The island's main attractions in summer are small-scale open-air concerts and a swimming and fitness club beside the sea.

The annual Independence Day march on 29 October is celebrated by the resident naval band touring the island.

Also in the grounds is the grave of Edward Barton, the second English Ambassador sent to Constantinople by Elizabeth I of England, who spent his last days on Heybeli to escape an outbreak of plague raging through the city in 1598.

The monastery of Hagios Georgios tou Kremnou (St George on the Cliff) was founded in the late 16th century and was often used as a haven for the local Greek population when plague hit the mainland.

Mavromatakis Köşkü, a house belonging to İsmet İnönü, the second President of Turkey who was a regular visitor to the island, is sometimes open as a museum.

[8] Published in 2006 Mary Ann Whitten's book, An Island in Istanbul: At Home on Heybeliada, recounts the story of an American couple who bought one of the old houses to live in.

It burned down again in 1821, and was finally reconstructed by patriarch Germanus IV of Constantinople in 1844 when it became home to the Halki Theological Seminary (Greek: Ιερά Θεολογική Σχολή της Χάλκης) of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the main Greek Orthodox seminary in Turkey.

Its closure made it impossible to train any more Greek Orthodox clergy within Turkey and has proved very controversial, with President Erdoğan suggesting in 2021 that it might be reopened independently if Greece improved conditions for the Turkish Muslim population of Thrace.