Bosphorus

Arnavutköy

The neighbourhood of Arnavutköy literally "Albanian village", paying homage to its founders in 1500s features impressive 4-storey wooden mansions which line the waterfront, all bearing significant artwork on their facades.

Emirgan Park

Situated on the gentle hill overlooking the neighbourhood of Emirgan and the Bosphorus, Emirgan Park was for long the only place in the city where Istanbulites can admire the beauty of tulips. Having lost that distinction in the last decade as tulips are now everywhere, this is still a beautiful park with artificial ponds, small waterfalls, and impressive views of Bosphorus. There are also cafes with open-air sections housed in pleasant former imperial hunting manors. Squirrels are there, too, in the middle of this metropolis of 15+ million people, though you may have to look a bit deeper or a bit upper on the branches! to spot them.

Maçka Park

This is a park occupying two sides of a valley of this hilly city, with an avenue inbetween. Sides of the valley are connected to each other by a 4-person gondola lift line offering a shortcut when walking to Taksim Square as well as nice views of Bosphorus access to northern station from Maçka Caddesi/Eytam Caddesi, every 5 minutes 8AM-8PM, 1.50 TL pp one-way, and by a wooden bridge over the bisecting avenue if you prefer to take a stroll along nice footpaths of the park.

Ortaköy

A neighbourhood on the bank of Bosphorus with the Ortaköy Mosque—the baroque mosque under the Bosphorus Bridge, combination of which are one of the most iconic images of Istanbul. This artsy neighbourhood is filled with nice cafes, some of which offer kumpir—a baked potato with various fillings such as mayonnaise, ketchup, pickles, sweetcorn, sausage slices, carrots, mushrooms, Russian salad among others—which the neighbourhood is well-known for, and a perfect view crowded and fun. The way from Beşiktaş takes around 25 minutes on foot and is along an avenue shaded by huge plane trees, though the usually-heavy traffic may take some of its peacefulness away.

Rumeli Citadel

Built in first half of 1400s, this is the large medieval castle under the Second Bosphorus Bridge. Its former name Boğazkesen Turkish/Laimokopia Greek means both "strait-blocker" and "throat-cutter" in both languages and denotes the reason of its building—to shut the supply routes from the Black Sea in the north into the slowly falling apart Byzantine Empire through the Bosphorus. Rumeli, literally "Roman land", was the name of the European half of Ottoman Empire, and as is usual with some other structures and villages along the Bosphorus, used as a prefix to differentiate Rumeli Hisarı from its counterpart in Asian Side, the much smaller Anadolu Hisarı, located just across the Bosphorus.

A private museum housed in a yalı, traditional wooden waterfront mansions that lie along the banks of Bosphorus. Exhibition includes a number of archaeological and ethnographical artifacts from the collection of Koç Family, though just seeing the interior of a yalı is worth entering.

Museum with a rich collection of calligraphy and paintings. It also hosts temporary exhibitions of works by some world-class artists such as Pablo Picasso from time to time.