Tour of Byzantine and Constantinople in Istanbul

This was a Byzantine tour (which there is not much left of) and showed me the things I wanted to see in Istanbul. Emre, our guide/driver was great and adjusted his tour to things we had already seen and did a great job of getting us around. He even filled out our day with other things not on the itinerary since we had seen the G Sofia. Even flexible about leaving us at other sights if we wanted. Only Feedback I have is that the Chora Monastery should be included and should be an option to switch the G Sofia (which people usually see while walking the Sultanahmet) or maybe the second stop Palace (while in the walls and was a Royal Byzantine Palace, it focused solely on tiles). I think the ticket prices should be comparable. Otherwise, this was a great experience.

This was my favorite tour I have done in Turkey. My guide Emre was first class and very hospitable! Got to spend as much time at each site as I wanted. 10/10 would highly recommend to any history buff!

Seeing the Theodosian walls and the Golden Gate was great. It was deserted. Can’t believe more visitors to Istanbul don’t want to visit something so famous.

The tower and walls were fantastic to see. But the rest were irrelevant and our tour guide didn't explain a whole lot. Miniturk and churches were ok but would have skipped if I could. It would’ve been better to see just one or two stops and have a shorter tour.

Erme was a very good tour guide. He was personable, quite knowledgable, easy to talk to, and very flexible and accommodating to my personal interests. He was quite articulate and able to answer my questions adeptly. Thank you Erme— great job! My one concern about this tour,and this is no reflection on Erme as a tour guide, is that as an Orthodox Christian priest, I was made to feel uncomfortable by the security guards in the churches that had been seized by the Ottomans and Turks from the Christians. I hope that someday Turkey will catch up with the civilised world and respect the freedom of religion that we enjoy here in the United States. Our government protects the mosques and the people who worship in them. In Turkey I am not permitted to dress in my priestly clothing and I am not allowed to pray in churches that were built by Christians long before the world had ever heard the words Islam, Turkey or Ottoman. Let’s all work together to love and respect one another without hatred and violence. Sincerely Father George Liacopulos

It was a private tour but Emre made every effort to take me to the sited that I was most interested in seeing.

Yunus was an excellent guide, who allowed me to dictate the pace the of the itinerary and gave the right balance of information and free time to explore. Super trip. Many thanks.