Imperial Istanbul Half-day Tour: Hagia Sophia And Grand Bazaar

Had trouble contacting guide. Was told we needed to contact to organise hotel pick up. We got motel to ring and suppose to ring us back but never did. Motel rang again on day of activity and after getting recording up until 9.30 am (supppose to open at 9 am) finally told they would pick us up. Actual tour of sophia basilica and the cistern was good. However, did NOT appreciate wasting time/unscheduled half hour 'carpet rug' sales pitch. We were hoping for bit of a refreshment stop and told we were, only to have to sit through a sales pitch from local rug trader and only offered tea of coffee (I was dying for cold drink), This was then followed by rush through the bazaar and were almost subjected to another sales pitch by some local china bowl trader but we 'pulled the plug' and said we had had enough. Guide was informative and enjoyed the cistern and sophia hagia, bazaar was rushed and whole thing only took about 3-4 hours (at our request though as didnt want another sales pitch). Found this very annoying and not to viator standards, dont mind even 10 mins of trader promotion but to spend half hour or more was very annnoying, and we needed a proper refreshment stop.

<p>This tour was quite a bit of a disappointment.</p> <p>The visit to Hagia Sophia was a nice visit and the only real saving grace of the tour. However one should be aware that the time the guide shares information about the place is NOT substantial, and you are then left to your own devices. In many ways, I could have easily gone there on my own.</p> <p>The Basilica Cistern would have been fine... except the guide only shared some urban legends and did not bother sharing the true historic reasons for many of the things found in the cistern.</p> <p>Then came the uncomfortable part... a historic demonstration of turkish carpet weaving at a carpet shop. A poor excuse for what was in essence an extended sales pitch that took the better part of an hour. I had read earlier reviews so was prepared for it, but it did not make things any less uncomfortable for our entire group. The only saving grace was the air conditioning which provided some comfort from the heat. But this was easily the longest part of the entire tour and to have an entire sales team try to pressure you into buying a carpet is NOT the reason I booked it. The guide even warned us not to go back there alone later... if that means he wont get a commission if we do or if there is a more sinister reason, I have no idea... but hardly a good sign in any event.</p> <p>And finally the grand bazaar... this could have been a nice visit if not for our tour guide. At first he was nice and even showed us the way to shops... but he very deliberately tried to separate us even when we explicitly told him that we wanted to stay in a small group, something that frustrated him greatly it is easier to pressure someone into buying if they are separated after all. And when he showed us the way to shops he criticised us if we did not buy things immediately and could not accept that we would not buy anything in a store he had brought us to. </p> <p>In short, I do not recommend this tour and would suggest that if you want to see the Hagia Sophia and the other sites you do so on another tour or even on your own.</p>

<p>It was a good tour the guide was informative. The historical references and the magnificent architecture at Hagia Sophia, Basilica Cistern leaves you spellbound. Good to book with a definite skip-the-lines experience. Long queues mostly at these popular monuments. Sadly, Grand Bazaar was closed being Sunday, however, the guide took us to the spice bazaar, more commonly called an Egyptian Bazaar.</p>

<p>The guide was unhappy having only the two of us (not my fault). The tour was done in 2 hours instead of 4. I am sure he was knowledgeable but didn’t bother to till us anything if we don’t ask. Hagia Sofia was done in less than 25 minutes and it was the main reason I booked this tour. Not worth the m</p>

I booked a day tour of Istanbul last week, the day before the tour, Neon Tours cancelled it, they asked me to cancel my booking on viator website where I had initially made the booking and they said they would reimburse me. I'm still waiting for their refund. They are not replying to my messages.

<p>The guide was very knowledgeable in history of the sites and provided time for pictures. FYI - there is an option on this tour to see Turkish carpet manufacturing. Please note that there is not much direction inside the Grand Bazaar - the guide simply drops the group at one of the 20 gates and you are on your own in that maze of 4500 shops. Watch out for your belongings.</p>

<p>The tour was extremely well organised . The guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. This tour is highly recommended.</p>

