Things to Do in Kadıköy: Moda, Market Streets and the Asian Side

The best things to do in Kadıköy are to take the 20-minute ferry across from Europe, eat your way through the market streets, walk Bahariye Avenue and the murals of Yeldeğirmeni, and finish on the Moda seafront for sunset. Half a day covers it at a relaxed pace; a full day lets you add Üsküdar, Kuzguncuk or a palace on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus. Kadıköy is where many Istanbul locals live, eat and go out, so the appeal is everyday city life rather than monuments. If you want the Asian side combined with the Old City and a guide who knows where to eat, our Old City and Two Continents walking tour spends one of its two days on this side of the water.

The ferry is the first thing to do

Getting to Kadıköy is part of the trip. Public ferries cross from Eminönü, Karaköy and Beşiktaş on the European side, and the ride takes about 20 minutes. Sit outside on the upper deck on the way over: behind you are Topkapı Palace, Hagia Sophia and the Süleymaniye Mosque on the skyline, and ahead are the Maiden's Tower and the Asian shore. Pay with an Istanbulkart, tapping in at the pier gates.

As the ferry turns into Kadıköy you pass Haydarpaşa station, the German-designed railway terminus opened in 1909, which stands on the water like a castle. It is under a long restoration; the sea-facing facades have been cleaned and the scaffolding is down, but the first phase of opening has moved to 2027, so for now it is a sight from the deck. If the weather is too rough for ferries, the Marmaray rail line runs under the Bosphorus to Ayrılık Çeşmesi, one metro stop from Kadıköy.

A half-day plan for Kadıköy and Moda

This is the order that works for most visitors, starting from the ferry pier and ending at the Moda shore.

Kadıköy is hilly in places but compact. You can walk the whole loop, or ride the T3 nostalgic tram, a single-track loop of about 20 minutes that links the pier area, Bahariye and Moda.

The market streets of Kadıköy Çarşı

Cross the road from the ferry pier and walk uphill into the Çarşı, the pedestrian market quarter around Güneşlibahçe Street and its side lanes. This is one of the best food streets in Istanbul for seeing what locals actually buy: fishmongers with the day's catch on ice, shops of pickled vegetables and their juice, cheese and olive counters, spice and coffee sellers, and butchers with cured pastırma hanging in the window.

Lunch here is the point of the visit. Çiya Sofrası on Güneşlibahçe Street has been serving regional Anatolian dishes for decades and is the best-known name, but the side streets are full of small lokantas with ready-cooked stews, lahmacun ovens and kebab grills. Eat what is in the trays, point if you need to, and expect to pay a fraction of Sultanahmet prices. For a deeper look at the city's food, see our private Istanbul food tour page.

Bahariye Avenue and the murals of Yeldeğirmeni

From the top of the market, Bahariye Avenue runs south as Kadıköy's main pedestrian shopping street. Halfway along stands the Süreyya Opera House, opened in 1927 as the first theatre of its kind on the Asian side, with a restored interior that still hosts opera and concerts. At the Altıyol junction, the bronze bull statue is the meeting point most locals give you when arranging to meet.

On the other side of the market, north of the pier, Yeldeğirmeni is a grid of older apartment blocks named after the windmills that once stood here. Since the 2010s many of its walls have been painted with large murals by Turkish and foreign street artists, and the area has filled up with small coffee roasters, second-hand shops and bakeries. It is the place to wander without a plan for an hour.

Moda: the seafront, ice cream and sunset

Walk south from Bahariye, or take the tram to the end of Moda Avenue, and the streets drop to the sea at Moda. This is the quiet, leafy part of Kadıköy, with older houses, the historic Moda pier and a long seafront park where locals sit on the rocks and on the grass in the evening.

Three things to do here:

• Get an ice cream on Moda Avenue. Ali Usta's ice-cream shop has been a Moda institution for decades, and the queue on summer evenings tells you why.
• Walk the seafront path towards Fenerbahçe. The promenade continues around the bay to the park on the Fenerbahçe point, with views of the Princes' Islands on clear days.
• Stay for sunset. From the Moda shore the sun sets behind the Old City, so Topkapı, Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque turn into a silhouette across the water. It is one of the best free views in Istanbul.

The Kadıköy and Moda page has more background on the two districts.

Kadıköy in the evening

Kadıköy is livelier at night than the Old City. Kadife Street, known locally as "the street of bars", has small pubs and live-music venues aimed at a young local crowd, and the streets around the market fill with meyhanes, the traditional taverns where you order mezes and grilled fish with rakı. On match nights the area around the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, the home of Fenerbahçe football club, is packed with fans.

The last ferries back to the European side leave later than visitors usually expect, but timetables change by season and route, so check the time of the last boat to Karaköy or Eminönü before you sit down to dinner. Taxis and the Marmaray line are the fallback.

More of the Asian side: Üsküdar, Kuzguncuk and the palaces

With a full day, combine Kadıköy with the districts to the north along the Bosphorus.

• Üsküdar. A short ride from Kadıköy, with two mosques by the architect Sinan near the pier: the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque and the small Şemsi Pasha Mosque at the water's edge. From the Salacak shore just south, boats run out to the Maiden's Tower, which reopened after restoration and has its own ticket.
• Kuzguncuk. A small neighbourhood of wooden houses where a mosque, a Greek church, an Armenian church and a synagogue stand within a few streets of each other.
• Çamlıca Hill. The highest point on this side of the city, with Çamlıca Mosque, opened in 2019 and the largest mosque in Türkiye, and a view over both continents.
• Beylerbeyi Palace. The 1860s summer palace of the sultans, right under the first Bosphorus bridge.

Beylerbeyi Palace is smaller and much quieter than Dolmabahçe, and its sea-facing pavilions are best seen from the water. Distances on this side are longer than in the Old City, so a car and driver saves time if you want to fit in more than two stops.

Tours that cover this

• Istanbul Two-Day Walking Tour: Old City and Two Continents, from $440 per person. One day in Sultanahmet, one crossing to the Asian side.
• Beylerbeyi Palace and Çamlıca Hill Half-Day Morning Tour, from $52 per person.
• Full-Day Bosphorus Cruise and Two Continents Tour, from $88 per person.
• Istanbul Street Food Tour: Local Neighbourhoods, Baklava and Coffee, from $90 per person.

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