For Free

Sazova Park and the fairy-tale castle

A castle of 26 towers, a pirate ship on a lake, a Japanese garden and a zoo — the city's weekend park, unashamedly playful.

Free-ishhalf a daya weekday afternoon, or a spring or autumn weekend

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Why do it?

Sazova Science, Culture and Art Park opened in 2008 on some 400 decares on the western side of Tepebaşı, and it is the municipality's most ambitious park: an artificial lake with a full-size pirate ship moored in it, a Japanese garden, a zoo, a miniature railway, a science experiment centre and a planetarium, a miniature park of Turkic monuments, and cafés and lawns around them. Its centrepiece is the Masal Şatosu, the fairy-tale castle, opened in March 2014 — 26 towers modelled on towers and minarets from around Turkey. In the Ramadan holiday of 2026 alone the castle had more than 12,000 visitors.

The Smileys Take

Adults roll their eyes at the castle and then take forty photos of it — go with that. The park itself is free to walk in and genuinely pleasant: do a loop of the lake, sit in the Japanese garden, and save the paid attractions for when you have kids or visitors in tow. Weekends and holidays are packed with families; a weekday afternoon is calm. It's a short ride west of the centre — check the Estram app for the nearest stop. Good for a relaxed Smileys picnic in spring, when the lawns are green and the steppe wind has dropped.