Ramadan 2027 in Istanbul: Dates, Iftar Times and a Tour Plan

Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin in Turkey on Monday 8 February and end on Monday 8 March, with the Eid holiday (Ramazan Bayramı) on 9-11 March, according to the Diyanet calendar. In Istanbul that means fasting days of roughly 12 to 13 hours, iftar at about 18:35 at the start of the month and about 19:10 at the end, and a city that stays fully open to visitors by day. A Ramadan trip works well if you plan around one simple rule: sightseeing in the morning and early afternoon, iftar at sunset, mosques and old streets after dark. Our Islamic Istanbul tour package is built on exactly that rhythm.

This page explains the 2027 dates, what a normal Ramadan day looks like in the city, where to have iftar, how visitors can experience tarawih prayers respectfully, and what changes during the three days of Eid.

Ramadan 2027 dates in Turkey

Turkey follows the calendar published by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), which is fixed well in advance. Unlike some countries, Turkey does not wait for a local moon sighting, so the dates below are the ones hotels, restaurants and mosques will work to.

Iftar is taken at the evening prayer (akşam), which in Istanbul follows sunset by a few minutes. Based on sunset times, expect iftar at approximately:

• 8 February: about 18:35
• 15 February: about 18:45
• 22 February: about 18:55
• 1 March: about 19:00
• 8 March: about 19:10

Diyanet publishes the exact minute for each district in its imsakiye (Ramadan timetable), and your hotel reception will have it. Use the official time on the day rather than our approximation.

What a Ramadan day in Istanbul looks like

Visitors who have never been to a Muslim-majority city in Ramadan often expect closures. Istanbul is not like that. Museums, palaces, the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, ferries, trams and taxis all run on their normal schedules. Restaurants and cafés in the old city, Galata, Karaköy, Beyoğlu and along the Bosphorus serve lunch as usual, and licensed venues continue to serve alcohol. Nobody expects a visitor to fast, though eating or smoking ostentatiously in front of a mosque courtyard is best avoided.

What changes is the shape of the day:

• Morning: quieter than usual in residential districts, because many people were awake for sahur.
• Afternoon: queues form outside bakeries for Ramazan pidesi, the round flatbread baked only in this month. It is worth buying one warm.
• The hour before iftar: the busiest traffic of the day. Everyone is trying to get home or to a restaurant table before the call to prayer. Do not plan a cross-city drive or an airport run for this window.
• Iftar itself: for ten or fifteen minutes the streets go almost silent. Then the city comes back to life.
• After dark: families stroll, mosque courtyards fill for tarawih, tea gardens stay open late, and the old city feels more festive than at any other time of the year.
• Around 3-4 am: the Ramadan drummer (davulcu) passes through some neighbourhoods to wake people for sahur. In Sultanahmet and Fatih you may hear him from your hotel room.

You will also see mahya, the lit messages strung between the minarets of the large imperial mosques, a tradition specific to Istanbul.

Iftar evenings and Sultanahmet after sunset

There are three good ways for a visitor to share iftar.

A restaurant iftar menu. Many restaurants offer a set menu for the month: dates and water to open the fast, a soup, pide, cheeses and olives, a main course and a Ramadan dessert such as güllaç, a delicate milk and rosewater pudding made with thin wafer sheets. Tables near the old city fill up fast, so book a day or two ahead for weekends and every night in the last ten days.

A public iftar. In recent years local authorities and charities have set up free iftar tents and long communal tables in several districts. Sultanahmet Square has hosted Ramadan events in many years, but who organises them, and whether there is a tent there at all, has changed from one year to the next. Treat any public iftar in 2027 as a bonus to confirm locally, not something to build a whole evening around.

A Ramadan market and stroll. Around the Hippodrome and the Blue Mosque you often find food stalls, Ottoman-style sweets, roasted chestnuts, corn and tea in the evenings. Even when the layout differs from year to year, the walk from Sultanahmet Square past the Hippodrome to the mosque courtyard is the classic Ramadan night out in Istanbul.

For a quieter evening, the area around Eyüp Sultan Mosque and Pierre Loti Hill is one of the most visited religious sites in the city during Ramadan, and Çamlıca Hill and Çamlıca Mosque on the Asian side gives a wide view over the lit-up city after iftar.

