A high-energy club in the heart of Beyoglu, BEAT is one of the venues keeping central Istanbul's nightlife buzzing into the small hours. Set on Yesilcam Sokak just off Istiklal Caddesi, it sits squarely within the dense cluster of bars and clubs that make the district the city's after-dark playground. Its programming centres on club nights, DJ sets and themed parties pitched at a young, international crowd. The compact, music-driven room keeps the focus on the dance floor and the energy of the.....

Rising 369 metres from the summit of Kucuk Camlica Hill on the Asian side of Istanbul, the Camlica Tower is the tallest structure in Turkey and serves as the city's main television and radio broadcasting mast, a role it took over from a cluster of unsightly transmitter towers that once crowded the hilltop. Designed through an international competition by the architect Melike Altinisik, the slender, tapering form was inaugurated in May 2021 after years of construction, and it has quickly become a.....

With more than sixteen years on the Taksim scene, Club IQ has become one of the area's most enduring nightspots. Set on Bahceli Hamam Sokak in the heart of Beyoglu, it has built its name on a high-energy dance atmosphere and a track record of hosting international performers. Over the years its stage has welcomed globally known pop acts, from Inna to Alexandra Stan. The music leans toward commercial dance, pop and club hits aimed at a lively, mixed crowd. Open late into the early morning, it .....

The Dolmabahce Palace marks the moment when the Ottoman sultans abandoned the medieval seclusion of Topkapi for the grandeur of a European-style royal residence on the shore of the Bosphorus. Built in the mid-nineteenth century for Sultan Abdulmecid I and completed in 1856, it stretches for nearly six hundred metres along the water in the Besiktas district, its white marble facade and ornamental gates presenting one of the most opulent waterfronts in the city. Inside, the palace is a lavish ble.....

Part of the large Emaar Square Mall complex on the Asian side of Istanbul, the Emaar Aquarium and Underwater Zoo offers a journey through the world's waters spread over two floors in the Uskudar district. The displays lead visitors past themed habitats stocked with stingrays, piranhas, the vivid colours of reef fish and the stranger inhabitants of tropical rivers and rainforests, building toward the larger tanks where sharks and other big species circle. The aquarium presents itself not only as .....

High above the Emaar Square Mall in Uskudar, the Emaar SkyView observation deck offers a panorama of Istanbul from around three hundred metres, taking in both the Asian and European sides of the city and the blue expanse of the Sea of Marmara where the two continents meet. Set within the tower of the Address Hotel that rises above the shopping complex, the deck combines open-air and enclosed viewing areas so that visitors can take in the city in any weather, with the towers of the financial dist.....

Set within the Nakkastepe Millet Bahcesi, a public garden on the Asian shore in the Uskudar district, the Istanbul zipline lets visitors fly out over a hillside with one of the finest views in the city as their backdrop. The park occupies some ninety thousand square metres of greenery high above the Bosphorus, laid out with picnic grounds, walking and running paths, a tennis court, ponds, children's play areas and an adventure ropes course, and the zipline is its biggest thrill. The steel cable.....

A decadent, kitsch-filled underground playground, Klein is one of Istanbul's most distinctive electronic-music venues. Within walking distance of Taksim Square, its theatrical interior of lavish, over-the-top decor and suspended dancers sets the stage for nights built around house and techno. Its line-ups pair respected local DJs with visiting international names, drawing a dedicated electronic-music crowd. The immersive design, heavy on spectacle and visual storytelling, gives it a character .....

Wax figures of the famous and the historic fill Madame Tussauds Istanbul, a branch of the long-running international chain set in a grand old building on Istiklal Caddesi, the busy pedestrian avenue of Beyoglu. The Tussauds name reaches back to the eighteenth century and the modeller Marie Tussaud, who learned to cast wax likenesses in Paris and later established her famous exhibition in London, and the brand has since spread to cities around the world, each adding figures with a local flavour. .....

On a tiny islet just off the Asian shore at Uskudar, where the Bosphorus opens into the Sea of Marmara, the Maiden's Tower has stood guard over the waters of Istanbul for centuries and become one of the most romantic images of the city. A structure has occupied the rock since antiquity, when the Athenians and later the Byzantines used the spot to control the strait and levy tolls on passing ships, and the present tower, much rebuilt over the years, dates in its essentials from the Ottoman period.....