<p>Mixed review of the tour. It was extremely helpful to be able to skip all of the lines at the locations of our half-day Istanbul Tour, especially because it was raining the day of our tour. The tour guide was fairly knowledgeable, however, we could have received a bit more information, especially at the Grand Bazaar. Also, some information we were given on the tour has proven to be false. There, we were just delivered to the location and set free, without any explanation of its history. There was not much time for questions, and at each location, instead of guiding us through with accompanying information, the guide simply gave a quick explanation at the entrance and set us free after designating a meeting point. Also, in the middle of the tour, we stopped at a traditional turkish carpet-weaving demonstration, which started out interestingly, but then turned into a lengthy and fairly uncomfortable sales pitch. As students, we are clearly not in the position to be considering a purchase of a 50,000 rug. I would not doubt if the tour organization has some sort of agreement with the carpet company. It was disheartening that we spent more time in this sales pitch approx. an hour than the Basilica Cistern 15-20 mins and the Hagia Sophia 30-40 mins. Considering the minimal entrance fees that were waived with the tour, but the ease of skipping the lines, it is debatable whether the tour gives you enough bang for your buck.</p>

<p>A really good tour. Guide informative, efficient and helpful.</p>

<p>Great way to visit all the important historical sites of Istanbul! We were picked up from our hotel in a nice minibus and taken to meet the group who were on the full day tour. Tour guide was very knowledgeable. Make sure you each lunch before the tour begins, otherwise when you arrive at the Grand Bazaar there are plenty of places to grab a doner.</p>

<p>The Hagia Sophia is an absolute must see and going with a tour means avoiding the long lineups. The Basillica Cistern was also worth a view. However those are the only good things I can say about this tour. <br/> Our tour started quite a bit later than planned and our guide did not seem very enthusiastic about his work. He would give the group a short preamble before each site and then send us to wander on our own while he would wait for us at the exit. We also found out that the Grand Bazaar was closed due to a High Holiday and he led us to believe that he was taking us, instead, to see a second Cistern. In fact we ended up herded into a carpet shop where we were given a short demonstration of carpet making which was then to be followed-up by a major sales pitch. Many of us in the group felt conned. Three of us managed to escape and go instead to a local restaurant to grab a beer and some much need laughs. We did have to give up the free drive home, that was offered as part of our package, but not one of us regretted getting away. The Half Day Imperial Tour could have been very, very good, under different circumstances, but this particular day was not worth the money!</p>

<p>This is worth taking as they take you to the major sites and our guide also told us about the hippodrome which was very interesting!! We had been looking for it on our own but couldn't find it. Our guide was very knowledge about the tour!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Glad we took it!!</p>

<p>The Basillica Cistern and Hagia Sophia are a must. They are historically some of the most interesting destinations in the world. HS museum has a lot of christian history inside as well, perhaps even more than muslim.</p> <p>However, our guide was very poor. Young abnoxious guy, who had limited information about the destinations and not so good english language as to be able to really communicate with his customers. He was criticizing our young daughter of 5 for bothering his concentration and insulting a person outside the group by making a useless remark in HS that you may not listen to my speech. Very poor behaviour.</p> <p>Grand Bazaar can be nice, for someone, who has not visited it before. for us it seemed useless as well as the extensive carpet shop visit. However, the cistern under the carpet shop had a very interesting exhibition about the hippodrome. This and the texts in HS and other places were well executed in Istanbul and explained much better things than our guide.</p>

<p>Only tour we took without an audio hook up to the tour guide. Therefore, he was hard to hear. He was knowledgeable , but we missed out on much of his info because we could not hear him.</p>

<p>The tour was ok, but unlike other tours, it did not provide you with headphones, so unless you were standing right next to the guide you couldn't here anything. Near the end of the tour, before going to the grand bizarre, they took us to a rug shop for a weaving demonstration which turned into a hard sell to buy rugs.</p>

<p>Very knowledgable tour guide Would recommend to everyone</p>

<p>This tour should have been a great experience - it was not!.<br/> The driver was late at collecting the four of us from hotel and didn't make himself known. The guide then blamed us for being 45 minutes late, so not a good start. The guide then seemed to 'rush' through her descriptions and wasn't particularly audible or clear she had 13 people on the tour.<br/> As per previous reviewers have mentioned, the surprise and unexpected stop was to a carpet shop where we were subjected to a sales pitch for 45 minutes - this should not be allowed Viator! The guide is undoubtedly on a commission arrangement with the owners. <br/> Finally, the Grand Bazaar........there is nothing Grand about it!. It may have history, but the way these stall/shop owners literally chase you down the street hassling you to buy something if you dare look in their direction is very uncomfortable being polite.<br/> I wouldn't recommend this tour and Viator should listen to a number of previous customers who made similar comments.</p>

<p>Excellent tour and guide. <br/> We took the half day tour which was just right. Our guide was friendly and informative and let us go at our own pace.<br/> Well worth the money.<br/> And yes, we did buy a carpet....<br/> Thank you.</p>

