Istanbul Old City Highlights: Private Walking Tour
Recommended by 100% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Istanbul, Turkey
- 4 to 6 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Group discounts
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
What's Included
- Private Licensed Tour Guide Exclusively For Your Group
- Public transportation(Use of public transportation depends on the location of your accommodation and your preference.)
- Lunch
- Admission tickets (optional). Pay only for the attractions you choose to enter.
- Gratuity (suggested)
Meeting and Pickup
You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup
Itinerary
1
Hippodrome
20 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
2
Blue Mosque
25 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
3
Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque
45 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
4
TopkapI Palace
2 hours • Admission Ticket Not Included
5
Basilica Cistern
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
6
Grand Bazaar
45 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Wheelchair accessible
- Near public transportation
- Infants must sit on laps
- Most travelers can participate
- On Sundays, when the Grand Bazaar is closed, the Spice Bazaar can be visited instead.
- Topkapi Palace is closed on Tuesdays.
- For tours starting after noon, some sites may not be visited due to closing times.
- The duration of the tour may vary depending on crowds, your walking pace, and the attractions you choose to visit.
- This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
5.0
based on 93 reviews
Sort by: Most recent
Batu was a true gem! He proved to be a bright, knowledgeable, and articulate tour guide. While we both thoroughly enjoyed his company, my husband, in particular, appreciated his impressive knowledge of international movies and sports, which made the “in between” historical facts conversation easy and fun. We saw everything we had hoped to see. You can’t go wrong with Batu!
Excellent way to see the major sites. Our guide did a good job navigating the waiting lines and getting us for into sites.
Our guide,Dogukan was the best and tailored the experience to suit our exact needs. He adapted and rearranged things to manage our time ensuring we had the best from our time.
Our guide Volkan was very informative, friendly, and thoughtful. He enjoys his work and did a wonderful job!
We learned so much from our wonderful tour guide. Batu was so knowledgable and friendly. He made the day a great learning experience. I highly recommend him as a tour guide.
Our Private Istanbul City tour was with Batu, who was excellent. We visited the Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia and the Basilica Cistern. Batu was very knowledgeable about all of these locations and the city in general. Lastly, he took us to a lovely cafe with a wonderful view to conclude our tour. In addition, he was friendly and personable. We recommend him highly!
Very private, we could pick what we wanted to do. Lucky we didn't, Anil had a great tour picked out, and then we asked him to take us where the locals would eat lunch, and it was fantastic. You will walk a lot, well over 13,000 steps, but it is worth it.
This tour was definitely the best tour we did in Istanbul! Anil is great!! He is very knowledgeable about the history and is a great story teller and photographer! He also knows the best food places and best shops ! It was truly a 10/10 experience ! Highly recommend!!!
Great tour hit many of the highlights and was great having a guide explain the history of each and point out interesting little things along the way
Wonderful guide. Batu met us at the port and we caught a tram to the main sights. He was very knowledgeable and kind. Would highly recommend this tour.
Our early start meant that we avoided the crowds.
We had a wonderful walking tour with Burak. He was knowledgeable, but concise so we learned a lot. It was a beautiful day and we saw most of the major sites of the Old City. Burak knew what to see first before the crowds and we could make choices. He also gave us eating and tram advice. All in all, a 5-star experience.
Our guide Anil did a great job, was very knowledgeable and passionate about history/tour. I would highly recommend him.
Kurtulus our guide was amazing! It was a pleasure to spend the day learning from him. He was very knowledgeable and gave perspective and insight into all the places we visited, knew a lot of our little details along the way, and was able to identify our interests and provide further tidbits to feed our interest. He was flexible and showed us a great local place to grab a bite to eat. He interacted well with our teenage kids. Overall, we had a great day and thoroughly enjoyed our time in Istanbul and it was a pleasure to have K as our guide.
It was a wonderful private walking tour. Our guide Mr Anil furnished us with great insights into historical details and fun facts. The pacing was great. We stopped over places for Turkish Coffee and dessert. Thank you Anil!
Great tour with Dogukan . Very informative and fun! We've experienced the city together and tried something local,that was interesting and delicious. Thanks !
Our guide (Doğukan Ceylan) was excellent.
His English was very good, and he went at a nice pace, and was patient to stop wherever we asked.
We went to various sites and Doğukan shared lots of history / interesting info.
