Full-day City Tour With Private Tour Guide And Red Carpet Treatment With Luxury Minibus

This is an excellent tour if you have limited time in Istanbul. Ali was so knowledgeable in the history of this amazing city, we learned so much. He took us to all the places we were interested in seeing and structured our day so we could make the most of our time. We were able to skip most of the lines which also helped with time management for our day. It was a rainy cold day so the minivan was comfortable and easy to get in and out of.

The three star rating is for the tour company, not the tour guide. Our guide, Ze, was very good and knowledgeable and personable. She told us a lot of interesting information and definitely knew the area well. The problem was the tour description and the setup of the tour itself. The title of the tour stated "red carpet" and "luxury minibus." This was definitely not red carpet status. First, the tour company sent a message on WhatsApp to change the start time of the tour to an earlier time. If I had wanted an early time I would have booked it. Secondly, nowhere in the description did it say that this was actually a walking tour! I would not have booked this tour if I had known it was a walking tour. The reasoning given was that cars are not allowed in the old city. Okay. Fine. It should say so in the description. The walking distance between the mosques and museum was bearable. The walking distance to the Grand Bazaar was told to us as a 20 minute walk one-way. When we asked whether the car could bring us there, that was "not possible" because of traffic. Too bad. Our guide suggested that if we didn't want to walk, she could take us on the public tram. Definitely not "red carpet." The tour didn't include tickets for each site either and we had to pay cash for those to the guide. All of these things should be stated in the tour description and not in a message after booking. I 100% would have booked a different tour for our group had I known all of this. We would have been willing to pay more for minibus transport during the tour rather than just transfers to and from the cruise port. And even when the driver dropped us off, he stopped right in the middle of the street! We all felt like there could have been more done to accommodate our requests.

This was the most amazing day! Kemal was the highlight of our stay in Istanbul. He listened to what we wanted to do and we had the perfect day tailored only to us. He’s funny, intelligent and someone we will not forget. Highly recommend doing this tour!

Excellent tour guide. She had a great time. Would really recommend. The guide was really knowledgeable, and amicable.

The Golden Standard of Guides – A 9-Hour Masterclass in Istanbul (with humor and grace!) If you are reading this, stop searching. You have found the guide. We spent nine unforgettable hours with Kemal Aslan in Istanbul, and frankly, it felt less like a tour and more like exploring the city with a brilliantly witty, impossibly knowledgeable friend who just happens to hold advanced degrees in Turkish history and speaks 5 languages. From the moment we met him, his perfect English (idioms, humor, and all) put us at ease. But what truly floored us was the depth of his knowledge. Every single question we threw at him—whether about the logistics of a Byzantine cistern, the symbolism in a single Iznik tile, or the marital politics of a sultan—was met with a fascinating, pertinent, and story-rich answer. He doesn’t just recite dates; he weaves the tapestry of Turkish and Ottoman culture into every mosque, every street, every sip of tea and coffee. And the humor? A godsend. Nine hours is a long time, but we had non-stop banter. He has that rare gift of being deeply scholarly without a trace of stuffiness. He made the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and the Theodosian walls feel alive, told us the spots to avoid, and helped us with shopping advice. What truly sets him apart, however, is his grace and adaptability. He read our energy levels like a book. When we were buzzing, we charged ahead. When jet lag hit, he found the perfect quiet garden for tea, telling stories while we rested. He planned every activity around us, not a rigid script. No rushing, no fatigue—just a perfectly paced, magical day. If you want a guide who is unfailingly capable, gracious, funny, relatable, and so brilliant you’ll feel smarter just walking beside him—book Kemal Aslan. He didn’t just show us Istanbul. He made us fall in love with it.

The Golden Standard of Guides – A 9-Hour Masterclass in Istanbul (with humor and grace!) If you are reading this, stop searching. You have found the guide. We spent nine unforgettable hours with Kemal Aslan in Istanbul, and frankly, it felt less like a tour and more like exploring the city with a brilliantly witty, impossibly knowledgeable friend who just happens to hold advanced degrees in Turkish history and speaks 5 languages. From the moment we met him, his perfect English (idioms, humor, and all) put us at ease. But what truly floored us was the depth of his knowledge. Every single question we threw at him—whether about the logistics of a Byzantine cistern, the symbolism in a single Iznik tile, or the marital politics of a sultan—was met with a fascinating, pertinent, and story-rich answer. He doesn’t just recite dates; he weaves the tapestry of Turkish and Ottoman culture into every mosque, every street, every sip of tea and coffee. And the humor? A godsend. Nine hours is a long time, but we had non-stop banter. He has that rare gift of being deeply scholarly without a trace of stuffiness. He made the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and the Theodosian walls feel alive, told us the spots to avoid, and helped us with shopping advice. What truly sets him apart, however, is his grace and adaptability. He read our energy levels like a book. When we were buzzing, we charged ahead. When jet lag hit, he found the perfect quiet garden for tea, telling stories while we rested. He planned every activity around us, not a rigid script. No rushing, no fatigue—just a perfectly paced, magical day. If you want a guide who is unfailingly capable, gracious, funny, relatable, and so brilliant you’ll feel smarter just walking beside him—book Kemal Aslan. He didn’t just show us Istanbul. He made us fall in love with it.

