Top Istanbul Food Tours - page 5

Dervish performance was intriguing and captivating. The dinner after the show was fantastic. There were four of us in our group, each with a very different pallette. We each found several things in the dinner that we really liked, so all were happy. Our guide, Bugra, was friendly and knowledgable. The only negative I'd cite is communication before the tour. Originally we booked for 4:30PM, but that Dervish performance was cancelled, so we received TEXTS about a change to 6:30PM, and asking us if we wanted to do the tour at that time. The problem I had with this was that nothing in the texts mentioned "Kubi", the company we were taking the tour with. And the phone number we received the texts from was DIFFERENT from the phone number in the booking details. We went into our booking details and messaged the company thru Viator. They confirmed that the change was legitimate. So we forged ahead with this new time for the tour. We took a taxi from the cruise port to the meeting place, and our taxi driver expressed skepticism that it was a legitimate tour we were on. He called the phone number the texts had come from, and I believe he spoke directly with our guide. Nothing the guide said to him made him any more confident that the tour was legit. Obviously the taxi driver was wrong. The tour was legit and we enjoyed it. But Kubi could avoid situations like this by having their employees identify themselves with the company name on any such correspondence. Also, it would be better to use the phone number in the booking details for such correspondence.

This is a very worthwhile experience that was well organized and fun and expertly lead by Burak our local tour guide and leader. We contacted ahead of time via Whatsapp, then were met on time and in the location specified. The tour group was only 3 so we were especially looked after. The explanations given and food locations visited were all great as was the tasty food. So don't eat breakfast before doing this tour as it starts with a full typical Turkish breakfast and then just keeps going. Coffee, tasty snacks, lunch and desert were all part of wandering local markets, small restaurants, just like a local would. Also 2 ferry rides and great conversations with Burak made this tour an extremely memorable one. I rate it 10/10 and a MUST Do.

We had a great experience with Ekrim, our tour guide. He customized the agenda as we saw fit. He quickly learned what interested me and made it very personally bespoke. Ekrim is very friendly, very personable, very knowledgeable and made our experience a pleasure.