Istanbul Two Continents Half-day Afternoon Tour

Decided to do this on our arrival day in Istanbul. Sevilay was a great guide and great company for the afternoon. She was a huge help in the Spice Bazaar as well, taking us to all of the best spots in there.

<p>Overall not a bad tour, but not the most interesting topics. Might not do again.</p>

<p>It was a great bus tour but the resistance to let me use my mobility aids limited the trip because the driver wouldn't let me use my wheelchair. He was very upset that I wasn't 100% physically fit and able to run a marathon. I could not find anyone who spoke English to explain why the risk of the palace in plastic shoe covers is extremely dangerous for falls and wondered if they had safer options. I saw the English guide for about 30seconds and was told to sit in the corner at the Palace because he had to get going. No one else spoke English. He didn't apologize, ask if he could help out at all, nothing. He told me I couldn't go on his tour, but needed to take the spice market tour instead, which wasn't my interest. I suspect it was just his attitude. I opted for the French and German speaking bus rather than fight with the English guide or take a tour I didn't need.</p>

<p>Good short half day tour. We were picked up and dropped off at our hotel. We started by going to Asia. Had some time to take pictures and walk around. We then went to the palace, which was great. The tour guide could have been a little bit more personalable. He seemed somewhat robotic, but nice.</p>

<p>Nice to see a different part of the city and good overall views. Would be best done on a clear day. Excellent guide</p>

<p>While the tour was short, it was a great opportunity to visit the Asian side of Istanbul. The temperature was a bit cooler than the European side and it has beautiful palaces and vista outlooks. We also had an opportunity to taste delicious Turkish ice cream made with goat milk and Orchid powder1</p>

<p>Unfortunately it rained heavily on the day of the tour and we saw very little, but enjoyed the Sumer palace</p>

<p>It was nice taking a trip over the Bosphorous, but this could have been so much better.<br/> Aziz was a great tour guide, explaining the history and taking you around.<br/> This trip was really only 2 hours not a half a day, add in another hour of picking up and dropping people off.<br/> You start off with some free time up at the highest point on the Asian side, really nice views. Then you drive around, I forget what places we stopped at except the last stop which was the Sultans summer palace. Really nice palace. This trip could be so much better however. Suggestions: Spend more time in other Asian parts and also make a stop at the Dolambache palace - that would have been really nice.</p>

<p>We seemed to join another tour at the halfway point, the place was good but the rest of the trip.seemed a bit pointless</p>

<p>The guide on this tour was less fluent in English than the guide on my other tour.<br/> This tour spent more time on the bus than I expected, hence less time at the sites I wanted to see.<br/> I'm not loudly complaining, it's just that I didn't find the half-day tour to be as valuable as a full-day tour.</p>

<p>Istanbul...what a great city! A city on 2 continents. While most of the treasures<br/> are on the European side, a tour, including the Asian side, makes the trip better.</p>

<p>Beautiful views across Istanbul and marvelous palace with good guide.</p>

<p>all this tour comprises is a trip up a very high hill for a photo opportunity and then a visit to the former Sultan's summer palace. That's it. Not great value.</p>

<p>Great half day trip to the Asian side of Instabul. Crossing over the bridge you'll visit a palace and then up the hill for panoramic views! Beautiful!</p>

<p>We were picked up on time, (1.00 PM) but the tour started at 2.00 PM because of transfers to another bus. We loved the view of the hill and the palace (but I find this a little bit unorganised, we had to wait for almost half an hour at the entrance). I think 35 euro is too much, when you take the hop on hop off (Bospharus/city window) than you can do this on your own.</p>

<p>Another awesome experience through Viator. Our tour guide was super friendly and very knowledgeable about Istanbul, answering all of our questions and explaining what we were seeing in great detail. The tour included a trip over the big cable suspension bridge and up to the top of the highest hill in Istanbul with spectacular views of the entire city, plus a guided tour of the summer palace used by two sultans in the 19th century. I highly recommend this tour as its a great way to see both continents in one day. Amazing views and definitely worthwhile.</p>

<p>worth doing if have a spare afternoon would have liked a little more info on Istanbul's history as we travelled. Guides English could have been better</p>

<p>I imagine it is not easy to coordinate groups of people and then arrange for them to be in specific locales at specific times. I can accept that to a certain extend, but we were kept waiting 40+ minutes before we even got on the road to begin our tour. Time is precious in a new city, right?</p>

<p>Bus tour across the bridge, unfortunately it was raining,the guide gave general information, only 2 visits not so exciting</p>

<p>This was a good tour and enjoyed by all three of us. It gave us a better understanding of Istanbul and we were very pleased.</p>

<p>We we're picked uo at the appointed time but then driven around for half an hour, dropped off and had to wait for the right bus. It took too long.</p>