Tarawih at the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Süleymaniye

Tarawih is the extra night prayer performed after the night prayer (yatsı) throughout Ramadan. In Istanbul the night prayer comes roughly an hour and twenty minutes after iftar, and tarawih follows it.

If you are Muslim, praying tarawih in one of the imperial mosques is the highlight of a Ramadan trip. The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Süleymaniye Mosque are the most popular, and they fill early, especially on Fridays, weekends and the Night of Power on 5 March. Arrive at least 30-45 minutes before the night prayer if you want a place inside rather than in the courtyard. Women's sections are separate; follow the signs or ask at the entrance.

If you are not Muslim, you are welcome to visit the mosques as a tourist outside prayer times, but the tourist entrances close during prayers, and during tarawih the mosques are places of worship, not sights. You can still enjoy the atmosphere from the courtyards and the square, listen to the recitation, and watch the crowds arrive.

Practical points for everyone:

• Dress: shoulders and knees covered for men and women; women cover their hair inside mosques. Bring a scarf; see what to wear in Istanbul for winter layers.
• Shoes: you remove them at the door. Carry a small bag for them.
• Hagia Sophia: since January 2024 foreign visitors pay an entrance fee (€25 in 2026) to the upper gallery visitor route, while the ground floor is used for prayer. Read our Hagia Sophia ticket update before you go.

Our guides lead mosque tours of Istanbul by day and can explain the architecture and the Ramadan customs before you return on your own in the evening.

A sightseeing plan that works during Ramadan

Keep the heavy sightseeing to the first half of the day and leave the evening free. This is the four-day pattern we use for private guests.

• Topkapı Palace is closed on Tuesdays, Dolmabahçe Palace on Mondays.
• Mosques close to tourists for longer around Friday midday prayer. Put museums, not mosques, on Friday mornings.
• Afternoon fatigue is real if you are fasting. A private guide and car let you stop when you need to, which is why many fasting travellers prefer a private tour to a fixed group schedule.
• Shopping at the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar is calmer in the mornings. The Grand Bazaar is closed on Sundays.

If you are travelling from the Gulf, South Asia or Southeast Asia, our pages on Istanbul tours for Gulf travellers and Istanbul tours for Indian travellers cover halal dining, prayer stops and family logistics in more depth. Travellers who want more guided days across the city can also look at private Istanbul tours on our sister site.

Eid al-Fitr in Istanbul: 9-11 March 2027

Ramazan Bayramı is a three-day public holiday, and the half-day before it (arife, 8 March) is when offices close and people start travelling. For visitors it brings a cheerful mood, children in new clothes, sweets offered everywhere, and some practical changes:

• Museums run by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism usually open from 13:00 on the first day of the holiday and keep normal hours on the second and third days.
• The National Palaces, which include Dolmabahçe and Beylerbeyi, have closed on the first day of recent Eid holidays and reopened on the second.
• The Grand Bazaar usually closes on the first day of religious holidays and reopens on the second.
• Traffic and transport are heavy on the eve and the last day, as many Istanbul residents leave the city or return. Domestic flights and intercity buses are often full.
• Hotels in Sultanahmet and on the Bosphorus are busy with domestic and Gulf visitors during the holiday, so book rooms well before the end of Ramadan.

Exact holiday hours are announced a few days before; we check them and adjust the order of visits.

Weather and packing for February and March

Ramadan 2027 falls in late winter. Istanbul's long-term averages from the Turkish State Meteorological Service show an average high of about 10°C and an average low of about 4°C in February, with rain on roughly 14 days of the month. March is a little milder, with an average high of about 12°C and a low of about 5.5°C.

Pack a warm waterproof jacket, layers you can take off inside heated mosques and museums, comfortable shoes that slip on and off easily, and a scarf. Evenings by the water are cold, especially on the Bosphorus after sunset.

Tours that cover this

These tours fit a Ramadan visit. The private ones can start late morning to suit sahur and fasting.

• Islamic Istanbul tour package, 4 days with private guided heritage tours: from $768 per person.
• Istanbul classic private guided tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque and the old city, from $200 per person, 6-8 hours.
• Premium Istanbul tour package, 6 days: from $1,050 per person.
• Whirling Dervish Sema ceremony with reserved seating: from $60 per person, a good after-iftar evening.

You can also browse our Istanbul destination guide, all Istanbul tours.

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