Istanbul E-pass — Attraction in Şişli

Writing this in hopes that it helps others - we went to Istanbul during the Easter 2025 weekend as a couple and could not decide whether to buy the expensive museum tickets at the door or get the ePass. I mean, the prices are extortionate but in general Turkey has gotten a lot more expensive.

We opted for ePass due to skip the line + main museums, Bursa and Cappadocia trips. So one by one:

If I'd do it again, I'd get a one day pass and see once again Dolma palace, Topkaki and Basilica cistern with ePass. Whilst there are specific tour times, in general that was not an issue. However, it was suuuper busy so it took us forever (1h) to get into Topkaki and the tour itself wasn't the most informative so I would have preferred to just get into museum with a ticket itself and no tour. Basicila has a brief and on point tour which we enjoyed and we really did skip the line here. Dolma had no major queue and we were able to enjoy it in our own speed. We saw the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia on different days and did not need a tour here - ChatGPT was enough.

Bursa - this was truly horrible, essentially a bus trip with mandatory shopping stops. Organised by their partner - Azure Tours. It was 4pm and we had not seen Bursa, Urudag (the mountain). or anything truly interesting. The tour: pick up, 3h bus ride to Bursa, 40 EUR ATV ride to random mountain, candy store (no presentations), jam store (fairly random jams), bad restaurant for lunch, semi-dead mountain resort (if you come from Europe and mountainous regions, this won't be interesting for you) with a EUR 15 chairlift.. Finally, around 5:30 we reached the cable car and had a pleasant ride down. Then there was another bus ride to the Green Mosque area where the Green Tomb was already closed (we asked the guide at the mountain could we go on our own earlier but the chair lift is too far from the cable car), the tour went into 2 more shops (silk scarfs and something, but we used these 45min to run to the town centre and see the Grand Mosque which no one else managed to see). Then a painful drive home with a ferry in between but that wasn't helpful as the traffic into Istanbul made this journey forever long. Just please stop doing these tours, they do not bring joy to anyone.

Cappadocia - also organised by another provider but here we can say in general positive things. The hotel was decent (Heaven Cave House), transfers smooth and the tours interesting. The only complaint is that we spent almost no time at the Open Air museums but made 4 store shops in 2 days - leather which was ridiculous, jewels, carpets and pottery. I mean, we know they make money here but god are these useless and a waste of time. If we forget these stops, everything else was a smooth ride and we'd do this again.

We also use the eSim and Shuttle services. These were smooth and easy to set up/find. The app functions well, apart from needing to log in every time. Other than that, I can only recommend using it. The customer service is excellent and helped us even before the trip.

So all in all - we'd get a 1-day ePass, attend Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque separately, go to Bursa by ourselves and do...

The five stars is for the team communication service who were consistently excellent.

As soon as the pass is confirmed, the team creates a messaging group and you can already ask questions before you even enter the country (!)

At times it feels you may be asking too many questions but the team never let you feel that you are disturbing them. They answer within 10mins and if they cannot, they will advise where to find the answer. Sometimes we missed information already provided on the ePass website, however again the team were very happy to answer our questions. In one situation where we made a reservation and we had not heard from the company due to lack of WiFi, ePass team immediately helped us to get in contact and confirm our collection point. The private airport shuttle was so smooth and easy to book and the driver Aadam messaged us directly. Aadam was an excellent driver.

The ePass itself made our visit and experience so enjoyable, pleasant and its flexibility was excellent. A few times we had to rearrange our days and at first we felt we were being a nuisance, but the ePass team told us we can simply cancel and rebook without a problem. We felt very reassured by the team.

What is also really good is we can still access our ePass account even though our dates are complete and the pass can no longer be used. It is really satisfying to see the list of all the activities we completed and also to listen to some of the audio guides which we did not manage to hear within the trip.

The guided tours were fantastic, especially by Ayşegul. The radio-microphone-earpiece set provided at Topkapi palace was a great idea, especially in a group of almost 50! The Hagia Sophia museum experience is definitely a must do.

Anyone purchasing ePass should be aware the discounted activities are paid via the website therefore there is no need to take any extra cash for these. Also when selecting activities some considerations when booking are certain entry passes are available 30 minutes before or valid for 12 hours once downloaded and that some activities are limited to able body travellers.

The ePass allowed to us to be settled and really enjoy Istanbul thoroughly. It would have been great if we could have done more activities however Istanbul and Turkey itself is too vast to explore within a week or two. Well done to ePass team for showcasing a list of activities that really help visitors to enjoy the essence of Istanbul and beyond. Through traditional and non-traditional tourist activities, such as the typical guided tours and museum entries to quirky workshops and classes, where you meet really welcoming, interesting and hospitable locals, always serving Turkish tea, which we enjoyed so much that we decided to buy to take home.

Thank you very much ePass team for making our Istanbul experience so enjoyable. It was a pleasure to be...

We bought the Istanbul e-pass for February 25-27,2024. Initially, the service seemed so comprehensive and great. We booked a wide variety of services using their platform - airport transfer, SIM card, city card, cruise and hamami, very convenient. They even have a WhatsApp group set up to help you make your experience better and provide customer service whenever you need.

Airport transfer was great - instructions were clean and service was excellent. No complaints here.

Our SIM card and city card was delivered to the hotel before we arrived, which was perfect. But here’s the catch, the SIM card didn’t work as they encountered a problem in activating them. We got my SIM card on Feb 24th night, but it was not working until February 25th 11:00 am. We had to go out without any internet and downloaded all the maps beforehand to get around.

As for the city card, they mixed up the delivery with another customer, so we got two 5-day card instead of 3-day. They did not ask us to pay extra, but not sure how they are going to compensate the other customer. City card was sent with clear instructions and perfectly functional - plus we got an extra two day due to mixed up orders, so no complaints.

We did all the tours on the first day - Hagia Sophia, blue mosque, basilica cistern and topkapi palace. Tour guides were knowledgeable and on time - also no complaints.

Hamami - must try. Also this one I need to give it to them. The customer service of epass actually manages to help us book an experience within 24 hours, which was awesome. The actual Turkish bath experience was also great.

The dinner cruise - booking was seamless and smooth. The pick up was horrible. We were asked to wait at a different hotel, and were given an half hour window for pick up time. We waited for 45 minutes in the cold for the pick up. It’s ridiculous. And the driver does not know any English at all. No license plate or supplier phone number was provided to us beforehand. The whole experience is just terrible. Cruise itself was a very mediocre experience, food were cold, setting somehow like a club, and will have many services trying to ask you for extra money.

Conclusion: buy it for the tours. Get SIM card and city...