Istanbul private tour with skip line tickets included
Recommended by 100% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Istanbul, Turkey
- 4 to 7 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Group discounts
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
Explore our promoted experiences
Overview
Stroll the atmospheric neighborhoods and historic streets of old Istanbul on a full-day, private walking tour with an experienced guide. Enjoy the flexibility to customize the day to your interests, with plenty of time to visit the sites that interest you most. Trace a path through centuries of Turkish history as you explore the hippodrome, Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace. Take in the soaring dome and minarets of Hagia Sophia, then get an insider’s guide to the Grand Bazaar’s vibrant displays of handicrafts, souvenirs and carpets.
- Full-day walking tour of historic Istanbul with a private guide
- See the city's landmarks and highlights
- Create the perfect tour for your schedule and needs
- Get local tips on the best places to eat, drink and visit
- Private tour ensures a personal experience
What's Included
- Private expert tour guiding for the day
- Skip Line Tickets for Hagia Sophia
- Private Expert Local Guide
- Private Pick up and Drop off at your Hotel or Cruise Port by Airconditioned vehicles
- Unique time to discover Turkish Handcrafts: (Carpet -Leather-Ceramic and Jewelry)
- Pre-reserved tickets for Topkapi Palace
- Drinks
- Lunch
Meeting and Pickup
You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup
Itinerary
1
Blue Mosque
45 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
2
Grand Bazaar
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
3
Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque
1 hour • Admission Ticket Included
4
Hippodrome
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
5
TopkapI Palace
2 hours • Admission Ticket Included
6
Tree Of Life Ceramics & Gift Shop
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
7
5K Rug Store
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Stroller accessible
- Near public transportation
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
- Most travelers can participate
- This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate
Supplied by
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 177 reviews
leighton_B, Apr 2026
Wonderfully knowledgeable guide. Eylem picked us up from our hotel in the Old City and gave the 4 of us in our group a fantastic in depth, personal tour. Bringing to life the history of Istanbul and the importance of the monuments we visited. Allowing for well timed breaks for coffees and baclava. Perfectly pitched.
Louise_S, Apr 2026
Great tour!Belgin collected us from our hotel and instantly captivated us with tales and history of Istanbul and the otterman empire. The tour of the blue mosque was amazing as is the history, the Topkapi palace - informative and intriguing. Hagia Sophia, while under restoration and still in operation, was a picture of history through out the ages. We highly recommend Belgin a fantastic tour thank you! Kenny & Louise Australia
Anita_P, Apr 2026
Eylem was a wonderful guide!! She was kind, thoughtful and friendly, and explained the sights and history to us in detail. She took us to wonderful places for lunch and coffee as well!
Merrilla_Z, Apr 2026
Our guide was great and shared his knowledge of the sites and culture. He also incorporated our interests into our tour.
Anne_M, Apr 2026
My husband and I greatly appreciate having Saban Sezer as our professional tour guide for our first day in Istanbul. He is incredibly knowledgeable, personable and we thoroughly enjoyed our day with him. He is a respected tour guide as we had 5-6 other tour guides say hello to him and tell us he is the best guide in Istanbul! After spending a day with Saban, we agree!
Steven_L, Apr 2026
Kenan was a fantastic guide yesterday. So knowledgeable, personable, and fun to talk to. The time just flew by. He’s a gem. I highly recommend him to anyone interested in a private tour of Istanbul.
Response from Host, Apr 2026
Thank you for choosing our team for your private tour in Istanbul, we are delighted to see your nice words for our guide and tour, all the best wishes
Jan_K, Apr 2026
We did a private full day tour with Billur. She was absolutely amazing! The day was a mix of sunshine and rain, but some how Billur managed the tour so only a few raindrops fell when we were outside🤣
Billur made sure we were well taken care of. She picked us up at our hotel, and at the end of our tour when our driver got stuck in traffic and could not meet up to take us back to the hotel, Billur jumped in a cab with us and made sure we got back to our hotel. Exhausted for sure, but so well taken care of.
I know each tour guide is different, but when you get the right one, it is amazing ! We saw almost every major attraction, and still had time to enjoy a relaxing lunch at The Pudding Shop Lale Restaurant! Shout out to the chefs there as well, they really spoiled us! We saw so many amazing places, learned so much history, and had an all around lovely day!
