A palace day in Beşiktaş: Dolmabahçe, Ihlamur and Yıldız
Three National Palaces sit within a short distance of each other in Beşiktaş. How to see Dolmabahçe, the Ihlamur Pavilions and Yıldız in one day — and which days it actually works.
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Beşiktaş holds three of the National Palaces within a short distance of each other: Dolmabahçe on the Bosphorus shore, the Ihlamur Pavilions in a green valley just inland, and Yıldız on the wooded hill above. Between them they tell the story of the last Ottoman century — the palace that replaced Topkapı, a sultan’s garden retreat, and the walled compound from which Abdülhamid II ran the empire for 33 years.
Seeing all three in one day is realistic. It just needs the right day of the week and an early start.
First, pick the right day
The three palaces do not share a closing day. Dolmabahçe and Ihlamur close on Mondays; Yıldız closes on Wednesdays (it switched from Monday in September 2024). That leaves Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the full route.
Ticket offices at all three open from 09:00 to 17:00. On New Year’s Day and on the first day of both religious holidays all three are closed; most other public holidays are normal opening days.
Morning: Dolmabahçe
Start with Dolmabahçe. It is the longest visit of the day and the one where queues build fastest, so aim to arrive before 10:30 and give it two to three hours. The easiest approach is the T1 tram to Kabataş, its last stop, then a 10–15 minute walk along the waterfront.
Built between 1843 and 1856 for Sultan Abdülmecid, Dolmabahçe moved the whole court under one roof on the water. Six sultans lived here, and Atatürk died here in 1938. The standard ticket covers the Selamlık, the Harem and the Painting Museum. If you carry a Müzekart, note that it is not valid for the Selamlık.
Book this one ahead. Tickets are sold at the palace, on the National Palaces e-ticket system (foreign visitors choose “Foreign Visitor E-Ticket” on the English page; online tickets cannot be refunded) and through official partners — ours is dolmabahcepalacemuseum.org, with a dated entry and free cancellation up to 24 hours before. Confirmation arrives by email straight away. With the ticket sorted, the rest of the day runs to plan.
Midday: the Ihlamur Pavilions
From the shore, head inland to the Ihlamur valley. Two to three centuries ago this was an open stretch of linden and plane trees along a stream; Selim III and Mahmud II came here to shoot arrows, and the marker stones recording their distances still stand in the garden. The French poet Lamartine described the place after visiting as Abdülmecid’s guest in 1846.
Abdülmecid built the two pavilions you see today between 1849 and 1855: the Ceremonial Pavilion, with its curving Baroque staircase and European furniture, used by the sultan himself, and the Retinue Pavilion for his entourage and harem, its walls finished in coloured imitation marble. They opened as a museum in 1985.
Ihlamur is a pause rather than a big visit — an hour is plenty. There is a garden-only ticket if you just want the grounds, the Müzekart is accepted, and the National Palaces list a café here, which makes it a natural lunch stop. Picnics are not allowed in palace gardens.
Afternoon: Yıldız on the hill
Finish at Yıldız, the last great palace the Ottomans built in Istanbul. Abdülhamid II left Dolmabahçe for this hillside and turned it into a palace-town of pavilions, workshops, a theatre and a library behind high walls. After decades as a military academy it opened to visitors in July 2024, with the Great Mabeyn Pavilion, the Çit Pavilion, the Small Mabeyn Pavilion and the Harem among the buildings shown for the first time.
Arrive with time to spare before the ticket office closes at 17:00. A ticket bought at the Yıldız gate is valid only on the day of purchase. The Turkish version of the official page adds that the Müzekart is not valid for the Harem, the Hasbahçe garden and the Small Mabeyn Pavilion.
Outside the palace walls lies Yıldız Park, once the palace’s outer garden and now a public park — a good place to end the day under the trees.
Getting between them
All three are in the same district, but the route climbs: Dolmabahçe is at sea level, Ihlamur sits in a valley behind Beşiktaş, and Yıldız is on the ridge above. Walking is possible if you don’t mind hills; otherwise a short taxi ride between each stop saves your legs for the palaces. Beşiktaş’s busy centre, between the shore and the Ihlamur valley, has no shortage of places to eat.
Inside all three, large backpacks and umbrellas go to the cloakroom and pushchairs are not allowed. Phone photos without flash are permitted indoors under the current visitor rules; other cameras are not.
A combined ticket?
The English menu of the National Palaces e-ticket system sells foreign visitors a combined Dolmabahçe + Yıldız ticket. The official pages disagree on how long combined tickets stay valid, so read the conditions shown at checkout before relying on one. For a single day like this one, separate tickets work just as well.