3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace

We had the most amazing couple of days with our Fez guide, Ömer Faruk, in Istanbul. He was friendly, knowledgeable, obliging and helpful. It was fun spending two whole days with him exploring beautiful Istanbul. He gave us not only many interesting stories about the sights and history, but also important info on all sorts of logistical things - meeting places, ATMs, local transport, toilets etc. It was especially interesting to learn from his conversations during the tour about his life in Turkey, about local customs, religion and heritage. We would thoroughly recommend him. The other Fez people we engaged with for shorter times were also extremely helpful - our greeter at the airport and our driver. Many thanks to you all for a memorable experience. PS: Also thanks to Fez for arranging such good weather and cute cats!

We booked our tour to Turkey through Diamond Star experience, who sub contracted it to Fez Travel, so we had no idea what this was going to be like. But I needn't have worried. After an initial problem with the first pick up at Istanbul, it all went very well. The Tours were well organised and the guides were very good. But the most amazing part was the one on one contact I had with a Ms Pinar of Fez Travel. The support she provided was amazing whenever I needed help or advice she was there virtually 24./7 No problem to much, always a result . During a our time in Turkey we visited Istanbul , Cappadocia and Kusdasi including 5 tours, 1 boat trip withe evening out and best of all the hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia and all went well. All in all a good holiday. I would heartily recommend Fez Trave . Phil Martin.

We were put on to Fez Travel tour and transfers by our travel agent in New Zealand. I will be speaking with the travel agent about our experience with this company. We were picked up from Istanbul airport. It was not at all obvious to us where we were to meet the Fez Travel transfer van. As it happens, they were outside of Exit 14 at Istanbul airport and we were directed there by their opposition. While we were talking to Fez employees, a trolley guy from the airport pushed a row of trolleys into two of our party. I understand this is not an issue with Fez but they did nothing about it (prior or post) and their faces looked blank, when it happened. The transfer to our hotel was fine and in fact difficult for the driver to navigate too but he did it well. Day 2 - we had our Fez tour guide turn up for a private tour at 8:30am when we were scheduled to meet at 9am. He agreed to wait until we had had breakfast. My mother is 81 and is in a wheel chair. He walked us out of the hotel and to our surprise up to the local tram service. A conversation ensued with the guide (Harkem) about my mother being in a wheel chair and we were expecting (had paid for) Fez Travel to provide a van for this private tour. He talked us out of this by saying the places we were going too were close by and it was too hard to get the van in and around the sites. The van was provided on day 2 (after our insistence). Our first visit was the Hippodrome in Istanbul. Harkem was very well informed about this place and its' history and gave an excellent narrative for about 20 minutes. He was open to questions and we found him quite jovial. The rest of Day 1's tour was pleasant but difficult to get my mother around in the wheel chair. The tour guide definitely took us to places where he was getting a kickback. One of the last roads we got my mum down in the wheelchair (the guide would not help with the wheel chair at all) was bordering on dangerous to take my mum down as it was very steep, with deep cobble stones. Day 2 with Harkem was a very different experience - he was very stand offish and would not walk with us. I have many photos of him walking 10 metres in front of us. He was providing very little commentary and was seemingly disinterested in coming to work today. He was a completely different personality to the same person we had on Day 1. My brother and I went to the royal palace with Harkem and he dropped us at the gate and said I will meet you at the exit where there is a cafe. This is not what we had paid for. Getting into the palace was a drama where his passes didn't work and he had to ring his head office obviously to pay for the tickets. We left Harkem at our Hotel at the end of the day with very little fanfare or good byes. I did pay him a $78 AUD tip which I regret as Day 2 would have been better spent by ourselves (and not wondering what we had done wrong to upset the guide). Fez Travel were prepaid to get us from our Hotel to our cruise ship at the end. We had a driver turn up at the hotel that didn't know where he was going. The Galata Port is a very busy place with vehicles and people everywhere. The driver asked us where we wanted to be dropped. We had never been there before. I said this to him "you are the driver". He ended up dropping our party of 4 including my mum in a wheel chair on a traffic island outside the port. It was obvious to us a little later that the driver could have dropped us at our gate underground which would have been metres away from our baggage drop area. I suspect Fez Travel used a third party for this private transfer. I would definitely not recommend Fez Travel for transfers and/ or private tours.