Barbara_D, Mar 2026
We had a great tour with our guide Cristal. She is very knowledgeable about all the history and facts, answered all our questions and we got a sense of what life in Turkey is like.
Jonathan_B, Mar 2026
Amazing tour. Loved our tour guide, he did an excellent job. Note most of the sites are around the same area, so its basically a walking tour from site to site. Our guide did am excellent job of navigating the different prayer and opening times of the Mosques and getting us around the city. Would highly recommend this tour to everyone. Super memerable!
Sanghamitra_R, Feb 2026
Sarken, our guide, was very knowledgeable. He gauged our interests very well and gave us more time at the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and Hagia Sofia.
If I did it again, I would spend some more time at the Blue Mosque, which is magnificent and skip the Grand Bazaar. He's a very good photographer and took many pictures of me and my husband.
A wonderful tour, definitely recommend to others.
If you have time, I would do Topkapi Palace separately. By the end of the tour I foid it hard to appreciate it as much. Or I would do it the first thing on this tour.
David_S, Jan 2026
Absolutely incredible day walking and talking with my guide Tayfun. Knowledgeable and accommodating, pace and itinerary were adjusted to my interests. Would highly recommend!
Constance_W, Jan 2026
A lot of history. Our tour guide Kenan was very knowledgeably. Learned something about rugs. It is also a walking tour. You can get tired.
Genevieve_S, Nov 2025
Awesome tour! Billur was fantastic! Super knowledgeable. Let us go at our pace. Took us to a great kebab restaurant for lunch. Totally worth the private tour route!
David_C, Nov 2025
Kenan was very knowledgeable and highly entertaining. The tour hit all the must see sights. Great day!
karen_j, Nov 2025
This is the way to tour. Kenan our guide was incredible. So knowledgeable about the area and accommodating to what we were interested in seeing. We spent the whole day with him on a private tour. We learned so much about Istanbul. He taught us several Turkish words which we used in our sightseeing tours. He took us to a local family restaurant with a rooftop view. The food and service were incredible. He took us to several local merchants that showed us how they made their products. He was an exceptional guide. Would highly recommend this private tour.
Joe_C, Nov 2025
An utterly brilliant experience. Kenan was knowledgeable, funny and was genuinely interested in our feedback. We learned so much from his knowledge and would highly recommend him As a tour guide but also made us laugh throughout the tour.
Thomas_R, Nov 2025
Peri (Perihan) was amazing. She was very knowledgeable about the history of all the locations we visited. Very considerate of my wife’s disability (she put us on two tram rides to save walking). Brought us to a fabulous restaurant for lunch. Definitely one of the highlights of our trip.
JamesW_S, Nov 2025
Eylem was terrific! My wife was ill in the morning, so we had a late start, but Eylem really accommodated us. Wonderful personality and extremely knowledgeable about the sights and their remarkable history. This is a must tour for visiting Istanbul. A most enjoyable and rewarding day.
Javier_R, Oct 2025
This was an amazing experience, visiting the major highlights of Istanbul in a condensed schedule that was just right for us. Our guide Eylem was the absolute best! She adjusted to our needs during the day. She was not only our Guide but became our friend.
Patricia_W, Oct 2025
The best and most efficient way to see Istanbul! You must ask for Peri, she is knowledgeable, fun and a terrific person!
Clotilde_K, Oct 2025
Saw the highlights. Kenan our guide spoke perfect English and was very informative. It was a bit rainy but still enjoyable.
Doug_J, Oct 2025
Had a wonderful experience with our personal guide Betu. Got to see Blue Mosque, the incredible Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia and lots more.
James_N, Oct 2025
We had a fantastic tour with Dilsad! We saw and experienced so much. We loved it. Dilsad had brilliant information to share. We highly recommend her tour.
