Dolmabahçe Palace Tickets 2026-2027: Hours, Harem, Photo Rules

A ticket to Dolmabahçe Palace costs 2,000 TL for foreign visitors, about $40, and covers the Selamlık, the Harem and the Painting Museum. The palace is closed on Mondays, and on the other six days the ticket office is open from 09:00 to 17:00, according to the National Palaces administration that runs it. Allow about two hours for the two main sections. If you would like the ticket and the timing handled for you, our Dolmabahçe Palace private tour includes the entry ticket and a licensed English-speaking guide, from $150 per person.

Below: prices and passes, the 2027 closing days, what you see inside, the photo rules that changed in 2026, transport, and three ways to add a Bosphorus cruise and an afternoon in Beşiktaş.

Dolmabahçe Palace tickets: 2026 prices and what to expect in 2027

The National Palaces administration (Milli Saraylar), part of the Turkish Presidency, sets the prices. These are the figures on its official page on 8 November 2026. Dollar figures use the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye's rate of 6 November 2026, 49.98 TL to the dollar; you pay in lira.

• Students aged 7 to 25 with a student card pay the discounted price. Foreign students pay twice that, 300 TL, and those aged 12 to 25 must show a physical International Student Identity Card (ISIC).
• Combined tickets are valid for one month from purchase, with one entry at each site. Yıldız Palace alone costs 900 TL for foreign visitors, so Combined II costs 150 TL less than two separate tickets and adds the European-side pavilions.
• MuseumPass Istanbul does not cover Dolmabahçe. The €105 pass (€120 from 1 April 2027) is valid at 13 museums of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, while Dolmabahçe belongs to the National Palaces. Our Museum Pass guide shows when the pass pays off.

What about 2027? The National Palaces had not published 2027 prices when we checked. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's new price list, valid from 1 April 2027, covers only the ministry's own museums, so the rises in our 2027 museum prices update do not apply here. Budget with 2,000 TL per person; we will update this page when the National Palaces announce a new figure.

Buying tickets online, in the app or at the gate

• Official website. The English ticket page of the National Palaces website sells a Foreign Visitor E-Ticket: "Dolmabahce Palace Ticket", the "National Palaces Full Pass" or "Dolmabahce + Yildiz Palace", for up to five visitors per order. The National Palaces app on the App Store and Google Play sells the same e-tickets.
• E-ticket rules. Tickets are valid for 90 days, the QR code works once, and they cannot be cancelled or changed.
• At the gate. The ticket office sells tickets from 09:00 to 17:00. On our private tour the ticket is included.

Opening hours and closing days in 2026 and 2027

Dolmabahçe is open every day except Monday. The ticket office works from 09:00 to 17:00, and the National Palaces website shows 09:00 to 17:30 as the visiting day, so buy your ticket well before 17:00.

On holidays the rule is simple: the palace closes on New Year's Day and on the first day of both religious festivals, opens on the other holiday days, and stays shut if a holiday falls on a Monday. The exception is 10 November, the anniversary of Atatürk's death in the palace, when Dolmabahçe opens even on a Monday and entry is free for all visitors, on a special commemoration route. With the festival dates of the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), 2027 looks like this:

The administration can change hours by season or open and close a palace by special decision, so check its page before a holiday visit. Plan around the other palaces too: Topkapı closes on Tuesdays and Yıldız Palace on Wednesdays, so a day with Dolmabahçe and Topkapı works only from Wednesday to Sunday. Our Topkapı Palace guide covers the older half of the Ottoman story.

What to see inside: the Selamlık, the Ceremonial Hall and the Harem

Sultan Abdülmecid had Dolmabahçe built between 1843 and 1856 in place of the old Beşiktaş waterfront palace, on a bay filled in from the 17th century; the name means "filled garden". The imperial architects Karabet Balyan, Ohannes Serveryan, Nikoğos Balyan and James William Smith built it, and six sultans and the last caliph lived here from 1856 to 1924. It is the largest palace in Turkey: one building with 285 rooms, 44 halls, 68 toilets and 6 Turkish baths on a ground area of 14,595 m². It opened as a palace museum in 1984 with its original furnishings: Hereke carpets, Baccarat crystal, Sèvres and Yıldız porcelain, gifts from heads of state and paintings by Western artists.