What a great day! Had a wonderful day with our guide Okan. He showed us everything we wanted to see and more! Couldn't have been better. We left from a cruise ship and were able to leave our luggage in the van while we did the walking tour. Then they were also able to arrange transport to the airport. Everything worked very smoothly!

As we toured, Ali shared his vast knowledge of Turkey’s rich history and managed to keep our multi-generational family interested and engaged. He allowed us to set the pace and easily modified the itinerary with that in mind while negotiating the challenge of closings due to Republic Day, a national holiday. He was informative, kind, patient, and tailored the tour to our needs. The depth of conversation was engaging and thought provoking as we discussed the history of this region. He is an exceptional tour guide and should we have the opportunity to visit again, we will request Ali.

Kemal was very informative. He took time to show us around. This is a highly recommended trip. We will do it again.

This was an incredible tour. Our tour guide, Dolunay, was friendly and knowledgeable. On time pick up. Short drive to the old city. Rest of it was a walking tour. Our tour guide communicated with other tour guide through throughout the day to help decide the order that we would go in. This helped minimize lines at each stop. The place he chose for lunch was delicious. There were bathrooms available outside of Topkapi palace, the hippodrome, and during lunch.

This was a comprehensive tour of some of the major sights such as Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and so on. Our tour guide Baris was great at providing really detailed explanations as well as showing pics of how things used to look like at some of the historical places. Great tour to cover some of the major spots in a day.

WARNING: AVOID THIS TOUR – City of Sultans (May 28 – NCL Pearl) We took this tour on May 28, from the NCL Pearl cruise. It started off fine with visits to Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and the Hippodrome, but it quickly turned into a bad and frustrating experience. Our guide, Baris, took us to a carpet “demonstration” where we were stuck for nearly an hour facing aggressive sales tactics. That wasted time could have been used to properly visit Topkapi Palace. Although we paid for full access, we were not taken to the Harem. When we asked, Baris said the ticket included it, but we wouldn’t have time — yet somehow we had time for shops. He didn’t offer any option and made it clear we wouldn’t make it. It really felt like they bought basic tickets and kept the difference. At Topkapi, we had only one hour, barely enough to see the kitchens and use the restroom. We paid 50 euros just for that. Later, to reach the Grand Bazaar, Baris asked if we had public transport cards, which is unrealistic for cruise passengers. Since no one did, he said we had to walk. When a lady explained that her mother was elderly, he rudely told her she had bought a “walking tour.” For the record, Topkapi to the Grand Bazaar is not nearby — check Google Maps. To make things worse, before entering the Bazaar, we were taken to another “friendly” shop, losing even more time. We had only 40 minutes at the Grand Bazaar in the end. At one point, a friend was taking photos of cats, and Baris accused her of photographing him, we dont need photos, we can identify him clearly by name (Baris) and cruise (NCL Pearl, May 28). This was a misleading, poorly organized, and disrespectful tour. Avoid City of Sultans. You’ll thank me later.

Baris was very knowledgeable and did his best to please us. It was super helpful to skip the long queues by going to the main sights with him. Lunch was excellent and made it fully worth the cost of the whole excursion.

Amazing monuments with a guide who has an incredible knowledge of geography an history , exactly what we were expecting .

Ufku took me on the city tour. He was very knowledgeable and personable. He completely catered the tour to my convenience and interests. I really enjoyed the experience.

Barıs was an EXCELLENT guıde. Very knowledgeable, helpful and frıendly. I would hıghly recommend Barıs who was obvıously one of the most experienced guides I saw throughout the day ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Our guide, Fatih, was knowledgeable, fun, and flexible with the agenda. We were able to see everything we wanted to (given our own time constraints) and at the pace we desired. He was terrific and left us with very pleasant memories of Istanbul, its history and culture. Ask for him!

Great walking today with Baris seeing key sites, learning about history and culture in Istanbul. Baris did great job summarizing key historical, religious and cultural highlights.

Had a great time exploring and learning about Istanbul’s greatest attractions and history. My tour guide Barish was very knowledgeable . He was also very accommodating and made my experience in Turkey more enjoyable. I highly recommend

Baris did a great job for our tour. Very easy to understand and explained the history clearly. Two thumbs up! I would recommend this tour. Just be aware that it does require the purchase of entry tickets to a couple places.

