Hotel Marius · Sirkeci
Explore the monuments, walk the routes and collect a stamp at every landmark — all starting from Hotel Marius in Sirkeci.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · elevation: SRTM
4.2 km · 40 min
Leave by eight and walk about eight minutes to Hagia Sophia before the queues form. Topkapı Palace is next door; give it three hours, and do not skip the Harem. Come back down through Gülhane Park to Sirkeci for lunch, then see the Basilica Cistern in the afternoon, when the light outside is harsh anyway. Total walking: under an hour, spread across the day.
2.4 km · 21 min
Start at the Spice Bazaar, six minutes away, while it is still a food market rather than a photograph. Walk up to the Grand Bazaar — about ten minutes uphill through the streets where traders actually work, which are more interesting than the bazaar itself. In the afternoon take a ferry from Eminönü up the Bosphorus and come back at dusk; the return into the old city at sunset is the view people remember.
1.8 km · 16 min
Take the Marmaray one stop under the Bosphorus to Üsküdar on the Asian side, or the ferry from Eminönü to Kadıköy: markets, cafés and far fewer tour groups. Or cross the Galata Bridge on foot to Karaköy and walk up to Galata Tower and Beyoğlu. Getting back is easy whenever you decide to stop — four minutes by Marmaray from Üsküdar, around twenty by ferry from Kadıköy.
2.8 km · 29 min
Hagia Sophia, the Hürrem Sultan Hamamı, the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome's obelisks and the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts all stand around one square. Do them in this order and the longest walk between two stops is four minutes; the climb from the hotel is the only uphill of the day.
4.2 km · 38 min
From the New Mosque at Eminönü, through the tiled Rüstem Pasha Mosque above the spice shops, up the merchants' streets to Sinan's Süleymaniye and its view over the Golden Horn, then down through the Grand Bazaar to Çemberlitaş. The real Istanbul of trade, on foot.
2.5 km · 21 min
Leave at dusk for the Eminönü piers, walk out onto the Galata Bridge as the mosques light up, come back past the New Mosque and end at the Hodjapasha Culture Centre for the whirling dervishes — two minutes from the hotel door.
Stay with us in Sirkeci. Hotel Marius is a boutique hotel in Sirkeci, in the heart of Istanbul's old city: 50 m from the Marmaray and the tram, rooms cleaned every day, a quiet lobby and a front desk staffed around the clock — a comfortable, safe base to come back to. Breakfast is included, and booking direct costs no extra fee.
Superior Double / Twin20 m² · Double or twin beds
from about €108 per night
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Deluxe Double23 m² · Double or twin beds
from about €120 per night
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Deluxe Triple25 m² · Double bed & sofa bed
from about €133 per night
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