After the pickup at the AirPort we had a ride to the hotel, relaxed, dinner and then bed. The following day was on our own and we went to the Basilica Cistern and that was a fantastic experience not to be missed. After that we just strolled around town. Next morning Ömer met us at the hotel and we Walked to meet the other couple and went on to Hagia Sofia. Once the girls were dressed properly we took the fast lane in to the mosque. Fantastic. Ömer, our guide, was full of knowledge and annecdotes about all the areas inside. Next we had a Turkish icecream before we headed to Topkaki Castle. Another amazing place full of history. Bring lots of water, it’s huge. Lunch at the Pudding restaurant, good value. The Blue Mosque and the Hippodrome came next. Another amazing building and lots of people. A walk to a carpetmaker was comming up. Situated in an old caravanserai we were shown the tricks with Turkish mats and the beauty of silkmats. Then the Grand Bazar, me and wiffy decided to do that on our last day because we ran out of fuel in the heat (30+ ’C) Next day the bus took us across the Bosporus to the Asian side to see the town from above. After that we visited the Beylerbeyi Palace, a rokoko building built to impress Europeans. And then we embarked on a small Cruise up and down the Bosporus to see all the grand buildings and yachts and a fortress, the trip ended back in Europe. We had some makrell in a wrap for lunch before the third mosque with all it’s beautiful tilework . The very last thing was the Spice Bazar, lots of spices, delights and jewelry. Ömer escorted us back to our hotel via lokal trams and we said goodbuy to a very good guide after a short trip full of beuty.

Omer, our guide was very helpful, had good historical knowledge and sense of humour which we all appreciated. He also was our guide to Gallipoli and Troy and he made this trip one to remember. I recommended Fez travel.

The tour guide was full of information and very friendly. He walked to a pace that was easy to keep up with for us oldies. The tour was amazing and we took many photos to look back on. A great experience.

Omar was our guide during our time in Istanbul and provided a good mix of current and historical perspectives to our tour. Very personable.

Fantastic tour. Omer made Turkey come alive with sharing the history and he had great knowledge while also adding loads of interesting stories to keep it engaging. We did this tour along side the tour to Troy and Gallipoli. Thank you Omer and the driver for sharing your country and bringing a higher level of respect to what happened. We all left with more love for Turkey and a far great knowledge of the counties amazing history

Halil Ibrahim our guide had indepth historical and current knowledge of Istanbul; was able to answer all our questions.. he took us to interesting places for lunch and tea, giving us authentic Istanbul life experiences.. he took initiative to change the Bosphorus ferry cruise which was pre booked for 1st May. Halil was very patient and kind with our seniors needs and slow pace.. he made this tour that much more special

I had a 3 night/4days booked through Fez travels via kimkim website, so this review is based on day 1 of tour. Initial consultation via emails with Mehmet was quick and efficient and was very professional . Every request and planning of the trip was well executed by the team. Upon arrival the driver was already at the airport with my name tag clearly presented. It was a swift transfer to the hotel at Grand Yavuz Hotel in old city, an old but well kept hotel ( a seperate review of the hotel). Good range for buffet breakfast. My tour guide Bahir Onwr Enir was an absolute star, well I was lucky to have a private tour to visit the 3 key sites of the old city. Whilst he did run 15 minutes late he did ensure to communicate this through hotel reception and upon his arrival was very apologetic. He took the first 10 minutes to explain where we were heading and explained the geography of the area given it was my first time. I love history so this was brilliant. Given the hotel was already in the old city, we did walk from hotel to our first site the blue mosque. Some part are under renovation but still managed to get some photos and he explained the details of the mosque. (note you will need to take off your shoes - plastic bags provided) and head covering for women with covered clothing compulsory. Our next visit to the Hagia Sopia is a must when visiting. Its grand size and interiors are astonishing, note also some parts externally and internally are under renovation. Tour guide went on to explain the history and what the mosque means now days (note you don't need head covering here). A quick Pitt stop to grab some Turkish pastry along the as weheaded to Topkaki palace which is an absolute treasure of its own.(note selfie sticks allowed but not tripods - this will be left with security). Prepare yourself to take a good around to appreciate the grand of this place and the views of the city is amazing. The site is of course a museum itself, so you will find some old artefacts from kitchen to library to all sorts of rooms. From here given it was cold and rainy we stopped by for my first Turkish coffee which is like an espresso with definite refined coffee beans that you can taste at the end served in a Turkish cup and was refreshing after a bit of walk.. from here we made our way to the remainder of Topkaki palace before finishing off with a Turkish lunch (lentil soup, meat platter). All in all a great tour and thanks tour guide for his patience with all the photo requests in between and allowing me to explore in my own time :)