The building has three parts: the Selamlık (Mabeyn-i Hümâyûn), where the business of state was done, the Harem, the private home of the sultan's family, and the Ceremonial Hall between them. GoTürkiye, the official tourism site, singles out the Medhal Hall, the Blue Hall, the Pink Hall and Atatürk's room.

The Selamlık and the Crystal Staircase

The culture ministry's portal describes the balustrades of the Selamlık staircase as decorated with crystal, hence the name Crystal Staircase. In February 2026 the palace reopened its Yazı Dairesi after restoration: the office that handled official correspondence between the palace and the government, shown with its original decoration, works of art and diplomatic objects.

The Ceremonial Hall

In the Ceremonial Hall (Muayede Salonu) the sultan received state dignitaries on religious holidays and held state ceremonies. Its crystal chandelier, which the culture ministry's portal credits with 750 bulbs and Anadolu Agency puts at 4.5 tonnes, hangs from the 36-metre dome. The hall, which the portal calls the Throne Hall, hosted the opening of the Ottoman parliament by Abdülhamid II on 19 March 1877, and a corridor in the Harem looks into it.

Photo: Dan from Brussels, Europe, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Harem and Atatürk's room

The culture ministry's portal lists the Blue Hall, used for ceremonies, the Pink Hall, the rooms of the sultan's mother and the rooms Atatürk used. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stayed here on and off between 1927 and 1938, about four years in all, worked from the palace and died here on 10 November 1938.

• Room 71, between the Blue Hall and the Pink Hall, is where he stayed and died. Its clock, a gift from his close friend Nuri Conker, shows five past nine, and GoTürkiye notes that the palace clocks were stopped at 9:05 after his death.
• Room 69, next door, was his study.
• A lift was built for him in the light well of the Blue Hall in June 1937 and still works.
• The bathroom beside the Pink Hall, built by the last caliph, Abdülmecid Efendi, in 1923 and later used by Atatürk, displays the medicines used in his treatment.

The Painting Museum, the Clock Tower and the gardens

Your ticket also covers the National Palaces Painting Museum in the former Crown Prince's Apartment (Veliahd Dairesi). It opened in March 2014 and now shows 553 works from the 16th to the 20th century in 34 themed sections, among them a hall for Ivan Aivazovsky and rooms on Osman Hamdi Bey and the studio of Abdülmecid Efendi, the last caliph. Look for Félix-Auguste Clément's painting of Prince Halim's gazelle hunt, which the administration calls the largest Orientalist painting in Turkey.

Outside the main building:

• The Clock Tower at the palace entrance was added under Abdülhamid II and, according to the culture ministry's portal, completed in 1895.
• The Clock Museum is closed for restoration, according to the National Palaces' page in November 2026.
• Dolmabahçe Mosque, beside the palace, was begun in 1853 for Sultan Abdülmecid's mother, Bezmiâlem Valide Sultan, and completed in 1855.
• The Treasury Gate is where the Ottoman military band (mehter) of the Ministry of National Defence played for about half an hour at 11:00 every Tuesday from 2 June to 30 September 2026. The 2027 programme has not been announced; watch the National Palaces' news page in late spring.

How long do you need at Dolmabahçe Palace?

Plan about two hours for the Selamlık and the Harem. That is the time we allow on our private tour, where the guided visit runs from 09:30 to 11:30. Add the Painting Museum, the gardens and the Clock Tower, and the palace easily fills half a day.

• Start early. The ticket office opens at 09:00, and our guides aim to be inside in the first hour.
• Pick the right day. Not a Monday, not the first day of a religious festival and not 1 January.
• Leave the pushchair behind. Prams are not allowed inside, so bring a baby carrier.
• Travel light. Large backpacks, suitcases and umbrellas go to the cloakroom.
• If stairs are hard for you, note that the main building has two floors, and read our guide to Istanbul with limited mobility.