It was an awesome experience. Our guide, Anil Bozkurt was incredible, picked us up at the port at the agreed time and spent the entire day with us. Took us to all the main attractions (Hypodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Basilica Cistern) and even to a traditional restaurant for lunch. Highly recommend tour and if possible request Anil as your guide, you will have the best experience in Instabul.
I traveled to Istanbul for work so only had one day to see some of the city. This was the perfect option to hit the highlights in Old City Istanbul: Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, Basilica Cistern and Grand Bazaar. Batu was a wonderful guide! He provided details about where we visited that I never would have figured out on my own, clued me into some delicious spots to grab a bite or a tea and answered all my (many) questions! Highly recommend!!!!
This was a crash course in the history, culture, and food of an area we had almost no pre-knowledge of. Topal was patient and answered every question, as well as explaining historical significance at every turn.
Batu was a great tour guide and provided a very thoughtful and informative tour around a few mosques as well as the city. He was flexible with our schedule and even added a few stops at our request. We would definitely recommend Batu for your tour in Istanbul!
We were well looked after by our guide Can. Very knowledgeable and les us to all the main sights we wanted to see.
Mosques, palace, Cistern and bazaar a great day in the old city.
Thank you for getting us home safely.
We had a great experience visiting the sites in Istanbul. Batu was a very knowledgeable guide and also very patient with us walking around.
Great tour, highly recommended. We saw all the highlights and learned a lot about Istanbul on our tour!
Batu was phenomenal!!!. He was very knowledgeable. This was one of the best tour so far. Batu went above and beyond for us.
Five star is not enough. 10/10.
We booked this tour as part of a cruise stop in Istanbul. Our tour guide was a gentleman named Batu and we had a great and informative session. He arrived promptly at the meet up location at Galataport and proceeded to give a walking tour of the major highlights of Istanbul.
We started with hopping on the T1 tram from the port to the Sultanahmet area where we paused for some turkish coffee (my wife needed a jolt of caffiene to start us off). Great experience watching the preparation and presentation/service.
We proceeded to walk down to the Blue mosque, Batu guided us on dress code while giving us detailed history lessons of the buildings we were looking at. We visited inside the mosque and was awed by the beautiful designs.
Next we visited the Obelisk of Theodosius and the German fountain on the hippodrome. My kids particularly enjoyed seeing the obelisk and hieroglyphics.
We walked down to the Hagia Sophia next, where Batu helped with procuring tickets and dress code again. Once inside we spent probably close to an hour marveling at this ancient building that has changed hands so many times in history.
We ended the tour with a walk to the Grand Bazaar, an epic feast for the senses! Batu showed us a few recommended stores for Carpets and leather goods.
By now we had been walking almost four hours (with lots of stops for rest in the hot august temps as well as pictures) and we decided to wrap up the tour. Batu was able to help in getting a taxi to get us back to Galataport to get back on our cruise.
Batu was patient, knowledgeable and helpful. He answered all our random questions and we were able to totally customize the tour to what we wanted to see/experience.
I fully recommend this tour, you will not be disappointed!!
Excellent introduction to Istanbul, with most important landmarks and historical attractions visited.
Burak, our guide, was also excellent - friendly, knowledgeable and professional. I highly recommend this tour and tour guide.
Batu was A+, gave us lots of great advice on Istanbul, not just about tour. Was very helpful. Thank you!!
What an amazing experience! Barak was both knowledgeable and fun, and answered all our endless questions about history and the places we toured. He gave us options that helped us tailor the experience to our liking, found us bathrooms, Coke Zero, and whatever else we needed. He was also happy to take our picture as many times as we asked him to.
Maybe the best private tour I’ve ever been on, and at a great price too. Book this one. You won’t be sorry. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Buta was our tour guide for the day. He took 6 of us through many famous sites and ended in Grand Bazaar. He was an amazing young man who is full of knowledge of the places we visited. Not only his English was good, he was very thorough with the history, and very easy to understand him. Before our tour, we asked him many questions and he responded quickly. He sure put us at ease. He also has a lot of patience and often waited for few of us who walked bit slower. He is a very personable and made us all feel very welcomed. Thank you Buta for giving us such a wonderful tour of your beautiful country. We were so lucky to have met you and looking forward to seeing you again in the near future.
The guide, Batu, was very kind and accommodating. He was knowledgeable, punctual and well prepared for the tour.
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From
$85.50
per personWas $90.00(-5%)
up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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