A licensed private guide for the old city — the monuments of Sultanahmet at a pace set by your group, not a tour bus. Half a day or a full one, and easily paired with a cruise later on.
Your guide meets you in Sultanahmet and walks you through imperial Istanbul monument by monument: Hagia Sophia, 1,500 years of Byzantine and Ottoman history under one dome; the Blue Mosque with its cascade of domes and six minarets; Topkapı Palace, seat of the sultans, above the point where the Bosphorus meets the Golden Horn; the Hippodrome where chariots once raced; and the covered lanes of the Grand Bazaar. It is a lot of ground, made sense of by someone who knows it.
Because the guide is private, the day bends to you. Add the Basilica Cistern or the Süleymaniye mosque, slow down for lunch in a backstreet lokanta, skip the queues with tickets arranged ahead, or cut the walking for older travellers. Guiding is charged per guide rather than per head, so a family or small group pays one rate — and we can hand you straight to a boat afterwards for a sunset cruise.
First-time visitors who want the old city explained by a licensed guide, at their own pace.
The core is Sultanahmet — Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace, the Hippodrome and the Grand Bazaar. We tailor the route to your interests and the time you have.
The price is for the guide; monument tickets are paid separately, which lets you choose exactly which sites to enter. We can buy them ahead to skip the queues.
Private — the guide is yours, charged per guide rather than per person, so a couple, a family or a small group all pay the one rate.
Yes, and many do — a morning tour of the old city and a sunset cruise the same evening. Tell us and we will arrange the timing and the transfer.
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