Baris was amazing and very knowledgeable about all the places we visited today. He was patient and so informative. His sparkling smile lit up the room at Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi palace. He is a sure fire winner and top of his class.

It was a very informative tour, our guide was able to show where to take the best photographs, was able to give us free time to see the sights and it was a busy day 3 in total were visited. So enjoyable.

BARISH is a great tour guide. He is friendly, patient and knowledgeable. He can explain so much detail information of different attractions. We had a wonderful day.

We had a wonderful day tour with our guide Barish . He was so informative and helpful. We highly recommend this tour . Within one day we saw the most important sights in Beautiful Istanbul

Fatih is an amazing guide-very knowledgeable and personable. He added places that we wanted to see in addition to those that were listed with no problem. Really enjoyed spending the day with him.

My boyfriend and I think Bruce was brilliant and have a huge wealth of knowledge! Thank you for making our day in Istanbul memorable. We're so glad we had you as our tour guide!

Fabulous tour guide (Korhan). Very flexible, and took all the time we needed - no rush. Learned alot about history of Turkey and Istanbul. Highly recommend.

Our guide was very informative and personable. After we visited historical monuments we went shopping at the Grand Bazaar where he showed us very nice vendors which has good prices.

"My guide, Kenan Ucar, was incredibly informative, friendly, and patient. He expertly introduced us to the enchanting city of Istanbul and its rich traditions. During our tour, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch and had the opportunity to ask numerous questions. I wholeheartedly recommend this excursion, especially to first-time visitors or anyone eager to delve deeper into the history and culture of Türkiye. Our visit to the Grand Bazaar was made all the more enjoyable by having Kenan as our guide."

Our guide Ece was very knowledgeable. She took her time explaining Istanbul’s history and answered any questions we had. We also enjoyed a Turkish lunch with her. FYI There is a lot of walking on this tour. If you have limited accessibility, it can be challenging. Also there are cobble stone streets and stairs. Our tour bus dropped us off by the square and the rest of the day we walked. When we were ready to go back to our cruise, the tour bus was stuck in a lot of traffic. Our time was getting limited to be back on board so our tour guide took us to the port by train. The tour company gave us a partial refund for not driving us back to port. On the whole this was a good tour. We were glad we got see part of Istanbul’s cultures and religions.

Our tour guide Ahmet Gulmez was excellent. He was very nice and extremely knowledgeable. He gave us detailed information on every stop we made. He also included details on the Islam religion which we appreciated greatly. He treated us like family! I was traveling with my husband and my two teenage daughters. He made us all feel safe and at home in Istanbul. He took us to a well priced restaurant for lunch which included plenty of vegan option. He also took us to the best shops in the Grand Bazaar.

Very hands off tour. The sites to see where amazing. Lunch was ok. The shopping was entirely too long and on our own. The long winding path to get to the spice market was totally unnecessary to the point we decided against going to the spice market. Only had the driver to get to the site. Ended our tour early and got a taxi back to port.

From start to end I can highly recommend this operator and especially Kenan, our Tour guide. Communication was through Viator app initially and later through WhatsApp. Everything was perfectly organised and since we had only one day in Istanbul this tour was perfect for us to get to know the most important highlights of the city. One thing might be a bit misleading: It is not a skip-the-line tour in the true sense of it but more a well planned optimisation by the tour guide as he knows which sight to go first and which last in order to avoid long lines but you are not getting a seperate entrance into the sights. But this doesn't diminish the quality of the tour. We fully enjoyed it and didn't have to wait longer than maybe 5 minutes to get into the sights.

Barish went above and beyond to make sure we had an experience that was tailored to our desires. I’ve already recommended him to a friend.

Ezgi Uluvag was a delightful guide. She was accommodating when the schedule had to be changed, knowledgeable about all the sights, and an enthusiastic and friendly companion on our exploration of Istanbul's most beautiful and memorable spaces. We saw some truly amazing places and thoroughly enjoyed our day.

Trip was cancelled due to lack of services ….half the venues were closed ….no vehicle provided was not what was advertised

OUR GUIDE ENSAR made everything perfect .. HE knew every street , restaurant, avenue, short cuts , and the history .. Without him we would have missed 60 percent of Istanbul if we would have tried to do it without a guide .. Private guide is the way to do it .. The entire experience was magical .. Turkey 🇹🇷 is awesome.. This package had everything you need for Istanbul.. Hotel pick up and return , all passes and tickets and private GUIDE .. Everyone won’t be able to geT MR ENSAR .. But you should try .. he is the best .. and he takes excellent pictures..

Kenan was an extremely knowledgeable and helpful guide. Barish was also extremely kind and helpful driver

Great introduction to highlights of old town Istanbul . Our guide was so pleasant and very knowledgeable! Very attentive to our needs and interests! Delightful tour of Istanbul!

