A very personalized tour, able to ask any questions about area and sights. Tour guide Ismail Mert was very friendly, knowledgeable and entertaining. Even though everything is close there is a lot of walking, but plenty of breaks. A very worthwhile experience.

Walking or Trams to (Old City) Istanbul from Cruise ship – it's about 1.5mi away. The shortest route to Old City (Haggia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Cistern, Topkopi Palace, Hippodrome, Spice Market) is to travel out of the port exit, along the pier/waterfront to the closest bridge. The port is newer and very modern. You can shop, eat and enjoy touring the area close to the port very easily, but it doesn't have the same feel and options as the Old Town tourist area if that is what you are interested in, and it doesn't have any of the major sites/attractions Istanbul is known for. Distance to the Old City is: - approximately 1mi from the ship to the bridge, then 1/2mi across the bridge...the Spice Market is across the street from the end of the bridge. The other attractions are up the hill. Be sure to cross the road at the first crosswalk to the left of the bridge after walking across the bridge. If you go any farther, the Palace walls, train station, and city park fences prevent you from being able to go anywhere into the city or into the Old City for another mile until you reach (and go back through) the park below the Palace. - You are able to buy tickets to each attraction on-site, but there seems to be a variety of Istanbul City Cards to enter various attractions that might be worth looking into...and can include a Bosphorus cruise and/or city transportation - if you are not inclined to walk across the bridge, trams run regularly across the bridge to/from the Spice Market area to the cruise port for much less than a cab (note – cab drivers seem to have trouble getting their meters to work when driving tourists, so the cost can be much more expensive to catch a cab from the Old City back to the cruise port). Also note: To enter the Blue Mosque and/or the Hagia Sophia you will need to: 1) have your knees and shoulders covered and 2) take your shoes off, so we recommend having a small bag to carry your shoes so you don't have to check them or worry about them wandering off on their own 3) females will need to have their head covered with a scarf. There are places in line that check for proper dress code. The Blue Mosque can provide a scarf for people who need one, which they collect it as you leave. The Hagia Sophia can sell you a one-time-use light scarf at the entrance to use during your visit, then keep. Both mosques were unique enough to enter. They are an integral part of Istanbul. Also, if you go to the Spice Market or Grand Bazaar, be sure to haggle for your goods. They may start at prices 2-3x what they expect you to pay. Don't be intimidated by the situation, simply figure out what you think you want and be willing to walk away to try somewhere else.

This tour was very thorough in providing information about the history of Istanbul, the buildings and the people. I learned a lot and enjoyed my tour.

Fab tour- we got so much out of it! Avoided long ques and got so much insight making this a much richer experience than just walking through the sites. Take snacks - it is a long day! Emre was incredibly engaging - thank you for a fantastic day!

We used these folks for this and the Blue and Haga Sophia mosques tours. Both guides were fun and knew a ton. We did as they suggested and took their first tours of the day and wee very thankful. By the time e left the lines and the coloreds were enormous. Very glad we went with them in smaller group. Headsets helped us hear our guide and her English was excellent. We'd use them again any time!

I came to Turkey specifically for Topkapi Palace. Our guide was wonderful and had so much historical information and experience. The lines were short to get in but when we finished there were HOARDS of people so make sure you book a morning tour. Overall I give it a 10/10 and would definitely recommend 😊

Sabih was a wonderful guide with a lot of experience and knowledge of Istabul, so our tour was well run and the Walking in Europe company was organised. The meeting place was easy to find although a little messy trying to figure out which group I was in. The tour is quite long at 4hrs so need to take food and drinks especially into the Toptaki Palace. Was great to skip lines into the sites.

An excellent skip-the-line tour to Hagia Sophia, Cistern and Topkapi with Murat. It’s a packed four hours in these three very busy locations so I can’t imagine doing this with having to also queue for tickets and watching all of the tour groups enter ahead of you. Murat was great throughout - knowledgable, helpful and patient. Definitely recommended if you can afford.

Highly recommended. We would have missed so much fascinating information about Ottoman history and palace life if we had just gone by ourselves. Our guide, Murat, was absolutely wonderful and answered all of our detailed questions so openly and knowledgeably. His English fluency was as impressive as his depth of knowledge. He also knew how to navigate our small group around the big cruise ship tours. We didn't have time to see everything, but would have gone to the artifacts exhibits after the tour if we hadn't had 2:30 lunch plans. Expect it to take longer than 3 hours if you go in the middle of the day like we did. Our tour was supposed to be 11am-2pm but it went over, as we needed to wait for crowds to dissipate. To kill time, Murat added another nearby location to the tour before we entered Topkapi Palace. We would not have known about it and were glad to have learned about this little known place, which we were asked not to mention, as it is not normally included in this tour.

Our guide was so knowledgeable about not only the palace but in which order to see things to best avoid the worst of the crowds. It was an amazing sight to see but having the guide just made it extra special. Well worth the money.

Unit was a great guide. It was fun and very informative and went super quick, not at all boring. Loved it would recommend to anyone.

Our tour guide was Melissa. She was excellent with superb range of knowledge. We enjoyed the tour and visits to the locations very much. Melissa was more than happy to answer questions and even provided us with recommendations for places to eat and see at the end of the tour. This included skip the line tickets which is worth the price. Toilet break is 3 hours into the tour with nice cafe to have refreshments.

Mert was an excellent guide on this walking tour. He was very informative and also humorous to keep us engaged and entertained with a group that was not very large which was a plus. Lots to see on this tour. Only wish we had time to discuss the holy relics but we went and checked that out on our own after the tour ended. Would recommend this tour to others especially if you go in the morning before the droves of larger tourist groups show up.

Our guide Mert (Ismail Mert) was fantastic, very welcoming, friendly, made us laugh and smile, but most importantly he was extremely knowledgeable. He made the tour very enjoyable, comfortable. He was very easy to listen to and explained the history in a way you can understand and imagine. His level of historical knowledge is extensive. Would highly recommend this tour.

Great tour with Mert! Wow! This place is huge and there is so much to see. You definitely need a guide. Mert's an excellent guide and he gave us the history on everything we were seeing. Because I didn't do any prior research on my own, we would not have known what we were looking at. With the amount if rooms and items to see, you cannot read every description plaque. We took the morning tour as there were less people and it gave us time after the tour to look around on our own. The harem was very interesting, especially learning about how the girls are chosen for the Sultan. I had no idea! The tour was 3 hours and you definitely need all of that time. Book it! You will not be disappointed. Hopefully, you get Mert too. He has a great personality, great knowledge of Topkapi Palace, and his jokes aren't half bad too!