Istanbul Modern City - Galata & Pera & Taksim Guided Walking Tour

I’m writing this because there weren’t too many reviews of this tour when I was deciding whether to sign up (although all were 5 stars), and I am really glad I did. I was traveling solo so it might have seemed like a steep price compared to a group tour but it was worth it. Rose’s sister was my guide and she was wonderful. She was so easy-going and knowledgeable, and she and Rose were willing to be flexible to accommodate my desire to start at a different time and take a somewhat different route than the standard one. It was really great to get the personal perspective of an Istanbul resident of the country’s and city’s history and culture. I recommend this tour very highly.

Our guide was extremely friendly and knowledgeable of the city's as well as the country's history. I had a great experience.

I can keep this review very brief: Rose is an amazing tour guide! She speaks English very well and very clearly, and she shows you all the beautiful sights the city has to offer. She’s always very honest and explains everything in great detail. It really doesn’t get any better than this! You have to take a tour of the city with her!

Had a great tour with TG. She was very knowledgeable, friendly, and easy to understand. She gave us enough information without overloading us with too much. We hit the highlights of the Istanbul and had time on our own to explore further. Highly recommend!

I had a wonderful tour in Modern City Istanbul with a really knowledgeable about the city. She put me at ease, making sure that I was able to go everywhere the route took us and giving options to rest if I needed to. She was outgoing and generally fun to have as a guide. Answered all my numerous questions with alacrity. I got to see so many different types of architector and why it was built the way it was. I enjoyed this tour immensely!

The tour with Elif was very interesting, we learned a lot about the history and she was answering all our questions! We can only recommend taking the tour, Elif was super nice!

Rose our guide was very informative and knowledgeable. We learnt so much and enjoyed the tour enormously.

It was customized to our interests in a nice way. We were happy with friendly guide. The history of this cosmopolitan area and sites were fascinating.

A nice private tour with local insights from a local, Rose. She showed us her city with local stories with local influences. The two hour tour went by so quickly and ended us at Galata tower. Rose was very knowledgeable and expert guide!

Excellent guide and excellent knowledge of everything related to istanbul. Thank you for your patience on us. We love you Rose

Our tour guide was very friendly, knowledgeable and didn't rush us through each spot but took her time to explain the significance of each area. I would highly recommend this walking tour to anyone that wants to learn about the rich vibrant history of the area

We did this tour first thing after arriving in Istanbul and we could not have had a better start! Rose is a wonderful guide with great knowledge about the area and Istanbul in general, we had a great time!

Rose was a wonderful host. She provided the perfect amount of detail and storytelling. She is clearly passionate and qualified and it made for a phenomenal introduction to Istanbul and its history. Highly recommend.

This experience is one of a kind. It's like having your personal expert guide for the whole experience and it's all about what you want and need to get the most out of your trip. Highly recommend for people to book this experience with Rose! My experience: I requested for a Turkish Breakfast experience and Yacht experience, which was amazing but I got so much more! From making a new friend, to learning more history, to having a company walking and exploring Galata and Karakoy, to enjoying a cup of coffee in the instagrammable cafés. I got lots of good recommendations for eating from local food to gastro (which is important to me!) 😊 a bonus was even having good company for dinner on a nice rooftop gastro restaurant overlooking the city! The host: Very respectful. As a woman and solo traveler, this is very important to me. I felt safe and at ease. I enjoyed the stories and felt very happy to know that I have made a new friend. Highly recommend and will definitely book again when I come back to Istanbul!

This private tour with Rose was one of the best day tours I have ever done. She is incredibly knowledgeable and shared so much history and other information with us. She is a great guide and shares information in a way that keeps it interesting. This tour covered a lot of highlights of Istanbul and saved us a lot of time as we were able to get into some venues quicker. We’ll definitely come back to Istanbul and book more private tour with Rosa. Great job.

