Best time to visit Istanbul
Our pick for sun: May to September.
The best months
- SunMay to September
- CityMay to October
…
The twelve months at a glance
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | Best avoided, 20/100 | Best avoided, 20/100 | Best avoided, 20/100 | Best avoided, 28/100 | Ideal, 80/100 | Ideal, 90/100 | Ideal, 97/100 | Ideal, 97/100 | Ideal, 93/100 | Good, 67/100 | Best avoided, 20/100 | Best avoided, 20/100 |
| City | Fair, 39/100 | Fair, 45/100 | Fair, 56/100 | Good, 78/100 | Ideal, 88/100 | Ideal, 83/100 | Ideal, 82/100 | Ideal, 82/100 | Ideal, 88/100 | Ideal, 80/100 | Good, 71/100 | Fair, 48/100 |
- Ideal
- Good
- Fair
- Best avoided
- Risk flagged
Temperatures and rain
See the month-by-month values
| Month | High | Low | Sea | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 9°C | 3°C | 9°C | 83 mm |
| February | 10°C | 4°C | 8°C | 70 mm |
| March | 12°C | 5°C | 9°C | 77 mm |
| April | 17°C | 9°C | 11°C | 52 mm |
| May | 22°C | 13°C | 16°C | 41 mm |
| June | 27°C | 18°C | 21°C | 44 mm |
| July | 29°C | 20°C | 23°C | 31 mm |
| August | 29°C | 21°C | 24°C | 29 mm |
| September | 25°C | 17°C | 22°C | 48 mm |
| October | 20°C | 13°C | 19°C | 69 mm |
| November | 15°C | 9°C | 15°C | 65 mm |
| December | 11°C | 5°C | 12°C | 93 mm |
Estimated flight time
- From YUL : about 9 h 50 min
- From YYZ : about 10 h 20 min
- From YVR : about 11 h 55 min
Estimate of a nonstop flight computed from the distance: not a schedule. Connections lengthen the trip.
Getting to Istanbul with points
Keep going
Where this data comes from
Temperatures, sunshine and rain: monthly normals we computed over 1991-2020. These are estimates from a climate reanalysis, not station readings.
- ERA5 reanalysis-era5-single-levels-timeseries (C3S, CC-BY)
- NOAA OISST v2.1
Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information (ERA5, 2026, CC BY 4.0 licence). Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains. Sea temperature: NOAA OISST v2.1 (Huang et al., 2021, J. Climate 34, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0166.1).