Princes' Islands ferry guide: Büyükada by boat from Istanbul

What the Princes' Islands are

The Princes' Islands, Adalar in Turkish, are a group of islands in the Sea of Marmara off the Asian shore of Istanbul, in Turkey (officially Türkiye), and together they form the city's Adalar district. The district municipality lists nine of them, Büyükada, Heybeliada, Burgazadası, Kınalıada, Sedef Adası, Yassıada, Sivriada, Kaşık Adası and Tavşan Adası, and gives visitor pages to the first five.[3] The islands are not one place with an entrance; each inhabited island has its own pier, its own village and its own walks, and a ferry ticket to one of them is transport only.

Büyükada is the largest at 5.4 square kilometres and lies 2,300 metres off the Maltepe shore; it has two hills, the southern Yücetepe at about 200 metres and the northern İsa Tepesi.[1] The municipality records that the island has been continuously inhabited since Byzantine times, that its population grew once ferries began calling in the 19th century, that it stands at about 9,000 in the 2025 census, and that summer day visitors and holiday residents push that to two or three times as many.[1] Heybeliada, the second largest, is described by the municipality as a summer-resort island known for its naval school, the sanatorium founded in 1924 and the Greek Orthodox seminary, with four hills topped by the 136-metre Değirmentepe.[2]

Why there are no cars

The islands' defining rule is the absence of private motor traffic. İBB's planning office, in its participatory strategy work for the district, states that motor vehicles have not been used on the islands other than for public services and that the islands' main modes have historically been walking and non-motorised transport.[6] The same document records that the horse-drawn phaetons, which had been the main form of public transport, were withdrawn in January 2020 and that from July 2020 public transport has been provided by electric buses and taxis.[6] The municipality's Heybeliada page states plainly that Heybeliada, like Istanbul's other islands, has been cleared of motor vehicles.[2]

İETT, the city bus operator, announced the island network on 24 July 2020: on Büyükada line BA-1 runs Çarşı to Tepeköy and Kadıyoran, BA-2 runs Çarşı to Maden and Nizam, and BA-3 runs from Lunapark Meydanı along the Büyüktur; Heybeliada has HA-1 and HA-2, Burgazada BU-1 and Kınalıada KA-1, worked by 13-plus-1-seat electric vehicles, with 3-plus-1-seat electric taxis alongside.[7] The announcement says that passengers without the residents' Adakart pay with an İstanbulkart, so bring a loaded card if you plan to ride rather than walk.[7] Fares in that 2020 announcement are out of date; İETT's own pages hold the current tariff. Bicycles exist on the islands too, but the planning office reports resident complaints about rental bikes in market and waterfront areas, so expect local restrictions on where they can be ridden.[6]

What to do on Büyükada

Büyükada is a walking island with two established circuits. The municipality describes a big tour that starts near the pier and rounds the whole island, and a small tour from Araba Meydanı out to Dilburnu and back through Âşıklar and Lunapark to Maden.[1] The beaches and picnic groves it names, Yörükali and Nizam beaches, Lunapark, Âşıklar and Viranbağ, are the island's traditional leisure spots.[1]

Aya Yorgi is one of the island's landmarks. The municipality places the church and monastery of Aya Yorgi on the island's highest hill and dates the first building on the site to the 6th century, with the remains of several other churches and monasteries around it; on the northern İsa Tepesi stands the Hristos church and monastery, and the Ayios Dimitrios church in Kumsal is where the island's Orthodox community holds its major services.[1] Of the five mosques the municipality counts, it singles out the Hamidiye Mosque built by Abdülhamid II for its western-influenced architecture.[1] Because the municipality places Aya Yorgi on the island's highest hill, at roughly 200 metres, reaching it is a climb rather than a stroll.[1] XTOUR has not found an official page giving opening times for the church, so ask at the pier or in the village.

Two municipal notices matter for a summer visit. The municipality announced that entry to forest areas across the district is banned from 8 June to 15 October 2026 under a fire-prevention decision, with camping, fires and barbecues prohibited, and it separately asked visitors not to swim outside designated swimming areas.[4] The wooded interior is therefore off limits in those months; the roads, village, coast and beaches are not.

How ferries reach the islands

Ferries are the only way over, and two kinds run. The district governorate states that mainland links are provided from the Bostancı, Kadıköy, Kartal and Kabataş piers by the municipal Şehir Hatları and by private companies, with regular sailings to every inhabited island and extra summer sailings from Bakırköy, Avcılar and Pendik.[5] İBB's planning office counts close to 140 daily sailings at the summer peak, of which roughly three quarters are run by private operators, and names Kabataş, Eminönü, Bostancı, Kartal and Kadıköy as the busiest departure points it observed.[6]

On the municipal side, İBB's announcement of the 2025 summer timetable lists Şehir Hatları island lines from Kabataş, Beşiktaş, Maltepe, Bostancı and Tuzla–Pendik, a Bostancı–Büyükada–Sedef Adası service, and nightly sailings on the Bostancı–Adalar ring throughout the season.[8] The operator's own timetable pages could not be opened when checked in September 2026, so this is the shape of the 2025 network, not a current schedule; check sehirhatlari.istanbul, the operator's app or the İstanbul Senin app for today's sailings.

