Karaköy to Çukurcuma: a Day in Galata and Beyoğlu

Galata and Beyoğlu sit across the Golden Horn from the old city of Istanbul. This was the district of merchants, banks, embassies and foreign communities in the late Ottoman period, and its museums reflect that: banking history, modern art, a dervish lodge, a museum built around a novel. Everything is within walking distance, but the walk climbs almost the whole way. The route therefore starts at the waterfront and finishes at the top.

Morning: the waterfront and Bank Street

Take the tram to Karaköy or Tophane. Istanbul Modern stands right on the shore and is the best place in the city to get an overview of Turkish modern and contemporary art. Give the permanent collection and the current exhibitions one and a half to two hours. On the way out, look back across the water at the skyline of the historic peninsula.

From there it is a ten-minute walk through Karaköy to Bankalar Caddesi, literally "Bank Street". The former headquarters of the Ottoman Bank is now SALT Galata, a cultural centre, and the Ottoman Bank Museum is inside it. Archive documents, old safes and a compact account of money and banking in the empire: an hour is plenty. Karaköy's backstreets just below are full of places for lunch.

Midday: Galata Tower and the Mevlevi lodge

The curving Camondo Stairs lead up from Bankalar Caddesi to Galata in a few minutes. Galata Tower has a small exhibition inside, but most visitors come for the view from its narrow balcony. The queue is often long, so budget an hour including the wait.

From the tower, walk up Galip Dede Caddesi, a street of music shops. Before you reach Tünel square you will find the Galata Mevlevi Lodge, a former house of the Mevlevi order, the "whirling dervishes". The wooden ceremonial hall, the dervish cells and the small graveyard, where the poet Şeyh Galib is buried, are a quiet break from the street. Allow an hour.

Afternoon: Pera and Çukurcuma

Cross Tünel square to Meşrutiyet Caddesi. The Pera Museum is a few minutes' walk away. Its Orientalist painting collection includes Osman Hamdi Bey's The Tortoise Trainer, one of the best-known Turkish paintings, and the permanent displays also cover Anatolian weights and measures and Kütahya tiles. Temporary exhibitions on the upper floors are often a visit in themselves. Two hours is about right.

End the day at the Museum of Innocence, a fifteen-minute walk across İstiklal Caddesi and down into Çukurcuma, the old antiques quarter. Orhan Pamuk created it alongside his novel of the same name, and it displays the objects of the story cabinet by cabinet. If you have read the book, allow an hour; if not, half an hour still works.

Practical notes

• The whole route is on foot, but the slope between Karaköy and Beyoğlu is steep. To save your knees, ride the Tünel funicular up from Karaköy and walk the route in reverse.
• Some museums close one day a week. Check the hours on each museum page.
• For the old city, see the Sultanahmet route. Rather than squeezing both districts into one day, the three-day Istanbul route gives each its own day.