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Sunset at the Tophane clock tower

Tea on the terrace where the empire's founders are buried, the whole plain below and Uludağ turning pink behind you.

Free1–2 hoursgolden hour

Why do it?

Tophane is the citadel hill Bursa was founded on, and its park is the city's balcony: the Bursa plain spread out to the north, the center directly below, and the mass of Uludağ rising behind. On it stand the tombs of Osman Gazi and Orhan Gazi — the founder of the Ottoman dynasty and the son who took Bursa in 1326 — and the 1905 clock tower, 33 metres of Ottoman civic pride that has become the city's symbol. The square around them was renovated recently and the tea gardens along the edge face the view.

The Smileys Take

This is the free, no-plan evening we send everyone to first. Come up an hour before sunset, look into the two tombs (free, quick, quietly moving), then take a table at the edge with a çay and stay until the lights come on across the plain. It pairs perfectly with a wander down through Muradiye's old streets afterwards, or up from the bazaar beforehand. Half of what we know about Bursa we learned from strangers at these tables.