If you want one evening out of the old city, make it Karakoy. The waterfront between Galata Bridge and Tophane holds most of the city’s good bars within a few hundred metres, and almost all of them look out over the water. Rooftops are the draw. Several buildings along Kemankes Caddesi have terraces facing the […]

The ferries at Eminonu are the cheapest good thing in Istanbul. For the price of a metro ticket you cross between two continents on the deck of a working commuter boat, with the old city receding behind you. Lines run to Kadikoy and Uskudar every twenty minutes or so, and longer routes go up the […]

For sixty-five years the Orient Express ended here. Sirkeci Station was built in 1890 to receive it, and the architecture was meant to impress passengers arriving from Europe: stained glass, a high vaulted hall, and a clock that has not moved from its place. The romance of the route has been written about endlessly, but […]

Of all the evening options in the old city, Hodjapasha is the one that stays with people. The venue is a fifteenth-century hamam, its dome intact, with the audience seated around an open floor rather than facing a stage. The sema ceremony is the reason most people come. Six dervishes turn for close to forty […]

A Turkish bath is not a spa treatment, and Cagaloglu Hamami is the clearest place in Istanbul to understand the difference. It has been open since 1741, in the same building, following the same sequence: warm marble, an exfoliating scrub, a cloud of foam, and cold water at the end. The architecture is part of […]

Zorlu PSM is where Istanbul sees the shows that tour internationally. Opened in 2013, its main auditorium holds around 2,200 people and was designed specifically so that large musicals could arrive without cutting their staging. A season here might include a West End musical, a visiting ballet company, an orchestral programme and a stand-up night, […]

Rooftop bars in Istanbul usually mean cocktails and a price to match. Tower Pub, on a roof in Sirkeci, is the plainer version: beer on tap, simple food, and a terrace with a view that costs nothing extra. From the tables you can see the Galata Tower on the opposite shore, the ferries turning into […]

If you want an evening that is not another restaurant, Escape Club offers sixty minutes locked in a themed room with a chain of puzzles between you and the door. The rooms vary in difficulty and theme, and staff adjust hints to the group. It works particularly well for couples and small groups; two people […]