Guided Istanbul Tours

Bugün İstanbul Tarihi Yarımada’da dört çocuk ve iki yetişkin olarak çok keyifli ve dolu dolu bir tur gerçekleştirdik. Rehberimiz Tuba bizi sevecenliğiyle ağırladı. Çocuklu bir grupla gezmenin zorlukları düşünülerek planlanmış olması bizim için büyük avantajdı. Anlatımlar anlaşılır, akıcı ve ilgi çekiciydi; çocuklar sıkılmadan dinledi, biz yetişkinler de tarihi detaylarıyla öğrenme fırsatı bulduk. Rota dengeli, tempo yerindeydi. Hem öğretici hem de keyifli bir deneyim oldu. Tarihi Yarımada’yı özellikle çocuklu ailelerle gezmek isteyenlere gönül rahatlığıyla tavsiye ederim.

This is the best way to tour Istanbul. Our tour guide Mustafa was all we hoped for: friendly, knowledgeable, interesting and experienced. His English was perfect and easy to understand. He showed us all the popular sights, made good recommendations and knew his way around long lines. He even had me try some interesting street food with him. My wife and I will always cherish our Istanbul experience with Mustafa and I highly recommend him.

We had a 2 day private tour of Cappadocia with Tugba as our tour guide. She was excellent. She provided great historical explanation and led us to all of the best sights. Everything was flawless from the pickup to drop off. This is our second tour with the company having done a private tour of Istanbul earlier. I highly recommend them and would use them again.

We had the BEST experience with our tour guide, Hakan! We had arrived in Istanbul very late the night before from another trip, and he was incredibly flexible and understanding with our start time the next morning. Throughout our full-day walking tour, he took us to so many of the major sites and shared an immense amount of knowledge and history with us at each location. His explanations were thoughtful, engaging, and really brought the city to life. He also gave excellent food recommendations — both our lunch and dinner spots were some of our favorite meals in Istanbul! He guided us through the Grand Bazaar and was so patient while we looked around and decided on purchases, never rushing us and always helping us find exactly what we were looking for. Hakan was knowledgeable, kind, and genuinely enjoyable to spend the day with. He went above and beyond to make our first day in Turkey memorable, and we truly could not have asked for a better guide. We would highly recommend him to anyone visiting Istanbul!

My wife and I spent a full day touring Istanbul with Sude, and hiring her was one of the best decisions we made during our trip. As a local, Sude knows Istanbul inside and out. She is incredibly knowledgeable, personable, and savvy, and we benefited greatly from her insights throughout the day. We covered an amazing amount of ground, including the Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Grand Bazaar, Basilica Cistern, and even a ceramics shop, yet the day never felt rushed. What impressed us most was how efficiently she helped us navigate each site. Topkapi Palace alone is enormous and could easily consume an entire afternoon, but Sude made sure we saw the highlights without wasting time while still giving us opportunities to explore on our own. One of the biggest benefits of having Sude as our guide was that we spent our time experiencing Istanbul rather than figuring out logistics, entrances, routes, and what to prioritize. There is no way we would have covered as much ground independently. Sude was also incredibly adaptable throughout the day. She was always willing to adjust the itinerary, spend more time in places that interested us, and skip things that were less important to us. The tour felt personalized rather than scripted, which made the experience even better. We especially appreciated her explanations of Islamic practices and customs in the mosques and throughout the city. As Western visitors, this added an entirely new layer of understanding and appreciation to the experience. She also shared great insights into daily life in Istanbul, which helped us better understand the city beyond its major attractions. The Grand Bazaar can be overwhelming for first-time visitors, and it was incredibly reassuring to have a trusted local with us. Perhaps the biggest compliment we can give Sude is that we trusted her recommendations completely. Whether it was where to eat, where to shop, or how to spend our time, her advice consistently made our experience better. We were looking for gifts to take home, and Sude guided us to an excellent Turkish delight shop in the Grand Bazaar that we never would have found on our own. She also recommended a fantastic pide restaurant for lunch. Throughout the day, she went out of her way to take photos of us at many of the sites, which we greatly appreciated. If you are considering a private guide in Istanbul, we cannot recommend Sude highly enough. She helped us make the most of our limited time in the city and gave us a much richer experience than we could have had on our own.

If you want to make the best of your time in Istanbul, this private tour is what I recommend. Hopefully you will be lucky enough to be assigned Burak Yulmaz who was one of the best tour guides we have ever had. From the get go, he asked what is our goal so he can make the experience the way we want. He met all our requests! He is very knowledgeable and shared very interesting information about the history and culture of Istanbul. Our number two goal was to take memorable pictures. He took as to all the great spots and took amazing pictures of us so we can remember the amazing places we visited. He also valued our time but yet moved at our pace while maximizing the most of our time to visit as many places during our visit. The ability to pass the long lines and him finding our way to take the pictures was in itself very worth the price. We also got to experience having kebab, Turkish tea, and Turkish coffee. I highly recommend asking for Burak to be your guide.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Two days in Istanbul that felt like having a trusted local friend / My wife and I booked the "Best of Istanbul" private tour through Viator with Guided Istanbul Tours and spent two exceptional days exploring the city with our guide, Şebnem. From the moment we met Şebnem, the experience felt less like a tour and more like being shown around Istanbul by a knowledgeable friend. Her English is flawless, and her nearly 8 years as a licensed guide showed in how seamlessly she handled crowds, timing, transportation, and cultural context. On our first day, we explored the Basilica Cistern, Blue Mosque, Grand Bazaar, and Spice Bazaar. The Basilica Cistern and Blue Mosque were fascinating on their own, but Şebnem's explanations brought them to life. At the Spice Bazaar, she guided us to a trusted merchant where we sampled spices, Turkish delight, and traditional remedies, helping us shop with confidence rather than feeling pressured as tourists. The second day focused on neighborhoods and local life. We visited Suleymaniye Mosque, explored the colorful Balat and Fener districts, enjoyed coffee at Cumbalı Kahve near a historic synagogue area, crossed the Bosphorus by public ferry to Kadıköy, and enjoyed lunch at Ciya Kebap. Crossing from Europe to Asia by ferry was one of the highlights of our entire trip. What made this experience special was that Şebnem didn't simply show us the sights. She helped us understand how Istanbul works, how to navigate it, and how to experience it more deeply. We came away feeling like we didn't just see Istanbul. We actually experienced it. Thank you, Şebnem. Teşekkür ederiz. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A great guide makes ALL the difference! Do yourself a favor: book here and request Goktug as your guide! We visited Istanbul during the Eid al-Adha holiday. The city, the streets, the transport and the sites were literally mobbed - wall to wall people. Goktug navigated us around as if we were the only ones around - skip the line tickets, informative about the history, the sites and the culture without ever making us feel rushed and took some great photos. We rested when we needed to, got a casual, uncrowded, delicious lunch and he offered lots of ideas and recommendations (including the links) for other sites, activities and meals during our time in the city. This included 2 days later when we mistakenly got on the wrong ferry (on our own), he responded to my questions quickly on WhatsApp and guided us with what to do with our time, ferry schedule and stops and how to get back. Truly an exceptional experience thanks to Goktug.