Rose is an excellent guide, a great storyteller, and always willing to go beyond the typical tour experience. This was my first time with a guide and using the platform, and it was a perfect 10/10. Rose is not only friendly and knowledgeable but also knows unique, off-the-beaten-path locations that add an extra layer to the journey. Her expertise and warm personality made the experience truly exceptional.

We had such great time with TG. She is a passionate guide with lots of history background. Definitely recommend her storytelling.

Rosa is a great story teller and historian and answered our questions with enthusiasm. My 12 and 14 year olds were just as enthralled as I was. My 12 year old said this: “You can tell Rosa really loves what she does!” High praise indeed to inspire a child who watches you do a job you love! Thanks again, Rosa! We highly recommend your tour!

Rose is an excellent guide. She customized the experience for us and made efficient use of the time to show us the key historical sights while also making time for photos, icecream and lunch.

Great tour with Ely, very knowledgeable and pleasant for answering all our questions. Highly recommended.

Really nice Tour Arrangement Sightseeings arrangements was Wonderful Pick up and drop on time I will recommend your services to my friends

It was really great. TG was really knowledgeable and friendly. We learned a lot during this experience. It was my favourite activity during this trip. The group was also nice, we met some lovely people. :) We highly recommend this.

This was a nice stroll to the quieter areas is Taksim, adding to our experience of all ready seeing some museums and then getting this background information on the artists and the place they lived….that was great! We haven’t been disappointed in any of our experiences in Istanbul so far ❤️

We enjoyed the story telling and humorous style of our guide. Taksim area is really beautiful and backstreets are better than Main Street of istiklal.

It was a really nice experience that we had couple of hours in the heart of the modern city. Our guide was excellent in history and cultural knowledge

My wife and I went on the tour as this was our first time visiting Istanbul and it was AMAZING! I would highly recommend this tour to all my family and friends. I really loved that they taught us how to use the metro, tram, bus as it can be intimidating. Our tour guide Rosa was so awesome and so sweet! She really allowed us to feel safe traveling in a new city and took amazing photos of us at all the landmarks we visited.

Great tour of Taksim! Would recommend this tour for first time travelers to help get your bearings of this amazing city. Rose is a lovely guide who provided us with some wonderful history and safe tips about navigating around the city. Thank you for a great day!

TG is a fascinating guide, her storytelling made the tour very engaging and interesting meanwhile informative. Spending some hours around the Galata and Pera helps you understand the city better. Istanbul is not only about Hagia Sophia. Great experience

Our guide was wonderful. So helpful when we were lost. Very patient with all our questions. Highly recommend..!!

Such a great guide with a very friendly and helpful personality, also big talent of handling a big group of people with different backgrounds.. Nice job! a lot of historic sites and unknown stories of Istanbul.. recommended! Thank you L 🙏

Calm and nice walking path in the heart of this crowded city. Our guide Oscar was great and passed tons of historic mythological and architectural knowledge in such a short time.. unbelievable city and history, a good guide makes a lot of difference

Very nice guide with interestic historical story and shown a great love towards her country. Nice company and many information we have received. Walking speed and information was pleasant, good tips were also shared regarding shopping in Istambul :-)

Very informative and helpful guides. Alot of historic knowledge and background info. Also good insights and details provided during the tour.

The tour was even better than I thought. Elif is such a knowledgeable and easy-going person! As you would expect from a good guide, she was on the spot at the agreed time, answered all of our questions and showed us hidden churches and bustling streets, walked us inside luxury hotels and offered several routes to choose from. But she also recommended good taxi apps, shortcuts for transportations, best stores in Grand Bazaar and ferryboat routes. Would definitely recommend her to anyone, willing to know Istanbul better.

