Daily Bursa Tour from Istanbul – Green Mosque, Grand Mosque & Uludag (Private)

Bursa Day Trip from Istanbul: Ottoman Mosques, Silk-Road Bazaars and Mount Uludag

Our daily Bursa tour from Istanbul takes you across the Sea of Marmara to the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, a city locals still call Green Bursa for its parks, its mountain forests and its famous tiled monuments. This guided day tour is ideal if you have only a few days in Istanbul but want to see where the Ottoman story truly began.

Shore Excursion for Cruise Passengers in Istanbul

This Bursa Tour also works as a shore excursion from the Istanbul cruise port — a popular choice for passengers who have one day ashore. As a private excursion it is fully flexible — pickup is right at the pier, the pace follows your group, and we make sure you are back on board well before departure. Tell us how many hours your ship stays in port and we will confirm that the full programme fits comfortably. Simply share your cruise itinerary and the date you are in Istanbul, and we will reserve your places.

• Ferry crossing from Istanbul to Yalova with open views over the Sea of Marmara
• Browsing the historic Covered Bazaar, home to traditional crafts and Bursa silk
• The Ulu Cami (Grand Mosque) with its twenty domes and celebrated calligraphy
• Ascent to Uludag, the ancient Mount Olympos of Mysia, for wide panoramic views
• The Green Mosque and Green Mausoleum, masterpieces of early Ottoman tile art
• Traditional Turkish lunch stop at a local restaurant

Bursa became the Ottoman capital in 1326, and many of its finest buildings date from that founding century. The Ulu Cami, completed around 1400, is one of the most important early Ottoman mosques: its interior is a forest of pillars carrying twenty domes, with monumental calligraphy covering the walls and a fountain placed inside the prayer hall. Around it stretches the old market quarter, where covered bazaars and caravanserais once handled the silk trade between Persia and Europe; today they are a pleasant place to look for towels, knives, silk scarves and local sweets.

The Green Mosque (Yesil Camii), built for Sultan Mehmed I, is admired for the turquoise and green tiles that give it its name, while the nearby Green Mausoleum (Yesil Turbe), his tomb, glows with blue-green ceramics inside and out. Above the city rises Uludag, the mountain the ancient Greeks knew as Mount Olympos and linked in legend to the gods watching the Trojan War; on clear days the views over the Bursa plain are superb, and the famous Inkaya plane tree, said to be centuries old, stands on the slopes nearby. This daily excursion includes hotel pickup and return in Istanbul, an English-speaking guide and the entrance fees listed in the programme, so the whole day runs smoothly from start to finish.