Private tour of Istanbul

[swpeter]

We are a group of eight visting Istanbul on the 21st of July looking for a private tour guide with van for the day. Has anyone used such a guide they could recommend? We used a private guide to meet us in Civitivechia last year and he literally made the visit to Rome and are hoping to find a similar enthusiastic, friendly and professional Turk.:confused:

[martyap]

We are a group of eight visting Istanbul on the 21st of July looking for a private tour guide with van for the day. Has anyone used such a guide they could recommend? We used a private guide to meet us in Civitivechia last year and he literally made the visit to Rome and are hoping to find a similar enthusiastic, friendly and professional Turk.:confused:

 

Try Lale or Kagan Kosagan. Do a google search for their site. They are reasonable and very professional but quite in demand.

 

Marty

[No clever name]

I can offer no insight into your question (we will make our own first visit in Oct 07), but I would like to have contact information for your guide in Civitavecchia

 

Thanks

[toothpilot2005]

We are a group of eight visting Istanbul on the 21st of July looking for a private tour guide with van for the day. Has anyone used such a guide they could recommend? We used a private guide to meet us in Civitivechia last year and he literally made the visit to Rome and are hoping to find a similar enthusiastic, friendly and professional Turk.:confused:

 

We just returned on Galaxy and had booked Nejat Incedogan for two half days in Istanbul and a full day in Kusadasi. He provided a van that seats 12, and asked our permission before adding anyone else to our trip. He is knowledgable and entrance fees are included. You might consider just a half day tour to Ephesus (if he provides that) unless you really want to see and buy a hand made turkish carpet!

 

Try a google search for him.

[teach2travel]

We will be there in July and have booked Ekol tours. They have recieved many good references on the boards and were prompt about answering my emails. Maybe try them.

[bunnyette]

I've booked a tour for 12 with CTCTurkey. They have an office in the USA and Mary has been absolutely fantastic to deal with! Their prices are very reasonable.

[friend of Eeyore]

We are a group of eight visting Istanbul on the 21st of July looking for a private tour guide with van for the day. Has anyone used such a guide they could recommend? We used a private guide to meet us in Civitivechia last year and he literally made the visit to Rome and are hoping to find a similar enthusiastic, friendly and professional Turk.:confused:

 

I don't have an answer for you, but are you on the Royal Princess? We're in Istanbul on the 21st also. If so, we'd love to have you join our roll call thread - click here for the link.

[212cruiser]

We were fortunate enough to be able to book Mr. Levent Solmaz. You can contact him at info@leventsolmaz.com

Levent was our guide for 3 days in both Istanbul and Izmir. He was, without question, the best private guide we had anywhere in Europe. He is not only thoroughly knowledgeable and a complete gentleman, he is a consummate professional. My group still comments about the memories they have of us with Levent in Turkey. Try placing a value on that!

[DebNJoe]

We were fortunate enough to be able to book Mr. Levent Solmaz. You can contact him at info@leventsolmaz.com

Levent was our guide for 3 days in both Istanbul and Izmir. He was, without question, the best private guide we had anywhere in Europe. He is not only thoroughly knowledgeable and a complete gentleman, he is a consummate professional. My group still comments about the memories they have of us with Levent in Turkey. Try placing a value on that!

 

So glad to hear that - we are booked for 2 days B2B, with Levent in Sept in Izmir and Istanbul :D

[ilovemed]

There is an official website for tour guides who offer private tours within Turkey. It is an unbiased website, it is not launched by one or two guides, it is run by tour guides association of Turkey:

 

www.turkishguides.org

 

 

Or our friends used Murat Gurer this year and they are raving about him.

He has a website:

 

www.privateguideforturkey.com

 

 

Also CTC USA or DANYTUR are great, you can google both and find their e-mails.

 

Good luck

[bdwyer]

We just returned from our cruise. Many from our CruiseCritic group used Ekol - they were excellent in both Kusadasi and Istanbul.

[virgenia]

no clever name--

 

In 2005 we used claudio caponera of limoinrome dot com for a full day tour of Rome. He picked us up at the port, toured all day in Rome with us, and dropped our party off at two separate hotels. He was excellent--he is a driver, not a licensed tour guide, but his knowledge and English is impeccable. We have hired him for a full day tour of Florence in September when we sail again.

[Denverite]

I second the recommendation by ilovemed for Murat Gurer. There were 4 of us and we booked an entire day with Murat Gurer in Istanbul. What a delight he is--perfect English, very flexible, great tour.

