Bursa Province · Turkey
Where to stay in Bursa
Bursa is a city in Bursa Province, Turkey, home to about 2,901,000 people.
- Best months
- May to September
- Nearest airport
- YEI42 km · Bursa Yenişehir Airport
- Currency
- TRYTurkish lira
- Time zone
- Europe/Istanbul
- Language
- Turkish
About
About Bursa
Bursa is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. It is the fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region after Istanbul.
Prusa, the kernel of present-day Bursa, was named for Prusias king of Bithynia, who laid its foundation stone in 202 BC. This was fortified into a walled citadel on the ridge of Tophane, controlling the valley trade routes. The Romans annexed Bithynia in 74 BC, and they especially enjoyed the thermal springs of Çekirge just west of Prusa - so it was a tourist resort even in those days. Byzantium (from 330 AD called Constantinople) became the metropolis of their eastern empire, continuing long after Rome itself fell.
Wikipedia and Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Things to do
What to see and do in Bursa
See
- Grand Mosque
- Orhan Mosque
- Koza Han
- Heykel
- City Museum
- Irgandı Bridge
- Green Mosque
- Turkish & Islamic Art Museum
- Emir Sultan Mosque
- Museum of the Ottoman House
- Tofaş Anatolian Car Museum
- Beyazid I Mosque
Do
- Yeni Baths
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Where to stay
Hotels in Bursa
18 hotels within 25 km of the centre, as recorded in Wikidata. Each name links to its encyclopedia article where there is one.
| Hotel | Opened | From centre |
|---|---|---|
| İpek Han | 1.8 km | |
| Almira Hotel Thermal Spa & Convention Center | 2.1 km | |
| Bursa İpekyolu Hotel | 1.2 km | |
| Bursa Palas Hotel | 2.0 km | |
| Bursa Park Apart Hotel | 2.6 km | |
| Dimen Hotel | 1.5 km | |
| Grand Bursa Hotel | 0.7 km | |
| Grand Turkuaz Hotel | 1.4 km | |
| Green Prusa Hotel | 1.1 km | |
| Holiday Inn Bursa - City Centre | 1.6 km | |
| Hotel Grand Heykel | 1.6 km | |
| Kardes Hotel | 1.9 km | |
| Kent Hotel | 1.8 km | |
| Kitapevi Hotel | 2.1 km | |
| Lena Central Flats | 1.4 km | |
| Prusias Otel | 0.6 km | |
| Tugcu Hotel Select | 1.7 km | |
| Ulu City Hotel | 1.9 km |
When to go
The best time to visit Bursa
The most comfortable months for a city stay in Bursa are May to September. August is the warmest month, with average highs of 28 °C; December is the wettest, with about 108 mm of rain.
Comfortable means average daytime high between 18 °C and 29 °C and under 80 mm of rain in the month. Averages for 1991–2020 over the surrounding area, a grid square about 50 km across, so a coast or a nearby mountain can make the town itself warmer or cooler. Data: CRU TS v4.10, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia (Open Database License).
Getting there
Getting to Bursa: airports and arrival
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Bursa Yenişehir Airport (YEI), about 42 km from the city centre in a straight line; Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW, 81 km) and Balıkesir Airport (BZI, 117 km) are also within reach.
Getting in
International visitors usually arrive via one of the Istanbul airports. Sabiha Gökçen (SAW) the Asia-side airport has many European and domestic flights. Burulaş Bus runs hourly to Bursa Otogar taking 90 min, single 70 TL. You're looking for the yellow bus outside Arrivals. Istanbul Airport (IST) is Europe-side. Its flight connections are global, but you'll have to travel into city centre to find a bus or ferry onward.
Getting around
There is an extensive bus and dolmuş network. The dolmuşes in Bursa look like standard white cars with a sign on the roof, rather than minibuses. More about the dolmuş as a transport option can be found in the Wikivoyage articles for other Turkish cities, but it is akin to the post-Soviet marshrutka and is a very convenient and cheap way of navigating the city if you can master some very basic Turkish. Bursaray is the city metro. It's a standard-gauge railway running east-west: to the west it forks for the University, and northwest for Emek where buses from the ferry ports will drop you.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
YEI · Bursa Yenişehir Airport
SAW · Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport
BZI · Balıkesir Airport
Local knowledge
Eating, drinking and staying safe in Bursa
Eat
Bursa is widely considered the birthplace of döner kebap, a vertically-rotated column of stacked lamb meat cut into thin, juicy slices that is about as iconic as pizza or sushi worldwide. By far the best-known local specialty is the İskender kebap, an indulgent dish featuring cuts of finely roasted döner meat and rich tomato sauce on a bed of broth-soaked pita bread, topped with yogurt and sizzling butter. You cannot visit Bursa and leave without trying the dish, considered the best Turkish cuisine has to offer by many. However, Bursa doesn't lack in other food options. A more underground delicacy is pideli köfte (or Kayhan pidesi), a variant of İskender kebap with meatballs.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Questions
Bursa: questions travellers ask
When is the best time to visit Bursa?
The most comfortable months for a city stay in Bursa are May to September. August is the warmest month, with average highs of 28 °C; December is the wettest, with about 108 mm of rain.
Which airport is closest to Bursa?
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Bursa Yenişehir Airport (YEI), about 42 km from the city centre in a straight line; Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW, 81 km) and Balıkesir Airport (BZI, 117 km) are also within reach.
What currency is used in Bursa?
Turkish lira (TRY).
Nearby
Destinations near Bursa
Sources: city facts from Wikidata and Wikipedia; airports from OurAirports; climate from CRU TS v4.10 (University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit), 1991–2020 monthly means, 0.5° grid; places to stay, guest scores and amenities from each operator's own public pages. How this guide is made.