Topkapı Palace
The sultans’ palace on Sarayburnu: courtyards, the Imperial Council, the treasury and the terraces over the water. Dated entry, sold online on its own site.
Marmara
Museums in Kocaeli
4 museums and archaeological sites in the province of Kocaeli, with hours and what to see at each.
Kocaeli
Atatürk, Redif and Ethnography Museum
A restored 19th-century Ottoman reserve-army building in İzmit, later a military court, now a museum on Atatürk, the Redif force and local ethnography.
Visitor guide
Kocaeli
İzmit Hunting Lodge Palace Museum
Kasr-ı Hümayun, Sultan Abdülaziz's marble-fronted hunting lodge in the centre of İzmit, the only Ottoman palace built outside Istanbul.
Visitor guide
Kocaeli
Kocaeli Archaeological Museum
İzmit's archaeology and ethnography museum in the old railway-station complex, with finds from the Palaeolithic to the Ottoman period and a fine coin collection of ancient Nicomedia.
Visitor guide
Kocaeli
Osman Hamdi Bey Museum
The seaside villa, studio and boathouse at Eskihisar where Osman Hamdi Bey, painter and pioneer of Turkish museology, spent his summers.
Visitor guideOther cities in the region
Istanbul tickets online
Four Istanbul landmarks, each sold on its own site by the agency behind this guide — dated entry and free cancellation up to 24 hours.
Basilica Cistern
Justinian’s great underground reservoir: 336 columns in still water and the two Medusa heads. Fast-track entry with a digital audio guide.
Hagia Sophia
Justinian’s cathedral, the sultans’ mosque and a working mosque again today. The ticket admits you to the upper visitor gallery.
Dolmabahçe Palace
A nineteenth-century palace on the water’s edge: the Selamlık, the Ceremonial Hall under its chandelier, the crystal staircase and the Harem.