[Summertimescallingme]

We just returned from NCL Jewel two weeks ago. We had the best guide we have used in 7 years of cruising and over 40 ports. He was recommended by Kogan (who was booked). His name is Can Gunay, he is a registerd Professional Tour Guide. A wonderful young man in his late 20's, very knowledgable and polite. Worked hard to ensure we saw what we were interested in, not taking us places to have friends sell us items we did not want. We used him for two days in Istanbul. I can not recommend him highly enough. His email is cangunay@mail.com. If you contact him, tell him Virginia and the boys from Atlanta say hello.

[swpeter]

I can offer no insight into your question (we will make our own first visit in Oct 07), but I would like to have contact information for your guide in Civitavecchia

 

Thanks

 

The email for the guide we used is: ***************@yahoo.com

 

Our guide was Nick who runs the company. I can't say enough good things about him. He ran us all over Rome for eight hours - we only stopped for a bite of the best pizza in the world...i.e., no lunch just more touring! We recommended him to some friends who were in Italy last month and they too raved about him (one of our friends is battling cancer and Nick drove him to the front door of every attraction)....he fast tracked us at the Collesium and the Vatican and that alone was worth his fee. His English is perfect (years of working for PanAm) and his has a wealth of knowledge of Rome and Italian history. He also does tours of Naples and I think Sorrento. We have booked Nick for our tour of Rome again this year when we visit in July with my sister and her family.

 

Have a great cruise, if you want any pointers on any other ports please feel free to ask we have done the Med now six times and you will have a ball!

Hope this helps, have a great cruise.

[Cdragon]

We just returned from a cruise on the Carnival Freedom. We booked both our Izmir and Istanbul tours with Meander Travel. They were great! We had no complaints and both guides were very knowledgeable about the sites. In Izmir we visited Ephesus and in Istanbul we visited the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, The Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar.

[petlover]

We too have used Mr. Levent Solmaz in Turkey. He is fantastic, wonderful air conditioned van, perfect English and soooooo knowledgeable! He is in high demand but if you can book him....you will be in for a wonderful day!

[Almagetty]

I second the recommendation for Lale or Kagan Kosagan. We toured with them last month and they were unbelievably wonderful! You can contact them at their e-mail address, which is their last name at yahoo dot com.

[itsjb1]

We used Kagan Kosagan for our day in Istanbul in July 2007 and he was teriffic.

[hermes37]

All your input is amazing, thanks... You made my job easier in selecting my guide for Istanbul...

[caribbeansun]

My DW and I just returned from Istanbul a couple days ago. We had Kagan Kosagan as our guide for two days. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Kagan and found him to be quite knowledgeable and passionate about the work he does. He was very flexible with respect to the length of our tours as well as the sites we visited - going so far as to identify sites we were better off visiting on our own time rather than with him.

 

I would not hesitate to recommend Kagan.

[chelledun]

We had Nil with Ekol Travel in Istanbul. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED her. Probably the best guide I've ever had in my life.

 

I actually reviewed my experience with Ekol here, we used the company for Ephesus as well and can't rave enough about them.

 

Michelle

[eh2zed]

We had Nil with Ekol Travel in Istanbul. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED her. Probably the best guide I've ever had in my life.

 

I actually reviewed my experience with Ekol here, we used the company for Ephesus as well and can't rave enough about them.

 

Michelle

Michelle, we had Nazli as our guide from Ekol in Istanbul. What a great day we had as well. Also had them in Kusadasi. Great price, great guides.

[bunnyette]

I booked with CTC Turkey/Danyatours. We had a great young guide Hassan who was not only knowledgeable but took us to places that the shore excursions didn't go - i.e. UPSTAIRS at St. Sophia. He also went out of his way to ensure that some of us were able to visit the spice market. I highly recommend them. They have an office in the USA as well.

[X-ring]

We booked both our Izmir and Istanbul tours with Meander Travel. They were great! We had no complaints and both guides were very knowledgeable about the sites. In Izmir we visited Ephesus and in Istanbul we visited the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, The Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar.

 

We used them for both Istanbul and Ephesus. Only complaint was that the included lunch on the Ephesus tour turned out to be at a carpet co-op and served accompanied by a sales pitch.

 

P.S. - our group's evening at the Orient House in Istanbul was a hi-lite (among many). As I recall it, was cheaper going there with Meander than booking directly with the OH itself!