Bursa tour from Istanbul: a day trip to where the Ottoman Empire began

The crossing

Fast ferry across the Sea of Marmara, about 2 hours each way, Istanbul to Mudanya; a car meets the boat

How long the Bursa day trip takes

11–13 hours door to door — a long day, not a relaxed one

What the Bursa tour costs

From €150 per group per day — not per person; ferry tickets at cost

Who it is for

Second- or third-visit travelers, and anyone curious where the Ottoman story starts — not a three-day first trip

Walking

About 4 km, with cobbled lanes and steps in Cumalıkızık — comfortable shoes

Avoid

Friday midday, when the mosques close to visitors for the Friday prayer; any other day works

How the day runs

Timings below are the ones we actually use, not a brochure. Everything here is movable — it is your day, and your guide will happily rebuild it over breakfast.

1. 07:00

   Pick-up and the fast ferry

   We collect you from your hotel and drive to the pier for one of the first fast ferries across the Sea of Marmara. The crossing takes about two hours, sometimes a little less: tea, a simit, and the open water of the Marmara. Sailings change with the season, so we book the one that fits your date.

2. 09:45

   Mudanya, and the road into Bursa

   Your car and driver meet the boat. It is about forty minutes into Bursa, past the olive groves and then the city's suburbs, which is the moment to understand that Bursa is a big modern industrial city with an Ottoman city in the middle of it.

3. 10:30

   The Green Mosque and the Green Tomb

   Mehmed I's mosque, finished around 1421, is the most beautiful room in Bursa: its tile panels, glazed in deep greens and blues, were made by craftsmen from Tabriz, a generation before the kilns of nearby İznik made the tiles you see in Istanbul's mosques. Across the lane, the sultan's tomb wears turquoise tiles outside and keeps its finest tilework within, around the cenotaph.

4. 11:30

   The tombs of Osman and Orhan

   On the citadel hill at Tophane, the graves of the first two sultans: Osman, who founded the dynasty, and Orhan, his son, who took Bursa in 1326 and made it the capital. The tombs were rebuilt after the earthquake of 1855, so the buildings are nineteenth century. The view across the city from the terrace beside them is the best orientation you will get.

5. 12:15

   The Ulu Cami

   The Grand Mosque, built for Bayezid I around 1400: twenty domes on twelve piers, a fountain for ablutions under the central dome, and the most famous collection of calligraphy in any Turkish mosque, written across its walls and piers in many different hands. Prayer times decide when we go in, and your guide plans around them.

6. 13:00

   The Koza Han and the silk market

   Bayezid II's caravanserai of 1491, built for the cocoon trade, when Bursa was one of the great western markets of the silk that came overland from Iran. It still sells silk around a courtyard of tea tables with a tiny mosque raised over its fountain. Browse as long as you like and buy nothing if you prefer; you are welcome either way and never hurried.

7. 13:45

   Lunch: İskender kebab

   Thin slices from the vertical spit over bread, tomato sauce and yogurt, with sizzling butter poured over at the table. It was first served in Bursa in the 1860s, and eating it here is a small ritual of the day. Something lighter is always available.

8. 15:00

   Cumalıkızık

   An Ottoman village on the lower slopes of Uludağ, about half an hour east of the center: timber-framed houses on cobbled lanes, painted doors, and a stream running through it. Village and city are inscribed together on the UNESCO World Heritage List as Bursa and Cumalıkızık: the Birth of the Ottoman Empire. Or, if you would rather, the Uludağ cable car instead — see below.

9. 16:45

   Back across the Marmara

   The drive to Mudanya and an early-evening ferry back to Istanbul, then home to your hotel at about seven or eight, depending on the sailing and the traffic at the Istanbul end. If the sea is too rough for the fast ferries, which happens a few times a winter, the car brings you back by road over the Osmangazi Bridge instead.

Where we meet, and what happens if plans change

The Bursa tour from Istanbul is a private day across the Sea of Marmara to the first Ottoman capital, from €150 for the whole group. Bursa was taken by Orhan in 1326 and was the capital of the young Ottoman state until the court moved on to Edirne later in the fourteenth century; the dynasty that went on to take Constantinople, build Topkapı and raise the Süleymaniye learned to build here first. UNESCO lists the city's early complexes and the nearby village together as Bursa and Cumalıkızık: the Birth of the Ottoman Empire, which is the best one-line summary of the day.

How do you get from Istanbul to Bursa?

Three ways, and only one of them is right for a day trip. The fast ferry is the one we use.

Bursa is about 150 km south of Istanbul as the crow flies, and much further by road around the Gulf of İzmit, which is why the sea is the short way. Ferry sailings change with the season and the weather, so we book the crossing for your date and confirm the times before you travel.