<p>We lucked out with a private tour - only the two of us. Guide was friendly, knowledgeable and informative. All three sites are worth visiting, we had no wait because our guide had tickets, and we went directly in to both the Hagia Sophia and Basiillica Cistern even though there were extremely long lines. Worth it to book a tour! Our guide helped us to wind out way through the Grand Bazaar and had some good tips for us. This tour enhanced our visit to Istanbul.</p>

<p>Our guide Uly was a delight! She was extremely knowledgable and had a great sense of humor.The pick up was well timed.</p>

<p>The guide was exactly the right level for me. Informative without be overwhelming. Also good to skip the ticket lines. The disappointment was the carpet shop visit which just became an extended sales pitch. It was a waste of our time and an annoying way of ending an otherwise decent tour.</p>

<p>Our guide Katerina was wonderful - not only did she provide good commentary on the sites we visited, but she also answered questions about how to get around the city, what to look for, etc. I look forward to seeing Istanbul again.</p>

<p>A great half day tour of some of the more important sights in Istanbul. We were picked up at our hotel in a comfortable small bus and had Gulay as our guide. She was wonderful, very informative and she took care of our small group 4 at every turn. I highly recommend this tour for a fun, exciting look at Istanbul.</p>

<p>The tour was good but I thing we could have done it by ourselves just as well.</p>

<p>Very good tour and knowledgeable guide. Well worth the money spent.</p>

<p>Tour guide was very distant and went through the motions as if by rote. Would not recommend this tour.</p>

<p>Yes it was interesting ,the history of the Hagia sofia mosque and basilica cistern Had a great history.but the carpet shop visit was unusual in istanbul there was a salesman describing how a carpet was made and a attempting to sell us a carpet should it be on the tour NO.the guide was helpful</p>

<p>Very Good tour in terms of what we can see. Guide wasted one hour time by pushing us in shops where they get commissions. Was not even able to enter Grand Bazar as the time we got free from shops (where they literally prison you in a room) we had just 30 minutes for Grand Bazaar. Viator must seriously consider this.</p>

<p>Our guide was very well informed and gave us good i8nfo; the tour itself could have skipped the sales pitch at the carper dealer, presented as "educational", and added the Blue Mosque instead.</p>

<p>The tour itself was great. If you go to Istanbul you should definitely visit these places. The line outside the Hagia Sophia was extremely long but of course we skipped the line since it was a guided tour. The amount of time we had for each stop was perfect but you can definitely spend more time in the Grand Bazaar. This was the last stop on the tour, so we just stayed there and found our own way back to the hotel. Before, going to the Grand Bazaar we suddenly had to stop for a visit to a large carpet/jewellery shop for a carpet presentation! This was not announced prior to the tour and for us it was a completely waste of time that we would have liked to spend differently. Furthermore, our guide spoke very quietly and she was a bit difficult to understand so we did not get much information about the places we visited.</p>

<p>Tour was good, but what ruins it is a stop at a carpet shop that is not mentioned in the itinerary but takes 45 minutes out of the tour. The sales people were on us like vultures, 1 person per couple. Very unprofessional for the tour company not to mention this in the itinerary. Could have maybe even offered it as an optional add on at the end for whoever was interested. Not impressed at all by the sneakiness and felt like we were dupped. Ruined what would have been a great tour otherwise.</p>

<p>All the scheduling and entry into the sites was fine. The tour guide was disappointing. She had little information to offer aside from the standard guide-book info. I took this tour with another guide in February who was excellent, with stories about each spot and a thorough walk-through of each. I was eager to share it with my wife this time but we just got a cursory introduction to each site an then were left wander on our own for most of the visit. Only good thing was avoiding the lines.</p>

<p>The trip was a bit rushed. A mandatory 45 minute stop at a carpet sales store was unacceptable. Not only a waste of time, but it was an insult to us. Not mentioned in the tour brochure, it used up valuable time we could have spent in the bazzaar. Shame on Viatour for allowing this to be an unmentioned distraction to our preciously short time we had to spend in Istanbul.</p>

<p>Tour guide not motivated and I could hardly understand her English.</p>

<p>Very professionally organized and executed.<br/> Tour guide attentive and well read on subject matter.<br/> Administration of payment and communication with us by VIATOR was extremely good and high appreciated bu us.</p>

<p>This tour was great and although the line for the Blue Mosque appeared long, it moved rather quickly!!!!</p>

