Coming in on a cruise ship? Your pier is one tram stop from ours.

Quick answer: your ship berths at Galataport, in Karaköy, in the middle of Istanbul. Our own pier is one tram stop away — about five minutes by taxi or fifteen on foot. A private Bosphorus cruise costs from €150 per hour for the whole yacht with a two-hour minimum, and we plan the departure backwards from your all-aboard time so you are never the passenger walking fast along the quay.

Tell us your all-aboard time and we will work backwards from it

Every decision you make in a cruise port runs through one question: will I get back in time? It is the reason cruise lines can charge what they charge for their own excursions — they are not selling you a tour, they are selling you the guarantee.

Istanbul is the port where that calculation changes. Galataport is not an industrial terminal an hour outside the city. There is no motorway, no bridge traffic and no transfer to go wrong between your ship and our yacht. And on the way up the Bosphorus, you will pass your own ship at her berth.

We build in a full hour between stepping back onto the pier and your all-aboard time. That hour is not padding for us — it is the margin that means you are never the passenger walking fast along the quay. If your timings are tighter than the table allows, tell us and we will say honestly whether it works. We would rather turn down a booking than put you under a clock.

Two ways to do it, and they work differently

Sunset: we choose the time

There is exactly one right departure time for a sunset cruise, and it is not the one on the clock. Over the old city the sun drops behind the hills of the historic peninsula roughly twenty minutes before the official sunset time. The moment you are cruising for is the light going off the old-city skyline at the Maiden’s Tower, and from our pier that point falls about ninety minutes into the cruise.

So we work backwards from it. Tell us your date and we will give you the departure time — it moves through the season, and it is rarely the time people would have guessed. Our month-by-month table of Istanbul sunset times shows how far it travels across the year.

Daytime: you choose the time

In daylight there is no single right hour, so the value sits somewhere else entirely: fitting around your day. Cruise the Bosphorus first and go up to the old city afterwards, or spend the morning at Hagia Sophia and come to the water in the afternoon, then straight on to dinner or back to your ship. Because the yacht is chartered privately, the departure is simply whenever suits you.

Daytime has its own case, and it is not a lesser sunset. In flat afternoon light both shores read clearly, the waterfront palaces and the wooden yalı houses show their façades rather than their silhouettes, and photographs come back in colour rather than as outlines.

What it costs

Private charter is priced per yacht, per hour — from €150 an hour with a two-hour minimum. Never per person.

For two people that is €300 in total for the whole yacht, with captain and crew. Compare that with two tickets on a ship-organised coach excursion and the arithmetic is usually closer than people expect — except here nobody else is aboard, and the departure time is yours. The full breakdown is on our Istanbul yacht rental prices page.

Nothing is added at the end: no port tax, no booking fee, no service charge. The only separate items are ones you choose.

Included: the yacht entirely yours for the booked hours · tea, Turkish coffee and water · restroom and kitchen on board · Bluetooth for your own music · life jackets for adults and children. You are welcome to bring your own food and drink and the crew will serve it. If you would rather we provided it, wine is €40 a bottle and champagne €90.

Cancellation: free up to 24 hours before departure, refunded in full.

Where the yacht goes

We leave from Karaköy on the Golden Horn and enter the Bosphorus at the Galata Bridge. From there the route runs north along the European shore — past Dolmabahçe Palace, Çırağan Palace and the Ortaköy Mosque, under the first bridge — up towards the second bridge, where we cross to the Asian side and come back down that shore to the mouth of the Marmara and the Maiden’s Tower.

Along the way: the Galata Tower, the two palaces, the Maiden’s Tower, and the old-city skyline of Topkapı Palace, Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque as you come back across the mouth.

It is not a fixed route. The captain turns the yacht for where the light is, which is the one thing a scheduled boat cannot do for you. The same route in its standard form is our Bosphorus sunset cruise.

Why this rather than the ship’s excursion

Not because the ship’s excursion is bad, but because the two are solving different problems.

A ship excursion is mostly buying transport. At most ports that is worth paying for, because the berth is a long way from what you came to see. At Galataport it is not — you are already in the city.

A fixed departure versus your departure. A coach excursion departs when it departs. A private charter departs when your day allows. For anyone with six or eight hours in port, the scarce resource is not money, it is time that does not get wasted.

You are not sharing. You have come off a ship with several thousand people on it. The last thing most couples want in port is another crowded deck.

Frequently asked questions

How far is your pier from Galataport?

One stop on the T1 tram, about five minutes by taxi, or a fifteen to twenty minute walk along the waterfront. There is no motorway or bridge crossing involved.

What if my ship is delayed getting in?

Tell us as soon as you know. We will move the departure if the day allows it, and if it does not, the cancellation terms apply — free up to 24 hours before, and we do not treat a late ship as a no-show.

Can we book if we only have a few hours in port?

Yes, provided the arithmetic works. Two hours on the water plus an hour of margin is the minimum we are comfortable with. Send us your in-port times and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.

Is it worth it if we have already booked a ship excursion for the day?

Often yes, because they do not compete for the same hours. Most ship excursions run in the morning and early afternoon; the Bosphorus is at its best late in the day.

Do we need to bring cash?

No. Bring what you like to drink if you have a preference — the crew will serve it. Everything else is arranged in advance.

What happens if the weather is bad?

The yacht has an enclosed saloon as well as an open deck, so weather does not cancel a charter — you sit inside and go out as much as you want. In genuinely unsafe conditions we cancel and refund in full; that decision is ours, not yours.

How many of us can come?

From a couple on their own upwards. Tell us the group and the occasion and we will match the yacht to it before you pay anything.

Which yacht will we be on?

It is named in your written quote before you pay. For two people it is usually Tuana, our Essential-line yacht — the sporty one, with a generous open aft deck. You can see the whole fleet on our yachts page.