Privétour van een halve dag door Istanbul

J (Celal) was a fantastic tour guide! He provided an educational and interesting tour of istanbuls most famous sites touching on its history and current events. He was flexible with pace and kindly escorted us to our dinner that followed the tour. Highly recommend this tour with J at the start of your trip so you can get a grasp at of this amazing city!

This was a wonderful way to see the most popular points of interest in Istanbul on a half-day tour. Uğur met us promptly and escorted us all over the old town while telling us historical facts of the city and country, not just the sites we visited. If we had longer in Istanbul, we would have loved to spend more time with him on a longer tour; he was wonderfully friendly, funny, and accommodating. He even took us to a local ice cream shop for delicious Turkish ice cream and baklava! Five stars for Uğur and this tour!

I’m going to start with our tour guide Uğur. Absolutely an amazing tour guide. He met us at the port and helped us understand the easiest way to travel around Istanbul. He helped us with our Türkçe. He even gave us pointers for another tour. An amazing man. He was passionate and extremely knowledgeable about the areas we visited. Our tour started in the large square next to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque where we learned about the intricacies of the German Fountain and Egyptian columns. From there, we moved to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, where Uğur provided a detailed history of the mosque. Inside the mosque was astounding. There were some 21,000 blue tiles along with other elaborate marble and stone. We then moved to the Hagia Sophia. At the time, it was under renovation so some of it was a bit hidden, but most of the historical areas were still well within view. Uğur, again, provided amazing insight into the history of Hagia Sophia. Also, don’t be afraid to ask him religious questions; he’s very professional. From there, we moved to the Basilica Cistern. This was an interesting look into how the Romans preserved their water supply and, of course, catching the Medusa statue and column pieces throughout. Because of my natural affection for Turkish lamps, Uğur took us to one of the manufacturers where we able to view a wide variety of lamps—some styles I had never seen before even with looking into the different shops. This was a nice experience that wasn’t a part of our original plan. Next up was Turkish ice cream and this most intriguing pudding. I won’t say much here, but to just try it. Lastly, we finished in the Grand Bazaar. Shops on top of shops. If you aren’t used to dealing with sellers trying their best, or maybe their worst who knows, then you may feel overwhelmed. Always keep in mind you can say no and haggle with them. Prices here will be higher, so just know you can always look elsewhere. I’ll conclude by again saying how helpful Uğur was for us. If you get him as your guide you will be very fortunate.

Ugor our guide was excellent. He was fully versed in the history of the city and gave us excellent insight to detail. He was most accommodating when time was short and when some attractions were closed he arranged alternative places to visit. We would highly recommended him to anyone. Thanks for your flexibility and desire to satisfy our needs. D&B

İpek was very friendly, knowledgeable, and flexible. We enjoyed all the sites we went to and would definitely book again for other tours.

First. Our guide Ugur was fantastic. Knowledgeable and interesting. Hagia Sophia (even under renovation) was worth the price alone. We also took in the underground cistern and the Blue Mosque. Emine in the office was also great. Courteous and professional. We liked it so much that we booked a private Bosphorus cruise with him the next day. The very comfortable boat picked us up and returned us to our hotel's dock!

Nurten was so fun and knowledgeable. We had a great tour and saw so many great things. I would highly would recommend.

The tour was excellent. Lots of interesting places visited with the right amount of information provided. Tonga was an excellent guide. Would highly recommend a private tour as Istanbul can be very busy with queues. to try.

This is why you need to book this tour. It is private so you don’t have to wait or share with strangers. Since it is private you can start at anytime and go at your own pace. J was awesome. He let us at the Intercontinental Hotel and taught us how to use the metro to get to all the sites. For some reason our credit cards didn’t work and he paid for us which was so nice. He was super well informed on his history and taught us a lot about the sites and the history and the different religions. We landed the night before and were super jet lagged during the tour and I needed a break with a little food so we stopped to get a tea and a snack. J was awesome. Thank you so much for a great tour!

J, my tour guide, was fantastic. He was very knowledgeable and answered all my questions. We had a great lunch at a local spot. It was nice to see everything on the list and not feel rushed.