Our guide was amazing. We had the best time exploring the old city. Very good tips on... read more
Our guide was amazing. We had the best time exploring the old city. Very good tips on... read more
The sights, sounds, food and culture of Turkey are boring short of amazing! Both are guides freely... read more
I was booked onto the Taste of the City tour on a Monday morning - and I was lucky to be the only one. I expected lots of people but I guess it's a well kept secret, so far!
Betul Basak was my guide, and we had a really great day together, exploring the cuisine of Turkey in both knowledge and through our tastebuds. This also involved lots of close contact with the Turkish people, sellers, traders, makers, cooks, chefs and waiters. It's a real insight to the culture and the way things are done in this part of the world. We had a relaxed breakfast with a variety of foods, plus bread that we picked up from a local artisan bakery; we then tasted baklava in the original 'mother of all baklava houses'. Walking to the Spice market we explored all the stalls, stopping at Betul's favourite cheese, olive, pickle and fish stalls, dropping in to the kitchen supply shops, checking out the dried veggies hanging outside the spice kiosks....then in the covered part of the market we spent time drinking teas and tasting various products from pistachios to golden berries, and discussing saffron and pomegranates.....before heading onwards to eat lunch near Taksim Square at Bayvore, including a spinach/omelette/pastry/anchovy thing which was delicious! All ended at the Manda Batmaz coffee house where we had a rich, chocolatey Turkish coffee.
I recommend this tour and especially my guide, Betul Basak.
Since my husband & I were visiting Istanbul for the first time we decided to do a private tour of the city. Selen was our tour guide & she was very informative and gave us an excellent introduction to the history of Turkey. We were so happy to have her help us navigate the streets & transportation for the first time - her English is excellent as well. I would highly recommend any tour from this company but especially a tour with Selen!
Two of us wanted to see the sights efficiently and Istanbul Tour Studio was the perfect solution. Recommended by our hotel, the lovely personably guide met us in the lobby and then took us on a whole day adventure. The really great thing about a private guide is that you can ask as many questions as you want, and taylor things to your own tastes as you go. By the end of the day, we'd done 20,000 steps, conquered the city's public transport system, seen a huge number of sights, and really felt like we'd got the lay of the land in Istanbul. Our guide even ensured that the lunchtime restaurant could cater to our clean-eating regime too. Would recommend to anyway.
My husband, two children (12 and 18) and I did the Magnificent Ottomans tour. It was an excellent introduction to the history of Turkey, and gave us a good feel for the city. Our guide, Betul Basak was great. She was very warm, engaging and knowledgeable, able to answer all our questions about Turkish history and about modern Turkey. I was worried about how my son (aged 12) would cope with about 6.5 hours of walking and history but he enjoyed the tour and seemed to learn a lot.
Despite a tardy start due to transportation issues we headed off up Isttikal Caddesi on our adventure. We spent the next five hours exploring six different neighbourhoods in Istanbul. We were both on the European side and the Asian side.
Kerem was our knowledgeable and personable tour guide. He was familiar with just about all of the artists that we viewed. He shared his views on Turkish culture, politics and sports. We tucked down alleyways, we ventured into roped off parks and lurked in locations we could bot have possibly found on our own. At the end of the tour we visited the offices and studio of the arts collective that this group runs. No hard sell, just exposing us to the work of a bunch of creative people in the city.
In my humble judgement the street art scene in Istanbul seems to be in its early stages of growth. It is not quite as developed as say New York City or Buenos Aires. Some of the art might be a bit crude and not too refined. As a tourist also, you need a bit of the symbolism explained to you. So don't set your expectations to the notion that you'll see Banksy's throughout the city.
Initially we thought the price tag of $95 was a bit pricey. But after our five hours with Kerem we thought otherwise. It was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon. He booked a table at Asmali Cavit for dinner for us and later joined us for a pre-dinner drink.
Two thumbs up from this traveller for the Istanbul Studio Tour.
This was a half day cycle starting in Kadikoy, crossing over on the ferry to the Asian side. As our second trip to Istanbul it was good to discover new neighbourhoods and move away from all the main tourist spots we'd ticked of our list on the first visit. The pace was perfect - probably because we were a small group of similar ability. Most of the journey was very flat and smooth with a couple of small easy to climb slopes. Our host was very friendly and informative covering all sorts of topics relevant to the areas we went through. There are plenty of opportunities to stop to take photos, have a drink or find a toilet. He was able to respond to our interests which even took us sample local fast food we'd not tried before. It was the perfect way for us to discover this vibrant and colourful part of Istanbul.