This was a great tour with a great guide. Elif was lovely and spoke perfect English. The tour covered many beautiful sights and secret places that you would never find if you were walking around on your own. Elif was incredibly knowledgeable and we learned so much about Turkish history and culture. Highly recommend this tour. The directions from the tour company were a bit confusing about where to meet. We were staying in the Sultanahmet area so we got the T1 tram over the bridge and got off there. As you get off the tram head left to the tunnel entrance for the underground funicular tram. The tunnel entrance is not very well signposted. It’s on the ground floor of a big building. Then get the funicular - there is only one stop - and the meeting place is outside the funicular exit on Istiklal street.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion, and for making our time in Istanbul truly remarkable, and I look forward to returning to Istanbul someday with your guidance again.

Thank you for the fantastic Istanbul tour! Your guidance added depth to my experience, making it truly memorable. Grateful for your insights!

Excellent tour route in Taksim with excellent knowledgeable guide Rose. She helped us a lot with navigation after the tour too.

Our Galata & Taksim tour in Istanbul proved to be an exceptional odyssey, seamlessly blending historical richness with the contemporary vibrancy that defines this incredible city. Commencing at the Galata Tower, the tour provided breathtaking panoramas and a profound exploration of Istanbul's architectural history. The well-structured sentences and engaging tone of our knowledgeable guide, an excellent guide, created a journey that felt both informative and intimately connected to the heart of Istanbul. Navigating through the charming streets, each turn unfolded a new chapter, beautifully narrated with vivid descriptions that brought the surroundings to life. The transitions between locations were smooth, maintaining a logical flow that kept us captivated. The guide's recommendations added a personal touch, ensuring that our exploration of Galata and Taksim was not only educational but also genuinely enjoyable. In conclusion, this 5-star tour was a perfect blend of historical insights, a knowledgeable guide, and a friendly, excellent voice, making it an unmissable experience for anyone seeking to delve into the soul of Istanbul.

A great guide, a lot of patience and a lot of knowledge. I would repeat. The experience was very informative and entertaining. And this tour has great spots for travel photos in the European style neighborhood of istanbul.

Our tour guide was terrific …. Gave us history, stories and wonderful sights. Even in the downpour we all enjoyed walking and experiencing the buildings and surroundings.

Our guide was absolutely stupendous! She had such a vast knowledge not only of the area, but of the whole history of the country and the development of the Turkish language. Additionally, with her showing us around, we saw some wonderful sites of what is “relatively modern” in Istanbul.

Everything was great, enjoyable and chill. Thanks to Rose we were able to navigate safely in the whole crowd with all my family and experience every corner of all areas mentioned in the schedule. Thank you very much.

This was a small tour of Modern Istanbul with Elif. She was very friendly, gave us some good advice about our stay, recommended very nice restaurant on the Asian side. She was knowladgable about the history of this part of the city, showed us some interesting hotels, markets, passages, which we wouldn't find on our own. She led us to the Galata tower, which we explored on our own. It was a nice tour. We walked in the modern city and the two of us had a nice conversation. However, there were three people in my party taking this tour, and with the streets being narrow, one person (me) was walking with Elif, and the other two people were walking behind us, so they didn't hear what she was saying most of the time. Most of the private walking tours have this issue. It would've been such a big improvement if we had a headphone devices, like the group tours do!

Our guide Elfi was excellent and very informative and educated. Delightful experience! We were very pleased with the tour and everything she told us.

It was a very fun and enjoyable activity. Our guide was knowledgeable, funny, very friendly. Everything was perfect.

We had a great time, everything was fine. Recommend to everyone.We were very impressed with the Pera region and its stories. It was also very interesting to see Atatürk's room.

This tour made me realize how fancy Pera is. I was not aware of it even I was staying in the area. Rose explained everything in a very fun manner for us to understand the brief history of the area. She was so informative about everything we see on the way. I definetely reccommend you to book this tour, you will not regret. Thanks Rose!

Thanks for the incredible experience you provided as my tour guide during my visit to Istanbul. Your extensive knowledge of the city's history, landmarks, and culture truly enhanced my exploration and made it a memorable journey.