From Palace to Pavilion, the Changing Ottoman Taste

Visit the palace as a compound rather than a building; as you pass from court to court, public access narrows, and that gradation is deliberate. In the second court see the kitchens, in the third the audience chamber and the treasury. The Harem needs a separate ticket and the only chance to see it uncrowded is the first hour of the morning; do not skip the tile panels under the domes or the Imperial Hall. Go out to the fourth court and sit on the terraces over the Golden Horn, and look closely at the mother-of-pearl shutters of the Baghdad Kiosk. It is closed on Tuesdays, so plan accordingly.

Coming here after Topkapi is the order that best explains the difference; the courtyard logic is gone and everything is gathered into a single block. Visits are with a guided group along a set route, so you cannot wander at your own pace. Stand under the chandelier in the ceremonial hall to take in the height of the dome. The crystal staircase and the room where Ataturk died are on the route. Photography is restricted indoors but free in the garden and in front of the clock tower. The ticket queue grows, so go early.

Cross to the Anatolian side; this palace is the smaller summer sibling of Dolmabahce, so its rooms are closer to human scale. Stop in the hall with the pool on the sea side, an arrangement made for cooling that you will not find in another palace. The matting on the floors and the detail of Egyptian reed are among the things the guide points out. The magnolias in the garden and the shore pavilions are the easiest part of the visit, and being right under the bridge it is a good place to watch Bosphorus traffic.

Where the Goksu stream meets the sea stands a day pavilion for hunting and rest that does not even have a bedroom. Being small, you will see all of it in half an hour, so spend the rest of the time on the quay. The stonework on the facade is showier than the interior; this was the face the sultan wanted guests arriving by sea to see. The meadow around it is the last remnant of the Sadabad excursion tradition. In good weather, sit on the quay and then walk to Anadolu Hisari, which takes fifteen minutes.

On the Beykoz ridge, at one of the points where the Bosphorus looks widest. The building itself is not a palace but an early twentieth-century villa in an entirely different style; look at the glass-roofed court with its fountain and at the spiral stair. Its garden is larger than the house and is the real reason to come, with lawns, a pine grove and a view terrace. It is a place people come to for breakfast, so weekend mornings are full and afternoons much quieter. The walk up from the car park is a gentle climb.