Museum Pass istanbul Card and how to use it

Museum map of Istanbul (Museum Pass Istanbul) designed for foreign tourists visiting the sights of Istanbul. This is a pass valid for 5 days in several of the most popular paid museums, which allows you to save on the entrance fee, as well as enter, bypassing the queue at the box office. It also gives a discount on visits to some other museums and attractions, and a 10% discount on purchases and payments in shops and cafes operating at museums.

On the Internet you can find enthusiastic descriptions of this card, as an indispensable assistant to tourists, and that it gives two-fold savings when visiting. In fact, this is not entirely wrong. Frankly speaking, half of the museums from the list will not be interesting to most tourists, and they are included rather just for the load. And yet, some of the museums may be closed for reconstruction, and one of the palace museums is closed to the public forever. Perhaps what the map is really useful for is the ability to pass without queues, which in popular museums can be very long, sometimes for an hour or more.

But there is a good alternative to the museum card - a single ticket to the three main attractions in Sultanahmet: the Topkapi Palace, the Archaeological Museum, and Hagia Sophia Cathedral for 162 lira (from 2020 for free), and separately visiting them costs 180 (3.92 you can buy at one of the ticket offices in these museums, the queue is least in the Archaeological Museum.

There is another option Museum Pass Turkey. Museum Pass Turkey is sold and operates as well as Museum Pass Istanbul, but the validity period is 15 days, costs 4000 lira in 2024 (87.1 USD), and gives the right to visit more than 300 state museums throughout the country.

Should I buy a museum map of Istanbul

It all depends on the goals and time of your stay in the city. If you are here for 1-2 days, you will not be able to see all the objects that are included in the visit on the map, and it may be easier to buy one-time tickets. But if you are in the city for 3 or more days, and there is a desire to see as much as possible, then Museum Pass Istanbul is recommended. You will benefit both in money and in time.

General rules for using Museum Pass Istanbul

• The passage on the map to museums takes place through turnstiles or individual controllers, bypassing queues and ticket offices.
• Cards are not personal, they can be transferred to another person, but you can only go to each of the museums once. That is, if you are traveling together, then you need to buy two cards.
• The validity period is 5 days, and begins to be calculated from the moment of first use (passage to the museum), and not from the moment of purchase.
• Museum Pass Istanbul there is no other validity period. With a different card expiration date, these are not the real Museum Pass Istanbul, or their clones of another purpose.
• At the end of the time, the card simply stops working, and it can not be extended or replenished, you need to buy a new one.

Card cost

At the moment 2024 a museum card Istanbul costs 2500 lire (54.43 USD, see Turkish currency and exchange rate). The cost increases every year, you can check on the official website - https://muze.gov.tr.

Museum Pass Istanbul for children

On some sites on the Internet you can find information that a special free card is issued for children under 12 years old. But as of 2023, this is unreliable information, there are no special children's cards.

In fact, most of the museums on the list are free for children under 8 years old, and some only up to 6 years old. Moreover, the control is not carried out formally, but ask for foreign passports of children or, in extreme cases, birth certificates. Therefore, taking into account the plans for visiting and the age of the child, you will have to decide whether to buy a card for kids for 700 lire, or buy one-time tickets to the most interesting museums.

How and where to buy a card

• At 9 points of sale when entering any museum from the list (see list here - https://muze.gov.tr). Usually there are long queues at the ticket office, so you either need to come early, or choose little popular places where there are no queues, these are: the Museum of Islamic Art (Museum of Islamic art), The Mosaic Museum, the Kariye museum or the Chora Museum, The Museum of the history of Islamic Science and Technology (Museum of the History of Science & Technology in Islam), Galata Mevlevi or the abode of the Dervishes (Galata Mevlevi Museum). You can pay for the purchase in cash or by plastic card.

• Sometimes Cards are sold in Mobile points in the form of special buses in popular tourist areas.

• Online on the official website https://muze.gov.tr. On the site, you need to select a specific map - MUSEUM PASS ISTANBUL (MOBILE). The rest of the maps listed on the site are intended only for local residents, or for other regions of the country. After purchase, the card is delivered to any of the hotels in Istanbul of your choice within five days, where you can pick it up. This does not have to be the hotel in which you live, you can choose any convenient location.

Attention! You can buy this card only on this website or at the ticket office. On other sites, such cards are offered either at a mark-up, or clones of the card that do not really give discounts on visiting museums.

Attention! No virtual or electronic Museum Pass istanbul Cards exist yet. After purchase, you should get a plastic pass.

What you can visit on the map, list of museums

Here are the museums that you can go to for free on the museum card through the turnstiles. The list is not included when you purchase it, so you canprint this page.

The list of other places where the card gives discounts on admission or payment for services is not officially published, but it is quite extensive. Here is a list of important attractions that can not be visited on the map, but some can get a discount:

• Galata Tower. The entrance is 175 lira, the card is not valid and does not give a discount.
• Maiden Tower. Admission is 25 lira, the card gives a discount of 25%
• Dolmabahce Palace. The entrance is 300 lire.
• Basilica Cistern. Entrance 20 lire.
• Pen Museum. Admission is 20 liras, the card gives a 20% discount.
• Beylerbey's Palace. Entrance 40 lire.
• Military Museum. Entrance 10 lire + 6 lire photo, the card gives a 20% discount.

And do not forget that it is most interesting to get acquainted with a new place with the help of excursions, and even better with an individual tour. Such tours, although more expensive than usual, can be conducted at your request in Russian and at a convenient time for you. You can view tours of Istanbul on one of these trusted sites:

• Excursions from the tour operator TezTour
• Excursions from Sputnik8
• Trips from Tripster