Belgrade Forest Istanbul: 4 Best Things to Do

Belgrade Forest, or Belgrad Ormanı as everyone here calls it, is the closest thing Istanbul has to a proper escape hatch. It sits about 15 km north of the city in the Sarıyer district, a wall of oak, beech and chestnut that swallows traffic noise the moment you step under the canopy. On a clear weekend half of Istanbul seems to drive up here with a grill and a bag of köfte, and yet the forest is so big (roughly 5,400 hectares) that you can still find a quiet pond and hear nothing but birds.

I have spent a lot of weekends up here, and my honest take is this: come for the walking track, stay for the picnic, and give yourself a couple of hours to wander past the old Ottoman dams that most day-trippers never bother to find. If you only have time for the famous sights downtown, you can read the best activities to do in Istanbul instead, but if you want one day with trees and fresh air, this is where I send people. For more green options around the city, there is also a good roundup of the green side of Istanbul.

Here is what to actually do once you get there.

What can you do in Belgrade Forest?

The short version: walk or run the lakeside track, set up a picnic at one of the named recreation areas, hunt down the historic dams and aqueducts, and visit the Atatürk Arboretum next door. Below I break each one down with the practical bits.

• Walk or run the 7 km lake track
• Set up a real Turkish picnic
• Find the Ottoman dams and aqueducts
• Visit the Atatürk Arboretum

Walk or run the 7 km lake track

This is the single most popular thing to do in Belgrade Forest, and for good reason. There is a wide, well-graded loop of roughly 7 km that starts near the Neşet Suyu spring and winds around the water under heavy shade. It is flat enough that families with strollers manage it, but long enough that serious runners use it for training. Along the way you will pass simple outdoor exercise stations (pull-up bars, step platforms, that sort of thing) which the city installed for public use, so you will see plenty of locals doing their morning circuit.

If you would rather ride than walk, the forest is also a genuine mountain-biking spot. Most of the main paths are fire-road width, but branching off them are narrower singletrack lines with real climbs and descents. It gets muddy and technical after rain or snow, so save the bike for a dry day.

A few things I have learned the hard way: bring water even though there are springs, wear shoes with grip because the packed earth turns slick when wet, and go early on weekends. By noon on a sunny Saturday the closest car parks fill up and the entrance road backs up. If you like this kind of outdoor day, the forest pairs well with outdoor activities around Istanbul and is one of the better picks among Istanbul’s parks and forests.

The lakeside path is also the prettiest part for photos, especially in autumn when the chestnut and beech leaves turn. For couples it makes an easy, low-key date: slow walk, a coffee from one of the kiosks, and a bench by the water. If you are building a romantic day out, it slots neatly alongside the ideas in the best things to do for couples in Istanbul.

Set up a real Turkish picnic

Picnicking is practically the official sport of Belgrade Forest. There are several named recreation areas, including Neşet Suyu, Kömürcü, Büyük Bent and Bentler, and most have shaded clearings, basic toilets, and space to spread a blanket. Some areas have built-in grill spots where families fire up a mangal (charcoal grill) and cook all afternoon, though rules on open fires tighten in dry summer months, so check the signs at the entrance before you light anything.

What to bring? Honestly, the picnic makes the day. Stop on the way up and stock a basket with fresh bread, white cheese, olives, tomatoes, and some fruit. If you want the full local experience, add a few skewers to grill or pick up gözleme and börek from a bakery, and do not forget a flask for tea. A small portable çay set is the thing that separates a tourist picnic from a Turkish one. For more on the food side of things, my Istanbul street food guide covers exactly what to load into that basket.

There are playground areas for kids near the busier picnic grounds, plus enough flat lawn for a ball game, which is why it is such a reliable family day. If you are travelling with children, it fits right in with the rest of the best activities for children in Istanbul. The entrance to the forest itself is free; you only pay if you drive in and use a car park, or if you cross over to the arboretum next door.

Find the Ottoman dams and aqueducts

This is the part most visitors skip, and they really should not. Belgrade Forest was for centuries the water source for Istanbul, and the engineering is still standing in the trees. Between 1620 and 1839 the Ottomans built seven dams here to supply the city, including the Kömürcü Dam (1620), the Büyük Bent (1724), the Topuzlu, Ayvad, Valide Sultan and Kirazlı dams, and finally the Sultan Mahmud II Dam in 1839. Several of them sit within easy walking distance of the picnic areas, and the Büyük Bent in particular is a hefty stone wall you can walk right up to.

Older still is the water system the great architect Mimar Sinan built between 1554 and 1563, which carried water from the forest’s streams toward the city through tens of kilometres of channels and dozens of aqueducts, partly tracing even older Roman routes. Just outside the forest in Bahçeköy you can see the Bahçeköy (Sultan Mahmud) Aqueduct, finished in 1731, a 21-arch span that is genuinely impressive up close. Standing under it, you get a real sense of how much effort it once took just to bring drinking water to Istanbul. If you find this side of the city interesting, the history of Istanbul gives the bigger picture of how water shaped the whole city.

Visit the Atatürk Arboretum

Right on the edge of the forest, about 2.5 km from the Neşet Suyu spring, sits the Atatürk Arboretum, and it is worth the short detour. It is a managed botanical collection with more than 2,000 species of trees and plants laid out around lakes and woodland, run as a research forest by Istanbul University. Autumn is the showstopper here, when the maples and other deciduous trees turn red and gold and photographers turn up in droves.

Unlike the forest, the arboretum charges a modest entrance fee (at the time of writing it has hovered around a few tens of lira for adults, and it tends to rise each season, so treat any exact figure as a guide rather than a promise). It keeps daytime hours and closes in the early evening, so go in the morning if you want the full loop without rushing. The paths are calmer and more curated than the main forest, which makes it a lovely slow finish to the day.

How do you get to Belgrade Forest?

Getting here without a car is straightforward. Take the M2 metro to its northern end at Hacıosman, then catch a bus (the 42HM is the usual one) up to Bahçeköy, the village right at the forest’s edge, and walk the last stretch to the entrance. From there it is all on foot. By car it is roughly a 30 to 45 minute drive from the European side depending on traffic, and there are paid car parks at the main recreation areas.

A few last tips from experience: weekdays are far quieter than weekends, spring and autumn are the best seasons (summer can be hot and crowded, winter is beautiful but muddy), and there is no big shopping street up here, so buy your picnic before you arrive. Pack it in, pack it out, and leave the forest as you found it.

Belgrade Forest is the easy, green half-day that reminds you Istanbul is not all mosques and traffic. Pack a basket, lace up your shoes, and go.