Istanbul Old City Highlights: Private Walking Tour

I traveled to Istanbul for work so only had one day to see some of the city. This was the perfect option to hit the highlights in Old City Istanbul: Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, Basilica Cistern and Grand Bazaar. Batu was a wonderful guide! He provided details about where we visited that I never would have figured out on my own, clued me into some delicious spots to grab a bite or a tea and answered all my (many) questions! Highly recommend!!!!

Prompt excellent guide. Great information, personalized our afternoon so we could pace ourselves and stop for ice-cream,and Lunch, Really shared his knowledge and enthusiasm for the history, beauty,& life in the old city !! Thanks so much Batu !!

This was a crash course in the history, culture, and food of an area we had almost no pre-knowledge of. Topal was patient and answered every question, as well as explaining historical significance at every turn.

Batu was a great tour guide and provided a very thoughtful and informative tour around a few mosques as well as the city. He was flexible with our schedule and even added a few stops at our request. We would definitely recommend Batu for your tour in Istanbul!

We were well looked after by our guide Can. Very knowledgeable and les us to all the main sights we wanted to see. Mosques, palace, Cistern and bazaar a great day in the old city. Thank you for getting us home safely.

We had a great experience visiting the sites in Istanbul. Batu was a very knowledgeable guide and also very patient with us walking around.

Great tour, highly recommended. We saw all the highlights and learned a lot about Istanbul on our tour!

Batu was phenomenal!!!. He was very knowledgeable. This was one of the best tour so far. Batu went above and beyond for us. Five star is not enough. 10/10.

We booked this tour as part of a cruise stop in Istanbul. Our tour guide was a gentleman named Batu and we had a great and informative session. He arrived promptly at the meet up location at Galataport and proceeded to give a walking tour of the major highlights of Istanbul. We started with hopping on the T1 tram from the port to the Sultanahmet area where we paused for some turkish coffee (my wife needed a jolt of caffiene to start us off). Great experience watching the preparation and presentation/service. We proceeded to walk down to the Blue mosque, Batu guided us on dress code while giving us detailed history lessons of the buildings we were looking at. We visited inside the mosque and was awed by the beautiful designs. Next we visited the Obelisk of Theodosius and the German fountain on the hippodrome. My kids particularly enjoyed seeing the obelisk and hieroglyphics. We walked down to the Hagia Sophia next, where Batu helped with procuring tickets and dress code again. Once inside we spent probably close to an hour marveling at this ancient building that has changed hands so many times in history. We ended the tour with a walk to the Grand Bazaar, an epic feast for the senses! Batu showed us a few recommended stores for Carpets and leather goods. By now we had been walking almost four hours (with lots of stops for rest in the hot august temps as well as pictures) and we decided to wrap up the tour. Batu was able to help in getting a taxi to get us back to Galataport to get back on our cruise. Batu was patient, knowledgeable and helpful. He answered all our random questions and we were able to totally customize the tour to what we wanted to see/experience. I fully recommend this tour, you will not be disappointed!!

Excellent introduction to Istanbul, with most important landmarks and historical attractions visited. Burak, our guide, was also excellent - friendly, knowledgeable and professional. I highly recommend this tour and tour guide.