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.