We recently had a day tour in Ephesus and it was amazing! Our guide was so organised, gave us such interesting information throughout the tour, and made it such a memorable experience! Thank you so much Ozgur for this wonderful experience :)

Very professional from the beginning till the end. I enjoyed every minute. The guide know about everything very interesting. We had a lot of time for everything. The guide not push us we had a lot of time to see everything. I also do the tour bosphorus dinner cruise at night. Food was amazing everything very clean. Also I had the transfer from the airport to hotel and back very good I not needed to wait Also they send after booking imedetly all information per WhatsApp message and they answered imedetly about questions. Thank you very much for your professional job I enjoyed every moment to booked with them

We had a 2 night/1 full day layover in Istanbul and wanted to see as much possible in that time. Our private guide Baris Ozkalkan arrived on time to our hotel at 8:30am. On the way to our first stop he gave us an overview of our schedule and also a brief history of Turkey. He was very knowledgeable and open to answer all our questions. Our first stop was the hippodrome and from there the rest of the tour was walking, since everything is close to each other and many places not accessible by car. At every place we visited Baris gave us a history overview and preview of what we were going to see. In addition he gave us free time to explore and quite frankly to admire on our own. Last stop was the Grand Bazaar where he patiently waited for us to do our shopping and even recommended a place to buy the “Turkish delights”. If are limited on time and want to see the major places at your own pace with the benefit of the historical context and explanations this tour is well worth the money.

It was excellent especially because of the tour guide. She was excellent and very nice individual. Not everyone is nice in turkey in fact they are very rude. Taxi driver are very rude and always bargain. Taxi drivers don’t use Meter most of the time. We have visited Blue Mosque, Topkapia palace, hagia sofia and spice bazar. The tour was excellent.

Tour is sold as red carpet treatment with luxury minibus. Wrong. Lovely tour guide arrived on time as arranged and started to set off. When I asked her where the luxury minibus was she said it was a Walking Tour. As my husband has walking difficulties I had purposely thought the tour would be ideal for us both to see the sights with a bit of comfort as well. I was not very happy and said to her that if transport could not be provided I wanted to cancel and get a refund. Eventually transport did arrive after over 30 minutes but by this time the magical tour was soured. The lady guide was lovely and she knew her history. This tour was very expensive and really should not be described as red carpet treatment with luxury minibus. If you had good walking legs you could actually do this tour yourself and save yourself a lot of money. Would I recommend it - sorry no way - just do it yourself in your own time.

The guide and the car picked us up on time. The guide was Unar, an English and Greek speaking guide. For us it was great to see that our guide spoke Greek. He was the best guide that we could have. He is the best guide to show Konstantinoupolis. The only false that we could mention in the food during our lunch. No good quality and they charged us more. Also the duration of the tour was less time than the one advertised. Overall great experience due to our guide....

<p>This tour is really great. Our tour guide give an excellent service, she will answer everything without hesitation. All the tourist attraction are nearby its very easy for us to do walking and at the same we have more time to ask our tour guide regarding the tour and other attraction<br/> around Istanbul. It was an interesting tour, it gives us additional knowledge whats the Istanbul history all about.</p>

<p>I decided on spur of the moment to take a tour of Istanbul as it had been many years since I last did it.<br/> My guide was a young man called Eren who turned out to be extremely knowledgeable and friendly and knew everything about all the favorite and well known sites.</p> <p>It turned out to be a very enjoyable day and I would certainly recommend this company and guide.</p> <p>William H.</p>

<p>Tour was great and guide Ceren very professional, with great knowledge of ancient history and especially Turkish history, being able to answer all questions about city, monuments and Turk history.</p>

<p>Awful. The worst guide I have ever had in all my years of traveling. He was disheveled and not very clean. He was completely disengaged. He never gave us a single piece of information that couldn't be found on the placard next to the monument or artifact. We started at the Topkapi Palace where he correctly took us to the Jewel room first in ordered to avoid the lines. There is a rope line that one must follow. He allowed us 45 min for a 10-min tour. When we exited, he was nowhere to be found. Not at the meeting place that was arranged nor anywhere near it. when he came back 20 min later he was clearly coming from someplace out of the area. He kept asking us if we wanted him to go in with us--for example--at Hagia Sofia or did we want to go alone. <br/> Wherever we walked, he was always 10 paces ahead of us so there was no chance for us to browse in the shops for fear of losing him as we had no way of contacting him. <br/> I used Viator for the first time in Athens, and our guide was fantastic. I never had such high expectations, but I did expect some level of cleanliness, professionalism, knowledge and engagement. He had none of these qualities. Even though we had booked the car and guide for a full day, we told him to have the driver take us back to our hotel after lunch as we literally could not stand to spend one more minute with him. I have given him 1 star because I'm obliged to do that for your rating system to work, but he doesn't even deserve that.</p>