<p>Most enjoyable day in Istanbul, unforgettable tour and very well organized. Umut is a fantastic guide, full of knowledge, spoke perfect english and kept our interest at all times. The summer residence was delightful and absolutely amazing! Stunning views from Camlica Hill. Loved this tour and highly recommend!</p>

<p>Palace was specatular. Great insight into the city</p>

<p>This was an interesting afternoon, the Beylerbeyi Palace was amazing and the view from Camlica Hill was great. Would recommend.</p>

<p>Visit dolmabahce palace, no space between the different groups visiting the palace at the same time resulting in a cacophony of all languages from guides.</p>

<p>I would definitely recommend this tour but it did seem a bit hurried. Not the tour companies fault, just a lot to cover in a short amount of time.</p>

<p>Tour was very good. They picked us up at our hotel, on time and drove us to the meeting point. As it turned out, the real tour started about 1/2 mile from our hotel. They could just ads easily picked us up on the way to the Asian side. <br/> The view from the Asian side is much different than the European side. This area is newer, more modern. They took us to the highest hill and the views were terrific.<br/> The summer palace was nice, but they do not allow you to take pictures and we would have liked to do so.<br/> All in all, the guide was knowledgable and answered questions. His English was very good.</p>

<p>Very enjoyable, fabulous trip - saw lots of places we wouldn't have had time to see on our own. Thank you</p>

<p>Very good way to get an overview of Istanbul on both sides of the Bosphorus</p>

<p>The tour could have been more informative, but the views from Camlica hill are breathtaking.</p>

<p>A half day is not a great deal of time to see much of anything, but Viatour came through with this tour, providing a good overview of the city, the information on the sites and much, much more. Thoroughly enjoyed and for anyone who has very limited time available, this is a good tour to take.</p>

<p>This was a good trip efficiently organised. The guide was pleasant and very knowledgeable. My only criticism was that so much infomation was given on the coach that one could not take it all in. Perhaps it would be better if the details of not every building were given.</p>

<p>Very good tour. The guide spoke very good english and was clearly understood. The pace of the tour was fine.</p>

<p>Only dissatisfaction was choosen object (Beylerbeyi Palace). It would be better if we visit Dolmabahce Palace instead of Beylerbeyi Palace. <br/> I purchased tour to day when Dolmabahce Palace is open but still other object was choosen.</p>

<p>We were picked up at our hotel, then drove 45 minutes to the departure point. We then proceded to drive PAST our hotel before beginning our tour. Would have saved us a lot of bus time if we were picked up on the way to the tour. The tour did not last as long as stated in the description. We did enjoy what we saw though. Istanbul is a fascinating city with so much to see!</p>

<p>tour guide was not very knowlegble.It was very fast too.</p>

<p>This is a bit of a rip off. We only go up a hill and then to a summer palace Not worth th cosst. The guide did rcommend a good restaurant, Hamdi to go to afterwards..</p>

<p>What we saw was nice. A view from the highest point in Instanbul and the sultan summer palace. However, this was not worth the nearly $50 a person that we paid.</p>

<p>The experience in crossing the Bosphorous bridge was surreal. In one minute I was in Europe, but in another I was in Asia. Nowhere else but only in Istanbul! And yes, the view from atop Camlica Hill was fantastic.</p>

<p>This tour needs to be taken during the summer period to enjoy one self.</p>

<p>This tour was undertaken with ITS through Neon Tours. The local guide was very good.<br/> This was a beautiful tour, however, quite short!!!</p>

I wish we had knows in advance which palaces were toured on which days. We thought we were going to dolomache palace, but were disheartened when we realized that we were visiting Beylerbeyi palace instead. In the future, I would suggest confirming which palace is scheduled for the day you are planning if your heart is set on one over the other.

Impressed with the timely pick up but the tour did not cover all parts of the plan. Excellent tour guide - informative and enteraining

This is really a tour of the Asian side of Istanbul - fighting a lot of traffic, normal for Istanbul - to visit a lookout on the Asian side and then to visit the Beylerbeyi Palace on the shores of the Bosphorus. The tour was a lot shorter than 4 hours - but still worthwhile.

The guides were very knowledgeable- the beginning of the trip was little unorganized-but it finished great

An excellent tour lots of history and current information. Tour guide knowledgeable with good English. Summer palace tour was breathtaking. Only drawback was traffic but this could be because IMF summit was on that day

Beautiful sight and the palace. Again the guide knew what he was talking about.

The original tour operator did not do the tour; they assigned it to another group, and the tour was not the same one advertised through Viator. The van picked us up at our hotel and then we went to a meeting place and waited while other vans arrived with all of the other tourists. We ended up doing the boat ride on the Bosphorous and the spice market combination. The scenery along the boat tour was gorgeous, guide was not too easy to understand. Spice market was much nicer than the Grand Bazaar. It seemed like we spent more time riding in vans, buses and more vans than was necessary.

The tour guide's knowledge, passion and enthusiasm made this tour worthwhile.