Tour guide in Istanbul before cruise?

Hi all - my wife and I are very excited for our first Seabourn sailing on Sept 19. We are leaving from Istanbul and have decided to arrive a few days early to see the city, which we've never been to. I was wondering if anyone has ever toured Istanbul with a private tour guide, and if so, whether you would recommend a particular tour guide to us. Thank you in advance.

Hi all - my wife and I are very excited for our first Seabourn sailing on Sept 19. We are leaving from Istanbul and have decided to arrive a few days early to see the city, which we've never been to. I was wondering if anyone has ever toured Istanbul with a private tour guide, and if so, whether you would recommend a particular tour guide to us. Thank you in advance.

Whatever you do don't stop to look at carpets.

We used Arzu Tutuk for 2 full days of walking in Istanbul. She was excellent and speaks flawless English. She took us to 2 outstanding restaurants for lunch, one next to the Chora Church, I think. She knows her stuff. You can pretty much design your own itinerary. She did not take us to see rugs.

Her website is http://www.walksinistanbul.com and you can e-mail her at :

arzu@walksinistanbul.com.

We booked her months in advance, so I don't know what her availability will be. We did ask her for a 3rd day, because she was so excellent, but she was already booked.

Good luck. Istanbul is fascinating.

Bostonator, thank you! I just reached out to Arzu to see if she is available for our dates.

We used Constantinople Guides for 2 days. Very good.

Don't know if I can put this here but here goes, the info from my email ...

Ozkan Bicer and Abdul

Professional Tour Guide

Turkey Tours by Local Guides

http://www.constantinopleguide.com

Mobile: +90-538-4397811

Fax: +90-212-2120621

You're welcome. I hope it works out. She is expensive, but that may be because there were just 2 of us. I think it cost us 700 Euros for 2 days…..in cash, as I recall. Well worth it. We asked to be totally off the beaten path, but wanted to include the great mosques in Sultanhamet. That's what we did, avoiding the bazaars. You will pay for the great restaurants she will include, if you ask for them, but again…. well worth it. I know we took a ferry across the Bosporus to a great market…..I don't remember the name of the neighborhood, but she will know. Tell her what interests you and see what she suggests. I think she might take a group of 6 people, at most, but that may be a way of lowering the cost, if you are traveling with friends. Also, it looks like she has taken on another guide, or maybe more than one, so you might be able to book one of her associates.

Have a terrific trip.

We used Hanafi from toursbylocals.com last year. Excellent, informative, professional, personable.

We used Effendi Travel earlier this month for our airport pick up, just the two of us and two small group tours, one six people in total and one four.

We would be happy to repeat, our second tour was a 1/2 day and they were happy to take our luggage and drop us at the cruise terminal

We used Context Travel http://www.contexttavel.com for a small-group (4 people) tour last year. Context also offers private, customized tours in Istanbul.

We've used this company in several European cities, and have not been disappointed. The guides are typically university-level professors and hence very knowledgeable about their area of expertise, and comfortable fielding questions. The company's tours aren't cheap, but we think they provide a good value.

We did a 2.5 day tour for 2 people with Lale Kosagen from KSG Tours and Travel Services a few years back. We had 1 day with a car and 1.5 days on foot. Lale was a fantastic guide tailoring the tour on the fly as she got to understand what we were really interested in. We did end up in a carpet store and iznik pottery store but only at our request. The stores she brought us to felt very high end and there was no pressure to buy.

Another vote for Lale! We have had a number of guides over the years, but she still ranks at the top. Not only is she so knowledgable, but she has such a fantastic personality. You will learn so much and have a wonderful time with her.

We used Effendi Travel earlier this month for our airport pick up, just the two of us and two small group tours, one six people in total and one four.

 

We would be happy to repeat, our second tour was a 1/2 day and they were happy to take our luggage and drop us at the cruise terminal

We used Effendi Travel for a tour and transfers and they were excellent. We got the name from the Turkey Travel Planner website - highly recommended for anyone visiting Turkey.

We used Mehmet Turik at http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/guides.tetik_mhtml.

Hw was wonderful, friendly, spoke excellent English, and was able to get

us into attractions without standing in line!

Woops try http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/guides/tetik_m.html

.... we figured he was good enough for us! ;)

We thoroughly enjoyed our day with Fatih and left Istanbul feeling like we had made a friend for life.

Highly recommend Fatih Copuroglu -

http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/guides/copuroglu_f.html