In Istanbul, there are two types of Museum Pass that you can buy for your Istanbul museums visits. One of them is owned and offered by the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism and other one is offered by the authorized travel agents.
Ministry’s Museum Pass Istanbul Mobile
This Museum Pass offers access to 10 museums in Istanbul under the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Directorate of National Palaces, which also means State Museums. All these museums can be visited for 5 days with Museum Pass.
Insider Advice: Kickstart your Istanbul adventure with the Istanbul E-Pass or Istanbul Tourist Pass. These passes provide free access to around 70+ top attractions, tours and essential local services in the city with around 70% savings.
Museums included
- Topkapi Palace Museum + Harem
- Hagia Irene Museum
- Museum of Turkish & Islamic Arts
- Istanbul Archaeology Museums
- Chora Museum
- Great Palace Mosaics Museum
- Museum of History of Science and Technology in Islam
- Galata Mevlevi Lodge Museum
- Galata Tower Museum
- Rumeli Fortress Museum
Pricing & Validity
Valid for 5 days starting from your first visit.
Price is 2250 TL
How to Buy?
You can buy this museum pass online from the official Museum Pass Istanbul Mobile website. Alternatively, you can directly buy the Istanbul Museum Pass (with your ID card) at the ticket windows at the museums.
Important Notice : You’ll see or read elsewhere another Museum Pass named Müzekart+, which gives access to unlimited visits to more than 300 museums and archaeological sites in Turkey, valid for 1 year. Note that this museum card is only for Turkish citizens and foreign residents in Turkey having “ID Number”.
Alternative Istanbul Museum Passes
These types of Museum Passes are offered bu authorized sellers. They are like similar ones of the above Museum Pass Mobile offered by the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism. They differ with the number of museums included and price. We recommend the below ones as you will save a lot.
No Regrets Booking Advice
Guided Museum Passes Istanbul
These types of Passes are offered bu authorized sellers and a good option for the ones who want to see the most visited Museums in Istanbul with a guide. Typical passes include the 5-12 most visited museums plus 3-5 of them with guide.
Online City Pass – Istanbul E-Pass
This is a digital travel discount pass that is delivered to your phone upon your purchase online, and will be ready to use at your arrival. It includes 35+ attractions and services including skip the line access and guided museum tours, dinner cruise, hop-on & hop-off Bus, airport transfer, and many more.
Buy Your Istanbul E-Pass
Wanna learn more about Istanbul E-Pass?
Online City Pass – Istanbul Tourist Pass
Istanbul Tourist Pass is a digital travel discount card that provides entrance and transportation tickets to many of Istanbul’s top tourist attractions along with several guided museum tours with skip-the-line access in a simple, useful, convenient and fun way.
Rather than paying for each item individually, the pass allows you to choose from 100+ things to do in Istanbul so you can pack as much into your stay as possible for a single set price. You’ll get valuable discounts of up to 80%.
After you purchase the pass, it will be delivered to mobile phone and will be ready to use at upon arrival.
There are four types of Istanbul Tourist Pass (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 or 10-Day).
We Highly Recommend These Fantastic Night-time Activities
Buy Your Istanbul Tourist Pass Online Now
Wanna learn more about Istanbul Tourist Pass?
Online City Pass – Istanbul Welcome Card
The is an innovative city pass. It includes fast track entry to 9 museums (Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Harem, Basilica Cistern, etc), 3 tours with historian guide, 20 rides with public transportation (IstanbulKart), Bosphorus Cruise and digital guide book and city map. It also offers 20% discounts at the most important Istanbul attractions on their shop. With this card you’ll skip the long ticket lines and not have to pick anything up.
Buy Your Istanbul Welcome Card Deluxe
Click the red button to go straight to Istanbul Welcome Card, our best collaborator and inventor of the card.
Our website visitors will get 5% extra discount.
Wanna learn more about Istanbul Welcome Card?
Ministry’s Museum Pass vs Others
We can see that you may get confused about which museum pass you should buy. Let us guide you through this and give you our recommendations.
Istanbul Museum Passes with no Regrets
Free cancellation with a FULL REFUND up to 24 hours in advance
Summary of all
* We recommend the Ministry’s Museum Pass (10 top Museums), if you are a sole traveler and don’t want guides. It costs 2250 TL. (around €75-80).
* Alternatively, if you want guided museum tours with skip-the-line access, we would recommend the 5-Day Guided Museum Pass, Istanbul Tourist Pass, Istanbul E-Pass or Istanbul Welcome Card Deluxe. These passes are good alternatives as they include guided tours with fast track entry. These also worth a buy.
* We also can say that, majority of the tourists visit only Hagia Sophia, Dolmabahce Palace, Topkapi Palace, Harem and Basilica Cistern during their stay in Istanbul. Because they also take other shore excursions, attractions and neighborhood visits within a limited time of stay.
* Also guided tours are mostly preferred by the tourists as they want to learn more about the history of the place they visit from a professional guide, especially when we speak about Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and Basilica Cistern.
* Skip-the-line-access is also a great choice because you’ll see a long queue at Dolmabahce Palace and Topkapi Palace Museums in almost every season and queues are always a mass.
* Majority of the tourists take some other must-do attractions during their Istanbul visit, like each of us do when we visit a tourist. It can be cruises, specific shows, theme parks, and some other city sightseeing tours. So these 5-Day Guided Museum Pass, Istanbul Tourist Pass, Istanbul E-Pass or Istanbul Welcome Card Deluxe are great value for money tourist passes.
