4 Sightseeing Bus Tours in Turkey Worth the Fare

1.Istanbul Top Attractions sightseeing Hop-on Hop-Off Bus

★★★★★★★★★★3.5 · 197 reviews · 1 day (approx.) · from $69Our pick

See Istanbul from an open-top bus with a mobile ticket, English audio guide, and stops near Sultanahmet, the Spice Bazaar, Dolmabahçe Palace, Taksim, and Beylerbeyi Palace. The route crosses the Bosphorus, but heavy traffic can turn a planned two-hour loop into three to five hours.

“My bus was supposed to leave at 11:45, but couldn’t take it because it was already full. I had to wait one more hour to take the next bus. One hour was wasted.”

Check availability →Read our full review

2.Open-Top Hop-on Hop-off Sightseeing Bus Tour in Istanbul

★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · 195 reviews · 1 day (approx.) · from $68Best value

Spend about a day touring Istanbul by open-top sightseeing bus, using recorded commentary and stops near Sultanahmet, the Spice Bazaar, Dolmabahçe, Taksim, and Beylerbeyi Palace. The route gives you a useful city overview, but heavy traffic and long waits can limit how much time you have to explore.

“First, we were unable to find open seats with working audio outlets. My wife and I wound up sitting on different floors of the bus. Then, the audio quality was difficult to understand. Finally, when we finally got to the stop we wanted to get off at, we had only 15 minutes because the next bus would have gotten us back to our ship too late. We are going to stop doing hop on, hop off busses. Sorry to say not a good experience.”

Check availability →Read our full review

3.Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Bus with Audio Guide

★★★★★★★★★★3.8 · 110 reviews · 1 day · from $70

Spend one day touring Istanbul on an open-top double-decker bus with 12 stops, an audio guide in eight languages, Wi-Fi, a route map, water, and snacks. Use it as a simple way to get your bearings, but check stop announcements and audio settings carefully.

“wenig Infos, wenig Highligts, die angefahren wurden, schlechte Ausführungen”

Check availability →Read our full review

4.Istanbul Hop-on Hop-off Sightseeing Red Bus

★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · 109 reviews · 1 day (approx.) · from $70

Use a one-day mobile ticket to ride Istanbul’s sightseeing red bus between 12 stops, from Sultanahmet and the Spice Bazaar to Taksim, Dolmabahçe, and Beylerbeyi on the Asian side. A multilingual audio guide and onboard Wi-Fi help you get oriented, but heavy traffic can make the full loop slow.

“Generally Hop-on Hop off buses are good to preview and see a city in a short period of time. This one had its pluses and minuses. The plus part is that one of the stops is just outside the cruise terminal (Galataport) and the price was reasonable ($40/per person for one day or 24 hour useage). The bad part is that is that the route does a complete loop (we got on at stop #4 and wanted to go to stop #1), and the traffic in Istanbul is horrible...as the complete loop can run from 1.5 to 3 hours). We ended up taking the bus the first day, and a…”

Check availability →Read our full review