Turkey · The Bosphorus
Yacht Charter Istanbul
A strait between two continents, with a current running through it and a city built on both banks.
Istanbul is not a cruising ground and it would be dishonest to sell it as one: the anchorages are south, in the Aegean, and getting there from here is five hundred miles through the Dardanelles. What Istanbul is, is the one city in this part of the world that has to be seen from the water to be understood at all — because the Bosphorus is not a river running past it but the thing the whole city was built to control.
The strait, and why it decides everything
Thirty kilometres of water join the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, and a surface current runs south through them at up to four knots with a counter-current going north underneath. Fishermen have used both for centuries by choosing their depth. It is the reason the strait was always difficult to force and simple to close, and the reason a city here could tax the world.
Rumeli Hisarı stands at the narrowest point, thrown up by Mehmed II in the summer of 1452 in four months flat, for one purpose: to cut Constantinople off from the grain of the Black Sea before he laid siege to it the following spring. The walls are still there and you pass a hundred metres from them.
The yalıs, which only make sense from the water
The wooden waterfront houses along both banks — yalıs — were built in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by people who arrived by boat, and they are designed accordingly: the elaborate face is the one turned to the strait, and the landward side is a back door. From the road you see almost nothing of them.
There are a few hundred left of what was once well over a thousand, and the survivors are painted ox-blood red or a pale grey-green that has a name in Turkish and no equivalent in English. Going up one bank and down the other takes an afternoon and is the single best thing to do here.
The city, and the islands off it
Hagia Sophia was finished in 537 and held the largest enclosed space in the world for the better part of a thousand years; the dome still reads as impossible from underneath. Topkapı, the Süleymaniye and the covered bazaar are all within a walk of one another on the same headland.
South of the city, in the Sea of Marmara, the Princes' Islands have no cars at all: transport is on foot, by bicycle or by electric cart, and Büyükada is a hillside of nineteenth-century wooden villas under pines. It is ninety minutes from the Bosphorus and it is where the city goes to stop.
Practical notes
- Not a cruising ground: the Aegean anchorages are five hundred miles south through the Dardanelles
- A surface current runs south through the strait at up to four knots, with a counter-current beneath it
- The yalıs present their front to the water and their back to the road — they are a boat's view, not a car's
- The Princes' Islands, ninety minutes south in the Sea of Marmara, have no cars at all
- Rumeli Hisarı was built in four months in 1452 to close the strait, and is passed at a hundred metres
Reached from: the Sea of Marmara and the Princes' Islands
Where to dine
A table by the water
Karaköy Lokantası
KaraköyTiled in turquoise under the Galata bridge, doing meze at lunch and a proper kitchen at night.
Çiya Sofrası
KadıköyOn the Asian side, cooking the regional dishes of the south-east that the rest of the city had forgotten.
Balıkçı Sabahattin
SultanahmetIn a wooden house behind the old walls, serving fish and almost nothing else, for decades.
What to do
Anchorages & excursions
The Bosphorus by water
Thirty kilometres between two continents, with a four-knot surface current and a counter-current beneath it.
Hagia Sophia
Finished in 537, and the largest enclosed space in the world for the better part of a thousand years.
The yalıs and Rumeli Hisarı
Wooden waterfront houses that face the strait, and the fortress built in four months in 1452 to close it.
The Princes' Islands
Ninety minutes south in the Sea of Marmara, with no cars at all and a hillside of wooden villas.
The fleet
Yachts available for Istanbul
Vessels that operate here, from flagship motor yachts to smaller crewed boats. Every rate is quoted on enquiry.
Good to know
Questions we are asked about Istanbul
- Can we charter a yacht for a week in Istanbul?
- You can charter for the Bosphorus and the Princes' Islands, and both are worth a day. A week's cruising is a different question: the anchorages are in the Aegean, five hundred miles south through the Dardanelles. Most people take Istanbul as the city at the start or end of a Turkish trip and sail from Bodrum, Göcek or Marmaris.
- Why see Istanbul from the water?
- Because the city was built facing it. The yalıs turn their decorated front to the strait and a back door to the road; the fortresses were sited to close the channel; the skyline of the old city reads as one thing from a mile offshore and as fragments from a taxi. The Bosphorus is not scenery here, it is the subject.
- What is the current in the Bosphorus?
- A surface flow running south from the Black Sea at up to four knots, with a saltier counter-current running north underneath it. Local fishermen have worked both for centuries by choosing their depth. It is why the strait was hard to force under sail and why whoever held it held the trade.
- What does a yacht charter in Istanbul cost?
- It depends on the yacht, the season and the crew, so we quote on enquiry rather than publish a figure that would be wrong for most weeks. Tell us your dates and party size.
Destinations
Nearby destinations
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Enquire about a charter in Istanbul
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are, and we will come back with the right yacht and a full quotation.