Istanbul in October: Weather, Crowds and Prices

The Bosphorus is the strait dividing Europe from Asia, 31 kilometres from the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, and going out on it is the single best thing to do in Istanbul. The public Sehir Hatlari long Bosphorus cruise leaves Eminonu, runs up to Anadolu Kavagi near the Black Sea mouth and back, and takes most of a day. A shorter two-hour round trip covers the built-up stretch with the Ottoman waterfront mansions, the Rumeli Hisari fortress and the three bridges.

October is the right month for this. Summer haze has cleared so the hills on both banks are sharp, the water holds near 18C so the wind off it is bearable rather than biting, and the boats are not full. The public ferry costs a fraction of a private tour and runs the same route. Sit on the upper deck on the right heading north for the European shore, then swap coming back.

The Grand Bazaar has been trading since 1461, when Mehmed the Conqueror ordered the first covered hall built after taking the city. It now runs to around 4,000 shops along 61 covered streets under painted vaults, with 22 gates, and it is among the largest and oldest covered markets anywhere. Carpets, gold, ceramics, leather and lamps dominate, and the Ic Bedesten at the centre is the original core where the highest-value goods were locked up each night.

It closes on Sundays and public holidays and shuts around 7pm otherwise. Haggling is expected and the opening number is usually well above what the seller will accept. October matters here mostly because it is indoors and dry, which makes it the obvious plan when the rain arrives. Getting lost is unavoidable and mostly the point; the gates are numbered and signposted in English.

Republic Day falls on 29 October and marks the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, making 2026 the 103rd anniversary. It is the largest national holiday in the country. Taksim Square and the Bosphorus shoreline are the focus in Istanbul, with flags hung the length of Istiklal Caddesi, ceremonies at the Republic Monument, evening fireworks over the water and boat parades on the strait.

The eve of the holiday on 28 October is a half-day for many workers and the atmosphere builds through that afternoon. Practical consequences: government offices, banks and some museums close on the 29th, central roads shut for parades, and ferry timetables shift. Public transport is often free or discounted for the day. Crowds on Istiklal Caddesi in the evening are substantial.

Topkapi Palace was the seat of the Ottoman sultans for roughly 400 years from the 1460s, and it is laid out as four successive courtyards rather than a single building, each one more restricted than the last. The Imperial Treasury holds the Topkapi Dagger and the Spoonmaker's Diamond, and the Sacred Relics rooms hold objects attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. The Harem is a separate ticket and is the part most worth adding.

Allow three hours minimum. The palace closes on Tuesdays. The fourth courtyard, on the point of the peninsula, is the reason to come in October: terraces and tulip gardens looking out over the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn at the same time, with the summer heat gone and the air clear enough to see the Asian shore properly.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, universally called the Blue Mosque, was completed in 1617 and takes its nickname from the roughly 20,000 hand-painted Iznik tiles lining the upper interior, most of them in blue and white. It has six minarets, which caused a scandal at the time because it matched the Great Mosque of Mecca. It faces Hagia Sophia directly across a small park, and seeing the two within an hour of each other is the standard Istanbul morning.

Entry is free. It is an active mosque, so it closes to visitors during the five daily prayers and for around 90 minutes on Friday midday, and there is a separate tourist entrance on the southern side. Shoes come off, shoulders and knees are covered, and women need a head covering. The tiles need light, so grey October afternoons genuinely dull the interior.

The Basilica Cistern was built under Justinian in 532 to store water for the Great Palace, and it is an underground chamber the size of a cathedral: 336 marble columns in twelve rows holding up a brick vault, standing in shallow water. Many of the columns were salvaged from older Roman buildings, which is why two of them rest on carved Medusa heads, one upside down and one on its side, with no surviving explanation for either.

A restoration completed a few years ago added raised walkways, lighting and sound installations, which divides opinion but makes the space easier to move through. It takes 45 minutes. Tickets are timed and evening slots cost more. This is the best wet-weather entry in Sultanahmet, being fully underground and a two-minute walk from Hagia Sophia.

The Spice Bazaar was completed in 1664 as part of the New Mosque complex, funded by duties on goods from Cairo, which is why Turkish speakers still call it the Egyptian Bazaar. It is far smaller than the Grand Bazaar, an L-shaped hall of about 85 shops, and denser: saffron, sumac, dried fruit, Turkish delight, pistachios and tea piled in open sacks under vaulted brick.

October is harvest season and the streets outside are better than the hall itself. The lanes running west towards Rustem Pasa Mosque hold the fish market, the pickle sellers, the coffee grinders at Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi and the cheese shops, all of them selling to Istanbul rather than to visitors. New-season walnuts, pomegranates, quince and chestnuts all arrive now, and roasted chestnut carts appear on the streets through the month.

Suleymaniye Mosque was built between 1550 and 1557 by Mimar Sinan for Suleiman the Magnificent, and Sinan, the greatest Ottoman architect, is buried in a small tomb just outside its walls. It sits on the third hill of the old city and is the largest Ottoman mosque in Istanbul. The interior is deliberately plainer than the Blue Mosque, lit by 138 windows, and most people find it the better room of the two.

The terrace on the northern side is the real reason to climb up here. It looks straight down over the Golden Horn to Galata and the Bosphorus beyond, and it is free, open and usually almost empty. The tombs of Suleiman and his wife Hurrem Sultan are in the garden behind. Entry to the mosque is free, with the same dress rules and prayer-time closures as elsewhere.

The Princes' Islands sit in the Sea of Marmara an hour or so southeast of the city, and Buyukada is the largest. Byzantine emperors exiled inconvenient royals here, which is where the name comes from, and Trotsky spent four years on the island from 1929. The draw now is the 19th-century wooden mansions, the pine woods and the almost total absence of cars: private motor vehicles are banned and transport is electric shuttles, bicycles and walking.

October is the best month to go. The summer day-tripper crowds that make the island unpleasant in August have gone, the pine woods are cool enough to walk in, and the ferry deck is comfortable. The climb to the Greek Orthodox monastery of Aya Yorgi at the southern summit takes about 40 minutes and gives a long view back over the Marmara. Ferries run from Kabatas and Eminonu.

Balat and neighbouring Fener run along the Golden Horn northwest of the old city and were historically the Jewish and Greek quarters of Ottoman Istanbul. What survives is a hillside of narrow lanes and painted timber houses in ochre, red and blue, plus the Ahrida Synagogue dating to the 15th century, the iron-built Bulgarian St Stephen Church on the waterfront, and the red-brick Phanar Greek Orthodox College standing over the whole district.

This is a walking entry rather than a ticketed one and it takes a couple of hours. The lanes climb steeply from the shore, the cafes are small and largely local despite a recent wave of attention, and October light on the painted facades is better than the flat glare of summer. It is a residential neighbourhood, so the usual courtesies apply about photographing doorways and people.