Niki_V, Oct 2025
My friend and I booked a private, skip the line tour with Eylem (?). She was wonderful, and it was like, within minutes, we became fast friends. It was obvious that she loved being a guide, wanted us to get to know her adopted city Istanbul (she is from Cappadocia). We first saw the Hagia Sofia - and she knew so much of the history, the art work, and the evolution of the mosque from Christian times to Islamic times. Women are supposed to wear a scarf while visiting but I had forgotten mine, and she brought one with her that I could use. Eylem was one of the best guides I've ever had. She was very cognizant of our personal needs, and we stopped for breaks, first a coffee after visiting the Hagia Sofia, various breaks for "sit-downs" here and there, and lunch at the Pudding Shop - which is well known locally. Our entire day was one of historical revelation, interesting conversation, and enjoyment. We roamed through the bazaar. After lunch we visited the Topkapi Palace and then finally the Blue Mosque. This is a long walking tour, so be prepared to spend a wonderful day with Eylem. I can't imagine a more wonderful and enjoyable day than the one we had.
SandyBaxas, Oct 2025
Our tour guide Behic Iltir was so knowledgeable about the history of Istanbul and the different eras. He also had the special advance tickets for the sites that allowed us to bypass all the long lines. He tailored our spice market/bazaar tour to what we were interested in seeing/potentially shopping for, as well as constantly pointing out other historical landmarks. We had a lovely casual lunch at a typical local place (not included in tour price) We saw everything on our list that we felt were must sees except for the Palace as it is closed on Tuesdays. I would highly recommend anyone use them if you want to see/learn the most you can in what limited time you have, or you will spend most of your time in long lines, and miss out on the incredible history in between sites.
MariaD_R, Oct 2025
Great communication Yulia was amazing and her assistant as well. They took their time explain everything to us what to expect and how to pose we saw preview the photo and they were amazing. Highly recommended this photo shoot session, I went with my niece and we had a great time🥰❤️
Sean_B, Oct 2025
Amazing outing in Istanbul when we only had one day free and wanted to see the top tourist trio of the Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia and Topkapi Palace.
Our early hotel pick- up at 8am meant that we beat most of the crowds, which allowed us to take our time at the Palace especially, and we were even able to squeeze in a walk through a bazaar (the Grand Bazaar was closed as we visited on a Sunday) and a visiting to the impressive Basilica Cistern.
Our guide Dilşad spoke brilliant English - studying at the university has clearly paid off - and she was extremely knowledgeable about the city and all all the sights. And she even recommended somewhere great for us to have lunch after the tour!
Definitely recommended!
Manpreet_G, Oct 2025
Four of us had a great experience with our tour guide, Hilal. She is personable and knowledgeable about the sites. She was also able to fit our desired itinerary within our desired timeframe. We highly recommend her.
Sally_T, Oct 2025
Özge was our private tour guide for the day. She turned up at the appointed time, spoke excellent and clear English. She was kind and courteous, and very knowledgeable. She was also adaptable and fell in with our needs. She ensured that we were ahead of the crowds of tourists which in Istanbul is a bonus. We highly recommend her.
ALAN_R, Oct 2025
Our guide was extremely knowledgable, friendly and obliging. He was patient and took care of all our needs.
From $209.61
per personup to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
Compare Similar Experiences
Current
Special Offer
Istanbul private tour with skip line tickets included
176
7 hours
Free Cancellation
From
$209.61
Customers Who Bought This Tour Also Bought
Attractions in Istanbul, Turkey
- Panorama 1453 History Museum Tours & Tickets
- Galata Bridge (Galata Köprüsü) Tours & Tickets
- Gallipoli Peninsula (Gelibolu Yarimadasi) Tours & Tickets
- Balat Tours & Tickets
- Zeyrek Mosque (Zeyrek Camii) Tours & Tickets
- Haydarpasa Railway Station (Haydarpasa Gari) Tours & Tickets
- Koza Han Tours & Tickets
- Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts (Türk Islam Eserleri Müzesi Hizmete) Tours & Tickets
- Galata Tower (Galata Kulesi) Tours & Tickets
- Eminӧnü Square (Eminönü Meydani) Tours & Tickets
- Sultanahmet Tours & Tickets
- St. Anthony of Padua Church (Sent Antuan Bazilikasi) Tours & Tickets
More attractions near Istanbul, Turkey
- Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) Tours & Tickets
- Bosphorus Tours & Tickets
- Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Camii) Tours & Tickets
- Topkapi Palace (Topkapi Sarayi) Tours & Tickets
- Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayi) Tours & Tickets
- Hippodrome (Sultanahmet Meydani) Tours & Tickets
- Dolmabahce Palace (Dolmabahce Sarayi) Tours & Tickets