Why Bursa matters if you have seen Istanbul

Everything you saw in Istanbul has a beginning, and it is here. In Bursa you see Ottoman architecture before it became imperial: the early mosques with their inverted-T plan, the first royal complexes of mosque, school, bath and kitchen grouped around a tomb, and the tilework that came before İznik's great century. Walk through Topkapı Palace one day and the Green Mosque the next and you can see one family's taste growing up over a hundred and fifty years. That is the real reason to come, more than any single building. If the palaces are your interest, our Ottoman palaces tour is the natural day to pair with this one.

What you will see in Bursa

The Green Mosque and the Green Tomb

Mehmed I reunited the Ottoman state after the civil war that followed Bayezid I's defeat by Timur, and his mosque, finished around 1421, is the finest early Ottoman interior anywhere. The tile panels and the sultan's loge above the entrance were made by craftsmen from Tabriz; the portico was never finished, and the building is the better for its plainness outside. The Green Tomb across the lane is the octagon you see in every picture of Bursa, its turquoise skin largely renewed after the 1855 earthquake and its interior tiles, around the cenotaph and the mihrab, original.

The Ulu Cami

Legend says Bayezid I vowed twenty mosques for his victory at Nicopolis in 1396 and built one with twenty domes instead. Whatever the truth, the Grand Mosque is a forest of piers under a grid of domes, with a fountain splashing under the central one. Its walls carry one of the great collections of Islamic calligraphy, which is the thing most visitors remember.

The Koza Han and the market quarter

Bursa sat at the western end of the overland silk trade from Iran, and its hans were where the bales and the cocoons were weighed, taxed and sold. The Koza Han of 1491 is the best of them, two stories of arcades around a courtyard full of tea tables, with silk scarves still sold in its shops. Next door are the Emir Han and the covered market. If you would like to buy silk, your guide will tell you what to look for; if you would rather just sit with a tea under the arcades, that is just as good a use of the half hour, and nobody will hurry you.

The tombs of Osman and Orhan

The founders of the dynasty lie on the citadel hill, in the area called Tophane, inside the line of the old Byzantine walls of Prusa. Both tombs were rebuilt in the 1860s after the 1855 earthquake, so what you see is a nineteenth-century tribute rather than the original buildings, and we say so. The terrace beside them, with the clock tower, looks out over the whole city to the plain.

Cumalıkızık

About ten kilometers east of the center, on the first slopes of Uludağ, Cumalıkızık is an early Ottoman village that has kept its timber-framed houses, its cobbled lanes and its stream. People live here; it is not a museum, and the village breakfasts and jam stalls are part of how it earns its living. It is the most photographed part of the day and the gentlest.

Is a Bursa day trip worth it?

For the right traveler, yes, and we would rather be honest about who that is. Bursa rewards people who have already seen Sultanahmet and want to understand where it came from. It is less rewarding if you are expecting a small, pretty old town: Bursa is one of Türkiye's largest cities, a center of the car and textile industries, and the historic buildings are scattered across a busy modern city linked by traffic. On a first, short visit to Istanbul, spend the day in Istanbul. On a fourth or fifth day, or a return trip, it is one of the best days out of the city we know.

Uludağ and the cable car: a different kind of day

Above the city rises Uludağ, the Mysian Olympus of the ancients and the highest mountain in western Anatolia. A cable car of about nine kilometers climbs from the edge of Bursa to the high meadows, and in summer it is a day of pine forest, grilled meat and cool air. In winter Uludağ is Türkiye's best-known ski resort, usually from about December to March, and busy on weekends. Choosing the mountain means dropping Cumalıkızık, because the afternoon does not hold both; tell us which you prefer when you write.

What does the Bursa tour from Istanbul cost?

From €150 per group, per day — not per person. As with every tour we run, the final quote is worked out for your date and season, the size of your group, and where the day starts and finishes; on a day with a sea crossing and a second car on the far side, that matters more than usual.

Gezginol is a licensed TÜRSAB agency, number 15746. Ferry fares are set by the operators and change with the season, so we print no figure here; ask us for the current one.

Dress, prayer times and the best day to go

Three of the stops are working mosques: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off at the door, and a scarf for women, which we keep in the car. Each closes to visitors for a short while around the daily prayers and for longer at Friday noon, so a Friday is the one day we would avoid. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons; summer is hot in the city and cool on the mountain. For the rest of your trip, our Istanbul travel tips cover what this page does not.

Other long days out of Istanbul

Bursa is the one long day trip that needs no airport. The others fly: Cappadocia for the rock churches and the balloons, Ephesus for the Roman city, and Pamukkale for the white terraces, best paired with Ephesus over two days. By road there is also the Gallipoli day trip, longer and more somber than this one. See all our private tours, or send us your dates and we will tell you honestly whether Bursa is the right use of one of them.

Bursa Day Trip — frequently asked questions

What you'll see

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