Full Day Byzantine&Ottoman Highlights

Our guide was very friendly, personable, and very knowledgeable of the area we visited. I highly recommend using Emine’s company to provide tours.

We were picked up in the morning by the Nester guide Nurten at the agreed meeting point. We quickly got chatting and, in addition to the sights, we also got a lot of information about life in Istanbul and Turkey. Nurten looked at how we could best avoid the long lines in front of the sights and so we didn't have to wait anywhere for more than 10 minutes. But she used the time to explain further details to us. I would recommend Nurten.

We traveled with a large group that included a toddler, a kid and a teenager, plus 6 adults. I can only say that the experience was amazing! Emine was 100% responsive all the time, plus Iskender, our tour guide and Ali our driver were attentive, patient and always willing to help (even with unexpected stops). Iskender is super knowledgeable and if you are looking for a tour guide in English, Spanish or Mandarin he is your guy. He always went above and beyond to make our Turkey experience unforgettable full of unforgettable family memories. Emine and group thanks again, touring Istanbul was a pleasure thanks to all of you!

This review is long overdue. My family and I have done several tours with Emine in the past.  When  my husband, sons, parents and I decided to  go to Turkey this summer I did not hesitate to  contact her.  We originally planned our trip for 10 days and based on this she sent us an itinerary.  We decided to extend the trip to 15 days  and she was always available to  answer all of my questions through email and Whatsapp,  recommending hotels and booking all of our tours and transportation.   Once we arrived in Turkey, Emine was in constant communication with me and sent me information of  who the tour guide was going to be in each city, what transportation company and driver was picking us up and our scheduled times .If I had any questions, Emine answered right away. Knowing that we were traveling with my father who is older and  does not have the energy to walk long distances, she made sure we had a wheelchair wherever we went.  Each of the tour guides she scheduled contacted us a day prior to the tour and confirmed locations. Our tour  guides  Azime (Ephesus/Kusadasi) and  Mr. Ebubekir (Cappadocia) were wonderful. They were knowledgeable, flexible, social and super easy to work with. Once we arrived in Istanbul, Emine was with us for 4 days. We did the Byzantine relics and Grand Bazaar, the Ottoman Highlights, Bebek, Ortakoy and Bosphorus tour.  She is extremely knowledgeable and on top of  all the information she provided she also answered all of our questions. She is professional, caring  and made sure she accommodated all of our personal needs and requests.   If you are traveling to Turkey, I would recommend enlisting Emine's services to maximize your best Turkish experience. 

I had a wonderful experience visiting Istanbul and Turkey with Emine and her team. I did a several day tour including two full days in Istanbul exploring key Byzantine and Ottoman historical and archealogical sites, two days in Kusadasi (a lovely beach resort along the Aegean coast) and two days in Izmir. When I arrived and departed Istanbul and other cities they made sure I got to my hotel and key sites every day hassle free - something I was very thankful for given how huge Istanbul and Turkey are and how varied the public transit system is. The tour guides were very knowledgeable, fun and went above and beyond to add additional historical and social context to the sites we visited, ensure all my questions were answered and to connect me with other fun recommendations to check out during my visit. Emine was super helpful whenever I ran into complications with my tri, like when I was trying to get last minute ferry tickets from Istanbul to Bursa. I highly recommend taking a tour with this great team.

Sure, I can write that she was on time, accommodating, extremely knowledgeable, and a blast to spend the day with, and that would all be true. But Emine, was so much more. She brought to this tour a personalized experience that made us feel like this was all new and unique, not just a job. We felt like we made a friend and not spent the day with a tour guide. Awesome experience that will be with us for the rest of our lives. Highly recommend this tour. John N

Our family of four (my husband and I and our two adult daughters) took the full-day tour of Istanbul with Emine. She is an excellent guide and shared many interesting details about the places we visited (my daughter especially remembered the bit about the ostrich eggs in the Blue Mosque). We were able to visit all of the sites except for Hagia Sophia because the line there was so long (we were there on a Saturday) that we all agreed that we didn't want to wait hours (we didn't want to risk not making it back to our cruise ship). I guess we'll have to return to Istanbul!

Actually we did two different full day tours with Emine. And I am so glad we did. She is engaging, personable and an absolute delight. She did more than take us to sights or conduct a tour. She wove in history, personal history, perspectives and anecdotes to make what we were experiencing come alive and to appreciate what a fascinating part Istanbul has played through the centuries in coming to our understanding of the world today.

There were two couples on our tour. We were very lucky to have Emine as our guide! She was knowledgeable, friendly, and flexible. As the four of us can be talkative and joking, I’m sure we were a little of a challenge. However, Emine fit in with us and by the end of our tour she had integrated herself as part of our group with loads of information to impart! Generally speaking, as I leave these situations I think to myself, would I want this person as a friend? The answer in this case is a definite yes. If you are lucky and get Emine as a guide, you will be very fortunate!

Great way to explore the city. Ugar was great at taking us to popular destinations and telling our group alot about the history of Istanbul. We did a walking tour so we used tram as we are a group of 6 and it was a very cool experience. We got to stop by the Sophia grand mosque and it is so stunning inside and learning more about the history Definitely worth the wait. There is so much to see in Istanbul so one day is definitely not enough. It was unfortunate that the Blue Mosque was under renovation. Hopefully will he back to do another tour and to explore there next time.