Üsküdar Beyond the Square: Side Streets, Mosques and Waterfront Cafes

By six in the evening, every bench on the Üsküdar waterfront with a view of Kız Kulesi (the Maiden's Tower) is taken, and the çay (Turkish black tea served in tulip glasses) sellers are working the crowd. That view is the famous part of Üsküdar, and it deserves fifteen minutes of your time. The better part of the neighborhood is behind it: the side streets running uphill from the iskele (ferry pier), a food street two minutes inland, and a shore walk north that ends in Kuzguncuk. This is our route for a half day there.

What is there to do in Üsküdar beyond the main square and Maiden's Tower?

Beyond the square, Üsküdar has a Sinan-built mosque directly at the pier, a food street called Uncular Caddesi two minutes inland, a shoreline walk north past wooden yalı (Bosphorus waterfront mansion) facades toward Kuzguncuk, and a hilltop park at Nakkaştepe with one of the better free Bosphorus views in the city. All of it works on foot.

Start at Mihrimah Sultan Mosque, which faces you the moment you step off the ferry. Mimar Sinan built it in the 1540s for a daughter of Süleyman the Magnificent, and it gets a fraction of the visitors that his European-side work does.

From the mosque, walk inland to Uncular Caddesi, the street Istanbullus mean when they talk about eating in Üsküdar. It runs uphill lined with pide (boat-shaped flatbread with toppings) ovens, börek (filo pastry with savory filling) counters, and tea houses, and a filling lunch here costs a third of what the same meal runs in Sultanahmet. For Turkish coffee afterward, Latife Türk Kahvesi brews it properly over low heat and serves it with a square of lokum on the saucer.

Then head back to the water and walk north along the shore. The coastal path to Kuzguncuk takes about 25 minutes at a slow pace, passing fishermen, old wooden houses, and a steady procession of tankers heading for the Black Sea. In Kuzguncuk itself, the painted houses along the main street and the small community garden at Kuzguncuk Bostanı are the reward for the walk.

Is Üsküdar worth visiting for a day from the European side of Istanbul?

Yes, if you like walking and eating more than queueing for museums. The ferry from Eminönü to Üsküdar takes about 20 minutes, costs around 35 lira with an İstanbulkart in 2026, and departures run roughly every 15 to 20 minutes through the day. A half day covers the pier, the mosque, Uncular Caddesi, and the walk to Kuzguncuk comfortably.

The honest tradeoff: Üsküdar has no single headline sight on the scale of Topkapı or Hagia Sophia, so a first-time visitor with two days in Istanbul should probably spend both on the European side. With three or more days, an Üsküdar afternoon is one of the easiest wins in the city. A full day lets you add Beylerbeyi Palace, a 19th-century Ottoman summer palace on the shore about ten minutes past Kuzguncuk by taxi. The National Palaces administration manages it and posts current hours and ticket prices, and it closes Mondays.

If your legs still work after all that, Nakkaştepe Millet Bahçesi on the hill above Kuzguncuk is a landscaped park with tea kiosks and a wide view over the first Bosphorus bridge. Entry is free.

Which mosques in Üsküdar are worth seeing off the main waterfront avenue?

Two are worth planning around: Mihrimah Sultan Mosque at the pier, a compact Sinan work from the 1540s, and the Grand Çamlıca Mosque on the hill above the district, the largest mosque in Türkiye, completed in 2019. Both are free to enter outside the five daily prayer times.

Mihrimah Sultan is the one we would not skip, because it shows you Sinan working on a small, human scale rather than an imperial one. Grand Çamlıca is the opposite experience, a vast modern complex with capacity for over 60,000 worshippers, and it pairs well with the Çamlıca hilltop if you take a taxi up (about ten minutes from the pier). Dress code at both: knees and shoulders covered, headscarf for women, and attendants at the door lend scarves if you arrive without one.

Ferries back to Eminönü and Karaköy run until around 23:00. After that, the Marmaray train from Üsküdar station crosses under the Bosphorus instead of over it, and it runs later than the boats do.