Bosphorus Tour (Velena Travel) review: yachts, dinner shows and Black Sea trips

Bosphorus Tour, Velena Travel's cruise brand, is a real licensed agency that runs its own day boat and is worth booking for its yachts. Buy those on Tiqets, where they cost less than on its own site, and look elsewhere for the dinner cruise.

Who Bosphorus Tour is: Velena Travel

The company's own site, bosphorustour.com, says the Bosphorus Tour organization belongs to Velena Travel, a TÜRSAB-licensed agency with an office in Cankurtaran, Sultanahmet, in business since 2006, with daily departures from Eminönü and Kabataş. On Tiqets, the same company and address appear as the supplier "Bosphorus Tour by Velena Travel", the legal seller printed on every product. That is one of the clearer identities among Bosphorus sellers.

Two cautions. Velena's own websites are not tidy: one home page shows "25 Yrs" next to "established in 2006" and leftover placeholder text, so treat its marketing numbers with care. And the brand name "Bosphorus Cruise Istanbul" is used by Velena on one domain and by a different company, Been Travel Group, on another. If a booking site calls itself "Bosphorus Cruise Istanbul", check the address and the seller before you assume it is Velena.

The boats and the pier

Velena describes its day boat as an 82-ft yacht for 45 passengers, sailing with groups of 25–30. Under Turkish rules a commercial yacht carries at most 36 passengers, so read "yacht" here as a yacht-style tour boat. It is still far smaller than the 300-seat sightseeing boats. Its sunset boat is named "Sunset Bosphorus". Velena does not name the dinner boats it uses.

Exact boarding points on Tiqets:

• Day yacht with Kanlıca stop: Kabataş pier; arrive 20 minutes early.
• Sunset yacht: "Dolmabahçe Mosque", Meclis-i Mebusan Cd. 34. This is the private landing by the petrol station opposite the Kabataş tram stop, where several yacht operators board. Arrive 15 minutes early.
• Dinner cruises: the Dentur Avrasya tour pier at Kabataş, 20:00. Several agencies sell seats on the same few boats from this landing.
• Black Sea and bus days: Kabataş at 12:00 (4.5-hour lunch cruise), Taksim Square (09:00 or 11:30 depending on the product), or the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Sultanahmet (09:00, the Dolmabahçe day).

The Kabataş pier guide shows how the strip of separate landings fits together.

The routes: Kanlıca, sunset, dinner, Black Sea

On board you get savory pastry, fruit, Turkish coffee with lokum (Turkish delight) and tea. A recurring complaint about this type of Kanlıca-stop cruise is that the stop feels short; 30 minutes is enough for a yoghurt by the pier and a look at the square, nothing more. The Asian-side stop guide compares the other Kanlıca boats.

The sunset yacht runs 2.5 hours with a live guide in English and Spanish, cookies, baklava, fruit, soft drinks, tea and coffee. No wine. Velena says it leaves about one hour before official sunset. That is a little later than the 75–90 minutes we recommend, so you may still be sailing north as the sun drops. Sit on the left going north and on the right coming back. Timing by month is on the sunset cruise page.

The dinner cruises run 20:00–23:30 on the lower strait. Velena's direct "Ottoman Nights" serves an open buffet (salads, cold starters, grilled meatballs, chicken shish, Adana kebab, fruit), with Turkish songs, a folk-dance medley and belly dance, and hotel pick-up between 19:00 and 20:00 from central hotels. The two Tiqets versions add a whirling-dervish act or an "Ottoman dance show" and include two local drinks, not unlimited ones. The dervish act on a dinner boat is a stage show, not the religious sema ceremony.

The Black Sea days turn at the mouth of the strait: you get a look at the Black Sea, not a voyage on it. The 4.5-hour lunch cruise from Kabataş includes a swim stop at Poyrazköy in summer, when the weather and the daily local swimming bans allow. The 9-hour version adds a stop at Anadolu Kavağı. The €150 listing on Tiqets shows no Black Sea stop and no food in its description, so read it before booking. More on the Black Sea cruise page.

Prices: direct vs Tiqets

The yachts are cheaper on Tiqets than on Velena's own site, even before the strike-through "discounts" Tiqets shows on them. The dinners go the other way: the Tiqets evening costs nearly twice the direct price, though the options are not identical (dervish act, two drinks). The direct Black Sea price is lower again, but check what it includes against the Tiqets swim-stop version.

What travelers say

Tiqets only accepts reviews from verified buyers. On that basis the sunset yacht is the standout: 4.8 from 46 reviews, one of Tiqets' most-reviewed Istanbul products. The day yacht has 4.7 from 23. Everything else has a handful: the dinner listings 5.0 from 3 and 3.5 from 2; the Black Sea days 4.5 from 6, 3.7 from 3 and 4.0 from 1; the bus and cable-car half day 4.5 from 2. The one theme that repeats across the Kanlıca-stop cruises is the short stop.

◑ Sunset

Tiqets2 h

Istanbul: Bosphorus Sunset Yacht Cruise with Snacks

4.8 (46)

from $51Check dates

◐ Daytime

Tiqets2 h

Istanbul: Bosphorus Yacht Cruise with Snacks

4.7 (23)

from $39Check dates

☾ Evening

Tiqets3 h

Istanbul: Bosphorus Dinner Cruise with Traditional Dervish Show

5.0 (3)

from $79Check dates

Bosphorus Tour (Velena Travel) on Tiqets →Prices checked on October 17, 2026

How to book and cancel

• On Tiqets: instant smartphone ticket; free cancellation up to 13 hours before (day yacht), 24 hours (sunset yacht, Ottoman-show dinner), 4 hours (dervish-show dinner), 12 hours (bus and cable-car half day) or 11–15 hours (most Black Sea days). Tiqets does not offer pay-later on these listings.
• Direct: the dinner cruise allows free cancellation up to 24 hours before and includes the hotel pick-up.
• Weather: the captain decides whether a boat sails. If it is cancelled, Tiqets rebooks or refunds under its terms, and refunds can be requested up to 28 days after the ticket date.

Bring a layer for the deck and some TL cash for the Kanlıca yoghurt and for tips, which are excluded on the dinner listings.

Alternatives to Bosphorus Tour

• Sunset on a live-guided yacht for less: Golden City Tours sails to the second bridge from Kabataş with a live English guide, and has thousands of reviews on GetYourGuide.
• A genuinely small group: Stambultour takes at most 16 on a 20-m yacht from Azapkapı.
• The same Kabataş dinner landing for less: Dentur Avrasya's own dinner listing boards at the same pier; see the Dentur Avrasya review and the dinner cruise guide.
• Black Sea with reviews: the €150 lunch cruise on Headout has 1,933 reviews.

All operators side by side: Bosphorus cruise operators.

Bosphorus Tour (Velena Travel) FAQ