Long layover in Istanbul airport- How to spend layover time in Istanbul- Updated June, 2024

This an update based on our experience while travelling to Bosnia and Herzegovina with 26 hour stopover in Istanbul. Since the last stopover which we did in April of 2023, there are few updates for the Stay/Tour Istanbul program by Turkish airlines

• US Citizens/ Green card holders do not need to apply for visa beforehand (Change from 2023)
• When booking tickets on Turkish airline webpage, you can choose the option of Stopover, whether you want to stopover on departure or return and how many days you would like to stopover (Yellow highlights)

• US based traveler can get up to 2 nights free hotel for economy class and 3 nights for business class.
• You can pre-select your hotel (once you have your tickets) based on where you want to stay. Once your tickets are booked, you can choose the hotel under the option “Experience ” and “Stopover” tab. You can enter your ticket # or reservation code and you can choose the hotel options based on the dates of your stay. We were able pre-book our hotel almost 2 months before our travel. Makes it much easier to plan and we decided to book in Faith district (Hotel Grand Yavuz)

Istanbul is truly magical city where East meets West in both literal and cultural sense. If you are travelling to anywhere in Africa or Europe or middle east, you might have few hours of layover in Istanbul. If you want to utilize the layover time effectively and get most of it, there are few of options.

Option 1- free tour Istanbul with Turkish airlines. More info below on this and only possible if you book through Turkish airlines and you will see tourIstanbul on the lisitng

Option 2- free hotel stay with Turkish airlines stay Istanbul program. You can either visit some highlights on your own or through a paid guided tour. More details below .

Options 3: Guided tour. Any airline as long as you have enough time in between your flights

Option 4: Self-guided tour- choose your adventure. If you want to read our experience, check here

Option 1: Turkish airline Tour Istanbul- Free tour

If you have a layover in Istanbul, Turkish airlines has a complementary service called Tour Istanbul. Here are the requirements to avail this service :

• Your travel must be booked with Turkish airlines- both legs of the travel
• You need to get an e-visa before getting on the tour. E-visa can be obtained here. ( when we applied 2 weeks before our trip, we got visa almost instantaneously)- No need for visa for American Citizens and Green card holders- Updated in 2024
• Your layover should be between 6-24 hours
• There are 7 different tours to chose and what tour you can go on depends on your time of arrival. They offer full day tours and half day tours.
• You don’t need to prebook the tour. Just head out to “ Hotel Desk” which you will find after going through customs and immigration. You will have to walk quite bit to reach hotel desk. You stop before getting out of the airport and Hotel desk is located opposite to arrival gate between door 13 and 14 ( you can also use this handy map to get to hotel desk
• If you have luggage you can leave at the “Left Luggage” for a fee. This is not a free service, and they charge by hour. There are multiple left luggage places and there is one conveniently located next to “Hotel Desk”
• Depending on the tour, breakfast or dinner provided free of cost. The tour doesn’t cost you any money.
• Tour is offered 7 days a week and check here for updated information

Option 2: Stopover program by Turkish airlines

• Stop over in istsnbul is a free accommodation by Turkish airlines in partner hotels!
• Stopover in Istanbul is only available for passengers connecting from Istanbul Airport (IST); departure and return flights must be via Istanbul.
• Stopover in Istanbul is only available for flights operated by Turkish Airlines.
• To benefit from Stopover in Istanbul, there must be at least 20 hours of transit time between the two flights.
• To take advantage of this service, passengers must apply at least 72 hours before the first flight via the e-mail address of the country of departure- Webpage has been updated and you can pre-book your hotel on the experiences tab on the Turkish airlines webpage -2024 update
• Within the scope of this service, Economy Class passengers can stay 1 night free of charge in a 4-star hotel and Business Class passengers can stay 2 nights free of charge in a 5-star hotel.
• Visa fees, travel costs around the city, and travel costs between the airport and hotel are borne by the passenger.
• Economy Class passengers starting their journey from the United States can benefit from our Stopover service for 2 nights; Business Class passengers can benefit from our Stopover service for 3 nights.
• Please refer to this webpage for all the details and reach out to Turkish airlines for your eligibility. Contact email for Turkish airlines for hotel if you are traveling from USA : freehotelusa@thy.com. For each country there is a different email and more details can be found here

You can only choose either tour Istanbul or stay Istanbul with Turkish airlines. You can’t do both on the same trip.

Option 3: Private guided tour

This is our experience at 15 hour layover in Istanbul on our way to Cairo in April 2023. We decided to not take Tour Istanbul option, as our flight was reaching at 2.30 and we weren’t sure we will make it to 4.30 tour. We organized the guided tour through Istanbul layover tours and we had the best experience with them. Our flight was delayed by an hour and Leif (owner/ contact) kept in touch through WhatsApp and we had a smooth transfer and tour. Our guide was Alp who made this tour incredible. He was knowledgeable, friendly, and truly amazing. When he found out we were vegetarians through the tour operator, he had gone to The Hagia Sophia area day before and found a restaurant that served vegetarian food before our visit. Highly recommend Alp and this tour company for Istanbul visit. Here are the places we visited:

• Hippodrome/Sultanahmet Square
• Hagia Sophia- went inside the mosque and got guided tour of the place
• Blue mosque ( Closed for construction in April 2023) and we saw it from outside
• Basilica Cistern- the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of Istanbul.
• Arasta bazar- Grand bazar was closed by the time we finished everything else. So decided to check out Arasta bazar with our guide. Had the best Turkish delight and great overall experience of the turkish bazar.
• Dinner at Feugo cafe and restaurant- really good Turkish food
• Bosporus strait-forms part of the continental boundary between Asia and Europe, and divides Turkey Europe side and Asian side. We took a ferry to Asian side and walked around

The tour lasted from about 7 hours and we were picked and dropped off to the airport. Hoping to go back to Istanbul in our next layover to check out Blue Mosque and other highlights of Istsnbul with same company as they can customize the tour based on your need. We also booked Yotel airside which is inside the airport so that we can stay inside airport and get to our connecting flight at 8Am. It was 5 min walk from the hotel to our gate.

Option 4: Self guided tour

If you decide take option 2 with Turkish airlines or like us you want to do the tour the way you want, you can do a self- guided tour. After doing the guided tour, we realized that it is pretty easy to cover the key highlights on your own. Here are my recommendations to cover the highlights.

– There are several options to get from airport to city center. Choose what is convenient for you and here are some options.

– once you are city center, some highlights can be reached by walking. Here is a handy map by Istanbul clues of the city center. Other highlights can be reached by tram which runs frequently (need to have money/ coins to pay once you board or you can buy a pass). For more information about the trams please check this website

Hotels and other options within the airport

Istanbul airport has several options for resting or sleeping at the airport. Yotel is one option and you can rent by the hour. YOTEL is the only hotel located at IST Airport. It has two locations: one LANDSIDE (before immigration and passport control) and one AIRSIDE (in the transit area, accessible only with a valid boarding pass). Airside is better if you have an early flight and you would have done the immigration night before and you can getup and go. Reach out to the hotel for any questions (If you want to make an hourly or multi-night booking please contact istanbul.reservation@yotel.com or call +90 212 942 6666.

Second option is Istanbul Airport Sleeping Cabins -IGA Sleep Pods and you can rent these by hour. You can get more info on these pods here

Third option is IGA lounge, and you can access it for free if you have Priority pass or pay for access (Check IGA webpage for cost). This is one of the best lounges we have been to, and it has a huge selection for food and other amenities