On the private side, TURYOL's pier list gives its Eminönü pier as the Golden Horn side of the Eminönü foot of the Galata Bridge, and its Büyükada pier as on Gülistan Caddesi in front of the Adalar municipality building, with a second Büyükada Yeni İskele nearby; its timetable search groups Eminönü, Kadıköy and Karaköy with the four inhabited island piers under island services.[10][9]

What the listed return ferry ticket says

According to Skygate, the listed ticket is a TURYOL return crossing rather than a public-ferry fare. The listing describes round-trip ferry travel between Istanbul and the Princes' Islands to explore car-free streets, historic mansions and Büyükada at your own pace, with a smartphone audio guide included; you exchange the voucher at the ticket office to board.[12] The page states that the ferry departs from the Eminönü TURYOL port and returns to the same place, that the audio guide comes in English, French, German, Russian and Spanish, and that return ferries from Büyükada run at 15:00, 16:00 and 17:00 Monday to Friday and at 15:00, 16:00, 17:00 and 18:00 on Saturdays and Sundays; outbound departures shown were 10:40, 11:40 and 12:40.[12] The ticket is valid for the visit date chosen, adults are priced from age 6 with a separate child fare for ages 0 to 5, and cancellation at least 24 hours before the travel date in Europe/Istanbul time was shown as fully refundable, with the note that extra cancellation or refund fees may apply.[12] When checked on 20 September 2026 the calendar showed bookable dates on 90 of the 162 days it covered, which describes the listing and not the ferries.[12] According to Skygate, the listing includes the crossing and the audio guide and nothing else. Island minibuses, taxis, bicycles, food and any admission are separate from it.[12]

One point to settle before relying on the ticket is the departure pier, and XTOUR has not verified which piers are in service today. The listing names TURYOL Eminönü, and TURYOL's own site lists an Eminönü pier and puts Eminönü among its island-service departure points, while the district governorate's undated transport page lists Bostancı, Kadıköy, Kartal and Kabataş as the mainland piers and does not mention Eminönü.[5][9] İBB's planning office does count Eminönü among the busiest departure points it observed.[6] The practical step is to confirm the exact Eminönü berth and the day's sailing with the ticket office named on your voucher rather than with a Şehir Hatları pier, since the two operators' tickets are not interchangeable and the ticket office is where the listing says the voucher is exchanged.[12]

The listing's return times mean the last covered sailing leaves Büyükada at 17:00 on a weekday, so a weekday visit with the 12:40 outbound gives a short afternoon and the 10:40 sailing gives the most island time within the ticket.[12] The description names Büyükada only and does not say the ticket allows stops at Heybeliada or the other islands, so treat it as an Eminönü to Büyükada return unless the operator says otherwise.[12]

If you miss the return ferry

The listing lists the return sailings but says nothing about what happens if you are not on one of them, so XTOUR has not verified whether the voucher is honoured on a later TURYOL boat or on a different day. The fallback is the public network. The district governorate's mainland piers are Bostancı, Kadıköy, Kartal and Kabataş, and İBB's 2025 announcement includes night sailings on the Şehir Hatları Bostancı–Adalar ring throughout the summer timetable, so on those sources a later public boat from Büyükada lands at Bostancı, Kabataş or another of those piers rather than at Eminönü, and its fare is paid separately.[8][5] Metro İstanbul lists Kabataş, Karaköy, Eminönü and Sultanahmet among the stops of its T1 tram line, so a landing at Kabataş still connects back to the old city.[11] Check the day's last sailing on the Şehir Hatları site or app when you arrive on the island, not when you leave the mainland, and keep the voucher's operator name visible so you queue at the right pier.

With children, strollers or limited mobility

The listing prices children aged 0 to 5 as a separate fare and says nothing about seating, gangways or wheelchair boarding, and no official source retrieved describes the accessibility of TURYOL's or Şehir Hatları's island vessels or of the Büyükada pier, so a step-free journey from the mainland to the island cannot be promised.[12] On the island, the İETT minibuses are 13-plus-1-seat electric vehicles running fixed lines from the market area, which is the alternative to walking the hills with a stroller.[7] The climb to Aya Yorgi is the one part of a Büyükada day that a person who cannot manage a sustained uphill walk should plan around, since the municipality places it on the island's highest hill.[1] In summer the planning office reports that weekends and holidays produce heavy demand on the island transport, so families who need a seat on the minibus should avoid the busiest afternoons or be ready to walk.[6]