. We check fares, timetables, opening hours and rules against official sources first: İBB and its fare tables, Şehir Hatları, the National Palaces, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's museum pages, and the operators' own websites. For rule changes and incidents we use the Turkish press, and we give the link so you can check the current situation yourself. When sources disagree, the official one wins; when we cannot confirm something, we leave it out or tell you what to check on the day.
Prices. Platform prices on our pages are read from GetYourGuide, Headout and Tiqets, are shown as "from" prices, and carry the date they were checked. They move daily, so the live price on the platform is the one that counts. Fares at the pier are given in Turkish lira, exactly as the operator or the municipality publishes them; we do not convert currencies.
Reviews and scores. Our operator and platform reviews are written from what the companies publish, what the listings say and what a booker should check. The editorial scores on those pages are our own judgement, not an average of customer ratings. No operator or platform pays for a review, a score or a place in a list.
Updates. Each page shows the date it was last updated. Istanbul changes its fares, rules and timetables often, so we revisit pages regularly; if you spot something out of date, please tell us (see below).
How the site is paid for
The site earns a commission when you book through some of our links: GetYourGuide (our main partner), Headout and Tiqets. You pay the same price as you would on the platform directly. These links are marked as sponsored. The commission never decides what we recommend; when the public ferry is the better choice, we say so, even though nobody pays us for that. The details are in our affiliate disclosure.
We have no newsletter and no user accounts, and we use no analytics. Our privacy notice and cookie policy explain the little data the site does handle.
Maps, photos and fonts
The charts of the strait, the piers and the islands are drawn from OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL). Photos on booking cards come from the partners' listings and remain theirs. Fonts are hosted on our own server.
Corrections and contact
We would rather fix a mistake than defend it. If a fare, pier, timetable or rule on our pages is wrong, write to hello@bosphorus.cruises with the page and, if you can, a link to the source. Operators are welcome to send corrections too, on the same terms as everyone else: we check them, and payment plays no part. See the contact page.
If you are new here, the guide to choosing a cruise is a good place to start, and the operators hub explains who is behind the boats.