A private Istanbul tour with us costs from €150 per group per day — per group, not per person — and includes a licensed local guide, a private car with driver, hotel or Galataport pick-up, and skip-the-line priority entrance at every major sight. Entrance tickets are paid separately, at the gate price with no markup.
What does a private Istanbul tour include?
Istanbul Tours by Locals is a TÜRSAB-licensed agency, No. 15746, and every day we run is planned with you rather than handed to you. As a licensed agency we hold a priority pass, so we buy your tickets in advance and take you through the priority entrance — in high season that is often an hour saved at the busiest monuments. The Gallipoli day trip is the one exception on price, from €220, because it is roughly double the driving.
Best of Istanbul
The Old City classic — Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapı, the Hippodrome and the Grand Bazaar in one unhurried day.
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Gallipoli Day Trip
A long day from Istanbul to the Gallipoli peninsula — the ANZAC landing beaches, the Turkish memorials, and the cemeteries between them.
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Two Continents in One Day
Old City in the morning, a Bosphorus ferry crossing at midday, then Kadıköy and Üsküdar in the afternoon — the Asian side, where Istanbul actually lives.
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Layover Tour from IST or SAW
A private city tour between flights, in a 4, 6 or 8-hour version, planned backward from your departure time, with a buffer we don't touch.
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On every tour above
Skip-the-line entry, at the official ticket price
Every tour on this page includes it. We buy your tickets before the day through our licensed agency, and your guide walks you past the ticket-office line to the entrance at Hagia Sophia, Topkapı, the Basilica Cistern and every other ticketed gate. We add nothing on the fast-pass tickets: you pay the official price charged at the entrance, itemized at cost in your quote.
How our priority entrance worksNone of these quite right?
Then we build you something else. Every tour here started as somebody's request — tell us what you want to see and we will plan the day with you, from €150 per group.
Plan my own Istanbul day