Tourists visiting Istanbul are discovering the city’s historic landmarks and lesser-known corners on retro motorcycles with sidecars, offering an alternative way to experience the city’s streets, coastline and iconic Bosporus views.
Entrepreneurs Cem Akkuş and Semih Aydoğan launched the tour concept in 2024 after bringing retro sidecar motorcycles from abroad to offer visitors a different way of exploring Istanbul.
Based in the Sultanahmet area of Fatih, the entrepreneurs organize tours covering locations on both sides of the Bosporus, including the historic peninsula, Karaköy, Beşiktaş and Üsküdar.
The tours are particularly popular among foreign visitors and include stops at locations suitable for photography. Tour participants can see Istanbul’s historic architecture and skyline from a different perspective while traveling through the city on classic-style motorcycles.
The tours also offer an alternative to conventional bus and walking excursions, allowing visitors to travel through narrow historic streets and reach areas that larger tour vehicles cannot easily access.
The tours begin as early as sunrise, when the city is quieter, and take visitors along both the European and Asian sides of Istanbul.
Speaking on the tours, Akkuş said they noticed that tourists were increasingly looking for different activities during their visits to Istanbul.
He said the idea emerged from their own interest in motorcycles and from observing similar tours in international tourism destinations.
"We wanted to create a memory that they could return to their countries and tell their friends about,” Akkuş said, adding that they saw retro sidecar motorcycle tours in cities such as Lisbon and Paris and believed the concept could also work in Istanbul.
He said the service had been operating for about two years and was designed to allow visitors to see a broad range of Istanbul’s landmarks within a few hours.
"Our goal is to show Istanbul, including both the European and Asian sides, the Bosporus Bridge, terraces and gardens, in three to four hours,” he said.
Akkuş added that they wanted visitors staying around the Historic Peninsula to see places beyond the city’s most well-known landmarks.
"We wanted to show them that Istanbul has many beautiful undiscovered places and bring them together in the best possible way as an organized experience,” he said.
Aydoğan said Istanbul offers numerous places worth visiting, but tourists often lack sufficient time to explore destinations outside the main tourist routes.
Describing the route, he said the tour begins at Sarayburnu and continues along the coast before crossing the Galata Bridge and reaching Dolmabahçe Palace.
The route then continues toward Ortaköy and Yıldız Park before crossing the Bosporus Bridge to Nakkaştepe.
Visitors then travel down to Kuzguncuk and continue along the Asian side toward the area around the Maiden’s Tower before taking a ferry back to Sultanahmet.
"They get a panoramic view of Istanbul,” Aydoğan said.
He explained that the classic sidecar motorcycles were chosen partly because their retro appearance complements Istanbul’s historic character and because they can accommodate 2 passengers alongside a driver.
Sabahudın Hrustıc, who visited Istanbul from Bosnia and Herzegovina with his wife, said the experience was memorable.
"The idea of using a sidecar motorcycle in Istanbul is really great,” he said, describing the classic motorcycle as particularly impressive.
"Our tour was fantastic. I definitely recommend trying it. I felt like a bird, as if I could fly. It was truly an incredible experience,” Hrustıc said.