Emirgan Park Walk

Tour Name: Emirkan Park Walking Tour

Starting Point: Emirgan Park

Tour Price: Please Ask

Summer and spring in Istanbul bring exquisite encounters with natural -and artificially made beauty. Emirgan Park, which overlooks the Bosphorus-side Istinye, is a site where flower landscaping typical to Turkey and an annual tulip festival in April give more than a break from urban Istanbul. You should see the best tulips in the Emirgan Park.

How can I get to the Emirgan Park?

To get to Emirgan Park using mass transit, take the metro from Taksim to the Ayazağa-İTÜ stop. From there, either hail a dolmuş (a mini-bus) with Sariyer-Beşiktaş signs. Tell the driver you want to get off at Istinye, pay him, and call out about midway down İstinye Bayırı Caddesi that you’d like to get off. Alternatively, catch the 29Ş or 25İ, bus from the metro station and get off at the İstinye Bayırı stop or catch a taxi to take you in. You can see the other directions from the Google Maps.

When you arrive at the stop, be prepared to walk. Follow the road to the floral shop until you reach the gates of the park. Pass through and begin taking in the relative silence of the preserve. As you’ll see, there are more than a few inviting and new playground sets for children to climb on. Pass the floral shop and continue on the long road. When you find the first map, begin your explorations.

Itinerary of the Istanbul Walking Tour

The Beyaz Köşk (White Mansion)

Built by Khedive Ismail Pasha c.1871-1878, the Baroque and heavily neoclassical style White Mansion is one of three köşks in Emirgan Park. Arguably the most gracious of the three, the at times simplistic White Mansions entrance is preceded by a pool with a fountain and a square. The building passed to Satvet Lütfi Tozan in the 1930s and then was opened to the public in 1943, and is at this point available for weddings, a good use of the grand building in my opinion. Take a flower-enhanced pathway wraps around the back of the mansion to the parks many winding roads.

Check this related trip package, Istanbul City Tour.

Yellow Mansion

The Sarı Köşk (Yellow Mansion)

A favorite of many, the wooden Yellow Mansion presides overviews of the park’s large lake. Take a meal or tea in its restaurant-cafe to soak it in. Built around the same time as the White Mansion, its ceilings were designed by Sarkis Balyan, a prominent Armenian architect from an equally prominent family of architects who were responsible for most of Istanbul’s famous palaces from the 18th century and onwards.

Istanbul Square and the Little Ponds

Around the corner from the Yellow and White Mansions is a series of shallow ponds with carp and water plants, as well as a wire cupola and aviary in the most picturesque of settings. Nearby is Istanbul Square, around the plaza with Aegean-styled pebble mosaics in the shape of Turkeys famous tulips set around its edges, along with little fountains and of course, Istanbul in giant block letters. Sometimes I wish the city had more places like this to show its pride.

With the visiting to the Little Ponds, our Istanbul Walking Tour will be ended.