<p>For the Hagia Sophia and the Basillica Cistern I joined a group who had be on tour since that morning, but for the Grand Bazaar I had the guide (Sylvia?) all to myself which was a bonus She was able to give me undivided attention and we had a nice afternoon exploring the Bazaar. I would never had found my way out on my own!! Hagia Sophia and Basisillica Cistern were fascinating and the guide was able to explain to the group the history of both.</p>

<p>Once again, this tour was well organised, great, friendly and knowledgable guide Sevilay.We skipped all the long queues in the sun and were able to pack more into the day...thank you Viator!</p>

<p>The tour was outstanding. In addition Viator accommodated a lady minute change in plans due to a flight delay. We were able to quickly reschedule to the following day and Viator took us to the port so we could board our cruise in time. That was excellent service!</p>

<p>The locations were amazing and the guide seemed somewhat knowledgeable. She was incredibly rushed the whole time, which I thought was odd since the locations were so close together. We plowed through everything very quickly and then on the way to the grand bazaar without any warning or discussion we were brought to a carpet shop, up into a room, and given an hour long sales pitch about carpets. It was super shady and I didn't appreciate it. I was in Istanbul for a day and the last thing I wanted to do was sit in a room and have guys try to sell me a $3,000 carpet. Finally after an hour, I got up and spoke to the guide and asked her if the grand bazaar was within walking distance and to point me in the direction because I wanted to leave. She agreed and the guys wrapped it up and then we were able to leave. And yes it was within walking distance. I'm not likely to ever use viator again to book a tour.</p>

<p>This tour was awful. We were picked up at our hotel at 1pm. Then we had to sit on a bench and wait for 1 hour for the morning group to finish lunch because they were running behind. The tour guide, I say this loosely because he barely spoke, took us to the Basillica Cistern. He gave us exactly 3 minutes worth of history about it then told us to meet him outside in 20 minutes. He then took us to the Hagia Sophia. At least we got a full 15 minutes of history out of him before he left us on our own and randomly pointed out places to go inside. We then went to the absolutely stupidest carpet demonstration that is such a scam. We rounded out the day at the Grand Bazaar. He pressured the group to stay longer than the tour time. This way he didn't have to drive anyone home. He again randomly started pointing which way our hotel was (Hotel Levni) and said it was about a 5-10 minute walk. Which was just a flat out lie. For two in shape women in their 30's it took us 25 minutes. I am so disappointed in Viator and will not be contacting you again. I just can't believe you would partner with such an awful local company.</p>

<p>This tour is worth doing, especially to see Hagia Sophia. The Cistern was cool to see, but it's not a must-see. Grand Bazaar was cool to see, but, in my opinion, the Egyptian is way better priced with better quality items. I just felt like I was rushed on the tour, like the other tours I took in Istanbul.</p>

<p>We had a fantastic time on this tour! Tibet, our guide was brilliant and full of character one of the most funny, witty people I've met. She knew the history behind the amazing, gorgeous places we visited on this tour. The tour was executed pace fully and enough free time to relax and absorb the culture and atmosphere. Must see places in Istanbul! Thanks Tibet! Thanks Viator!!</p>

<p>It's a must do tour on this fantastic city. I'd only recommend to add the Blue Mosque in this tour, then it would be great and complete.</p>

<p>It was so amazing and nice trip with tour gauide...i appriciat viator service.</p> <p>Thanks viator and keep it up!!</p>

<p>The tour guide was friendly and knowledgable. She took us to see the historical sites and described the history behind each site. In the Grand Bazaar, she helped us to good shops for our souvenirs.</p>

<p>2 stars because of the beautiful sites. The Hagia Sophia was especially beautiful in the snow. I was absolutely shocked, however, that the Blue Mosque was not included since it was a stone's throw away. Our guide was knowledgeable and kind at first, but became angry and sullen when we didn't want to visit a "traditional carpet shop", after that he walked ahead of us at a fast rate, and kind of ignored us. For a quarter of the price, if you are in the area (we were staying in Beyazit), just hop on the tram and see the sites yourself. Hagia Sophia and the Underground Cistern are beautiful---you don't need a whiny guide to ruin your day.</p>

<p>The guide was very knowledgable andbeinga small group made the tour easy.<br/> I would recommend that you supply the people with an audio earing device so if we move away from our guide we still can hear is comment and know wh</p>

<p>Our guide was very experienced and had a lot of knowledge . We went to some lovely sites and had a great time</p>