Gallipoli day trip from Istanbul: the 15 to 18 hour tours from €130, the two-day option with Troy and the Çanakkale route

💡 The Short Version: Gallipoli is a tour, not an outing. The 18-hour minibus tourad is €130 (588 reviews) and the 15-hour small-group tourad €135 (449 reviews, 15 people at most); each spends about five hours on the road each way. The alternative is a night in Çanakkale: a two-day Gallipoli and Troy tourad is €320 with a hotel, and a 6-hour tour from Çanakkalead is €69. The peninsula is a battlefield and a war cemetery for Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and France, and the tours focus on the Anzac sector. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices for one adult.

The options compared

The timing

The Gallipoli Peninsula is on the far side of the Dardanelles, and the tours do the whole trip from Istanbul in one day.

• The 18-hour tour lists a five-hour transfer from Istanbul to Eceabat, a lunch stop, 11 points on the peninsula and a five-hour transfer back, with a break at Tekirdağ. Pick-up is from the hotels listed on the booking page, and breakfast at the stop is at your own expense.
• The 15-hour tour stops for breakfast at 9:30 to 10:00, has lunch in Eceabat, leaves Gallipoli at 18:00 and reaches Istanbul at about 23:00. Pick-up and drop-off are from hotels on the European side in Sultanahmet, Laleli, Topkapı, Aksaray, Taksim, Sirkeci and Şişli only.
• The 6-hour tour from Çanakkale meets at the tourist information centre at about 10:45, takes the ferry to Eceabat and has lunch before the battlefields.

Bring a passport or photo ID. The operators advise comfortable shoes, sun protection in summer and warm clothes in winter.

What the tours visit

The Anzac sector is on the Aegean coast of the peninsula. Both full-day tours visit Anzac Cove, Arıburnu Cemetery, the Lone Pine Australian Memorial and Chunuk Bair. The 18-hour tour also lists Beach Cemetery, the Mehmetçik monument, Johnston’s Jolly and The Nek. The 15-hour tour starts at the narrowest point of the Dardanelles with Kilitbahir Castle, built by Mehmed II in 1463, and names the grave of John Simpson Kirkpatrick. The two-day tour adds Brighton Beach, the Turkish 57th Infantry Regiment cemetery and trenches.

Anzac Cove. Photo: Julian Nyča, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Çanakkale Wars Gallipoli Historical Area Presidency, which manages the park, lists the sites and publishes a one-day route on its own site. It runs: the Namazgah Bastion; the Rumeli Mecidiye Bastion and Corporal Seyit; the Şahindere cemetery; the 1915 Hilal-i Ahmer (Red Crescent) Hospital exhibition; the Çanakkale Martyrs’ Memorial; the Çanakkale Epic Promotion Centre; the 57th Regiment cemetery; Chunuk Bair; the Atatürk House Museum at Bigalı; and Bigalı Fortress (canakkaletarihialan.gov.tr). It also has two- and three-day routes.

The Çanakkale Martyrs’ Memorial, seen from the Dardanelles. Photo: Gucabdullah, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Staying overnight

The two-day tour leaves Istanbul at 6:00 to 7:00, has lunch in Eceabat, tours the battlefields and ends at 18:00 with a night at a 3-star bed-and-breakfast hotel in Çanakkale. The next day it goes to Troy, with pick-up at 13:30, and returns to Istanbul at about 23:00. Entrance fees, one lunch and the hotel are in the price.

If you travel independently, base yourself in Çanakkale: the Presidency’s site has a “How to get there” page, and the 6-hour tour from Çanakkale at €69 covers the Anzac sector without the road from Istanbul.

Visiting the sites

Gallipoli is where the Allied landings and the Ottoman defence of 1915 took place, and its cemeteries and memorials are used for commemoration. Speak quietly and do not climb on memorials.

The Lone Pine Memorial and cemetery. Photo: Adam Jones, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Gallipoli is one of the day trips from Istanbul. If a 15-hour day is too much, the Princes’ Islands or Bursa are shorter. What to book before you go to Istanbul lists the sights in the city, and where to stay in Istanbul compares the areas.