Private Half-day Tour: Imperial Istanbul - Hagia Sophia, Basilica Cistern And Grand Bazaar

Our tour guide Gerhan was friendly, knowledgeable, and so informative, making us feel special. Our introduction to the history, culture and religion of Turkey over the centuries was outstanding

We signed up to go o n a tour l. In the beginning it went well and the churches were beautiful and at the last stop of our tour we went to somewhat of a flea market where we were brought into a carpet store for some someone to teach us about carpets. Our tour guide left us there for 30 minutes, and then we were asked if we wanted to buy a carpet as a souvenir which was very akward, we then visited other stores with the tour guide were clearly she knew it was for them to ask us to purchase items. Was extremely packed and full of cigarette smoke. She walked so fast and was so disturbing for us considering we knew nothing about this country and was more of a way to have us purchase items we did not ask or wanted

Sevi gave us a thorough explanation of the amazing sights of ancient Constantinople. From Roman, ottoman and moderna eras, I Finally feel I have grasp of its history.!

Tour was fantastic and the guide was very knowledgeable on everything. Spoke great english and also gave us time to look around.

<p>We have a wonderful private tour of Istanbul with Ilker. We visited the stunning Hagia Sophia, Basilica Cistern and the Bazaar. Ilker was great - knowledgable and professional as well as personalising our tour to suit our interests. Highly recommend. We will be back!!</p>

<p>Good tour except grand bazaar closed. Cut short due to potential issues in front of our hotel. Would do again</p>

<p>Our guide was extremely informative and down-to-earth. Highly recommend this tour especially because it gives you time in the Grand Bazaar with someone that can assist you in the immense size of this place. The only negative is that we were taken to a vendor that specialized in Turkish rugs without being asked if we were interested. This vendor provided a detailed explanation of the variety of rugs available for sale and proceeded to pitch a sale. It would've been very uncomfortable if we hadn't bought one. They were beautiful rugs.</p>

<p>Guide gave us good tour and suggested lunch place was perfect</p>

<p>Really great tour - our tour guide was highly knowledgeable and very friendly - I even got a lovely bracelet from her which she got from a local street artisan, which was so sweet and thoughtful. She answered all of our questions and made the entrance into the sites visited very smooth. It was a great introduction to Istanbul as we were only there for a limited amount of time. Highly recommend!</p>

<p>Knowledgeable and experienced guide. Wasted no time in getting into the sights. All sights well worth visiting. Needed more time at the Grand Bazaar so requested that we did not return to our hotel but remain in town.</p>

<p>Excellent guide. Helped us two seniors' navigate the stone walks and hills. Took us to a spice market,where we were treated quite fairly. Also to the carpet display, which was more informative than others I have visited in Morocco.<br/> I've always had good tours with your organization and will use again. Pick up at ship instead of a hotel went smoothly.</p>

<p>Absolutely loved this one, such a great tour, taking in all the best spots of Istanbul. Hagia Sophia was just magnificent. Katarina was such a wonderful guide, informing us of so many different aspects and whatever we asked - she had an answer for. If you can ask for a particular guide - Katarina is my recommendation - you won't be disappointed.</p>

<p>Absolutely loved our guide she was very accommodative and was a pleasure she went out of the way and accommodated us to see another place of interest since the grand bazar was closed ..over all excellent</p>

<p>Wow. This was a great tour. We learned the full history of Hagia Sophia. Our guide, Gülay knew every date and every detail. The Basilica Cistern was much different than I expected and enhanced by the knowledge of our guide. We had the opportunity to go to a private pottery showroom and have a personal demonstration. My favorite, was the Grand Bazaar. It is overwhelming, but our guide had a good knowledge of which vendors were reputable and helped us navigate. She should do shopping tours!</p>

<p>Excellent day! We enjoyed our tour and learned a lot about the history of these amazing places. Our guide was good and had provided us with sufficient information. We have felt a bit rushed as he always was ahead of us and we needed to catch up to him most of the time.</p>

<p>Interesting and knowledgable guide. Very friendly. Well organised tour. Fascinating insight into main attractions of Istanbul. Highly recommend tour and our guide was lovely and patient with us stragglers.</p>

<p>Worth doing but may as well have gone on a tour with other people. One of the reasons for opting for the private tour was fact that other tours seemed to include some form of 'selling' visit eg to carpet maker. Having suffered this experience in both Marrakesch and Delhi it is something we wished to avoid. However the private tour we soon discovered also included just such a delight. We made it clear to the guide that we did not wish to do this. Consequently, rather than the 4 hours promised on the tour description, the whole experience ie Hagia Sofia, Byzantine Cistern and Grand Bazaar was over in under 3 hours. Our guide was a very pleasant young man but I felt perhaps lacked the sort of experience and knowledge we might have expected from a more mature person. Overall, therefore, a bit disappointing and not particularly good value for the £102 it cost.</p>

<p>I have already raised a complaint that is being looked into by the local tour operator as we discovered that the Grand Bazaar was closed on the day that we were due to see it and yet I had still been able to book the tour and no advise was given that it was a public holiday. The Grand Bazaar was the main attraction that we wanted to see so we were very disappointed that we had to do this on our own. Please note that the guide and her knowledge were excellent for what we saw and she did try to reschedule but was unable to do so.</p>

<p>Our guide was wonderful! She was on time and really knew the history of Istanbul. She answered all of our questions. Best of all, she took extra care to make sure we were happy with our overall experience of Turkey!</p>

<p>would greatly recommend this tour. Our guide was so informative and very friendly. She was also flexible and great with our children. These sites of Istanbul are truly extraordinary. A must see!</p>

<p>This private tour was excellent. However, once again the description of the tour was insuffiicient. As above is advertised as Hagia Sofia and Grand Bazaar, however, it would have included the blue mosque but since it wasn't mentioned in the description, we went to see it the day before by oursselves. A waste of our precious time in Istanbul!!!</p>

An excellent and knowledgable guide who was able to speak excellent English and gave us a really interesting tour through the major tourist sites. His enthusiasm for his city and its history was outstanding. We had a great time. Well worth doing for first time visitors.

The trip was ok, nice transportation, nice guide. Would recommend.