Photo rules and other visitor rules in 2026

For years visitors were told to put their cameras away inside Dolmabahçe, and many websites still say so. Türkiye Gazetesi reported in January 2026 that the National Palaces had ended the long-standing photo ban at Dolmabahçe, Yıldız and Beylerbeyi. Under the visiting rules as amended on 15 May 2026:

• Phone photos are allowed in the rooms open to visitors, without flash and without holding up the flow of people.
• Other cameras are not, including vlog cameras.
• No costumes or special outfits. You cannot enter in costumes, evening gowns, wedding or engagement dresses, circumcision outfits or clothes judged to be for advertising, and no photos at all may be taken in such outfits in the gardens or on the quay. Professional shoots need a permit and a fee.
• Follow the set route and do not touch objects or surfaces. No food or drink inside, no pets and no smoking, including e-cigarettes.
• Audio guide or guide. Visits are made with the palace's electronic guide system or with a guide; where the audio guide is offered, ticket holders use it free of charge. Licensed guides leading more than eight people must use headsets.

Getting to Dolmabahçe: tram, ferry and bus

The palace is on Dolmabahçe Caddesi in Beşiktaş, on the European shore of the Bosphorus (Vişnezade Mahallesi; phone +90 212 236 90 00).

• Tram. The T1 tram runs from Bağcılar through the old city to Kabataş, the end of the line and the stop for the palace. From Sultanahmet it is the simplest route.
• Ferry. From the Asian side, ferries run from Üsküdar and Kadıköy to Kabataş.
• Bus. City buses and dolmuş minibuses link Beşiktaş with the palace.
• From the airports. Our guides from Istanbul Airport to Beşiktaş and from Sabiha Gökçen to Beşiktaş compare transfers, buses and the metro.

Dolmabahçe with a Bosphorus cruise and Beşiktaş: three plans

The palace was built to face the water, so it pairs naturally with a boat:

1. The palace in the morning with a private guide. On our Dolmabahçe Palace private tour your guide meets you at your central hotel at 09:00, you are inside from 09:30 to 11:30 with the ticket included, then you stop for photos on the Bosphorus shore. Topkapı can be added in the afternoon for €50 more, so pick Wednesday to Sunday. From $150 per person.
2. The water first, the palace after lunch. Our morning Bosphorus cruise collects you at 08:30, stops at the Spice Bazaar and sails past Dolmabahçe, Çırağan Palace, Ortaköy Mosque, Rumeli Fortress and Beylerbeyi Palace before dropping you in Sultanahmet around midday, from $40 per person. After lunch, take the T1 tram to Kabataş and reach the ticket office well before 17:00.
3. The palace on your own, a private boat later. See Dolmabahçe at opening time, have lunch in Beşiktaş, then spend two hours on the water with our private Bosphorus yacht cruise with a guide, from $600 per group, past Dolmabahçe, the Bosphorus Bridge, Beylerbeyi and Rumeli Fortress. Our sunset yacht cruise guide lists sunset times by month.

On a budget, public ferries are the cheapest way onto the water: see our guide to the Bosphorus by public ferry for Şehir Hatları times and fares, and Bosphorus cruise tickets today for the boats from the main piers.

More of Beşiktaş. Yıldız Palace and Park lies on the hill behind Beşiktaş; the palace is closed on Wednesdays and costs 900 TL for foreign visitors, or is covered by Combined II. Along the shore, Ortaköy Mosque stands beside the Bosphorus Bridge, and on the Asian shore Beylerbeyi Palace is covered by the Combined I pass. Our page on things to do on the Bosphorus covers all of them, and our sister site Get Istanbul Tours lists more private days in the city.

Tours that cover this

• Dolmabahçe Palace Private Tour: Guide, Ticket and Optional Topkapı: from $150 per person, 6 to 8 hours, with a licensed English-speaking guide, the Dolmabahçe ticket and photo stops on the Bosphorus shore. Free cancellation until 7 days before.
• Private Bosphorus Yacht Cruise in Istanbul: 2 Hours with Guide: from $600 per group, with a licensed guide and coffee or tea on board.
• Morning Bosphorus Cruise Tour with Spice Bazaar Stop: from $40 per person, hotel pick-up at 08:30, with Dolmabahçe seen from the water.
• Full-Day Bosphorus Cruise and Two Continents Tour: from $88 per person, 08:30 to about 17:00, with the cruise past Dolmabahçe, lunch and the entrance to Beylerbeyi Palace included.

No prepayment needed: pay on the tour day.

Send us your dates on WhatsApp and we will set up your Dolmabahçe Palace private tour, with Topkapı or a Bosphorus boat added if you wish.

FAQ – Dolmabahçe Palace tickets, hours and rules