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The Porsuk: footbridges, boats and the riverside evening

A slow river through the middle of town, crossed by a dozen footbridges, with tour boats, gondolas and half the city walking beside it after dark.

Free-ish1–2 hoursearly evening, from the golden hour into the first lights

Not yet checked by the Smileys team — prices and hours may have moved.

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Why do it?

The Porsuk river runs straight through the city centre, dividing the Odunpazarı side from Tepebaşı, and since the early 2000s the metropolitan municipality has turned its banks into the city's living room: landscaped banks, footbridges every few hundred metres, cafés along the water, and the Adalar — the river-island stretch lined with bars and terraces. Since 2009 the municipality has run boat tours and Venetian-style gondolas from the Köprübaşı pier, which carried more than 300,000 people between January 2024 and May 2025. The first International Porsuk Festival took over the riverbanks and Kentpark with free concerts and events on 2–6 September 2026.

The Smileys Take

The river is the reason Eskişehir feels so easy to live in: you walk everywhere along it, and everyone else does too. Do the boat once — it's short, cheap and a nice way to see the bridges from below — and the gondola only if you're in a couple or a group of four and want the photo. The better plan is free: walk the banks from Köprübaşı towards the Adalar as the light goes, stop for tea on whichever terrace has space, and drift on to dinner. Boat times change with the season and the weather, so check at the pier. If the festival returns next September, it's the best free weekend in the city — watch the municipality's announcements for dates.