- Duration
- 7–8 hours, door to door
- Group
- Private — only your party
- From
- €150 per group per day
- Avoid
- Tuesday (Topkapı closed) and Sunday (Grand Bazaar closed)
- Walking
- About 4 km, all on cobbles
- Dress
- Shoulders and knees covered for the mosques; scarves provided
How the day runs
Timings below are the ones we actually use, not a brochure. Everything here is movable — it is your day, and your guide will happily rebuild it over breakfast.
- 08:30
Pick-up
We collect you from your hotel or the ship. Early matters more than anything else on this list — an hour earlier is a different city.
- 09:00
Hagia Sophia
Nearly 1,500 years old and still the room that surprises people most. We go through what to look up at, and why the mosaics and the calligraphy sit in the same building.
- 10:30
The Hippodrome
A ten-minute walk that covers 1,700 years: the Egyptian obelisk, the Serpent Column, and the outline of the chariot track that is still under your feet.
- 11:15
The Blue Mosque
A working mosque, so timings bend around prayer. Your guide will know that morning's schedule and reorder the day around it if needed.
- 12:30
Lunch
Your choice, and no commission stop. We will point you at three honest places at different prices and leave you to it, or eat with you if you would rather have the company.
- 13:45
Topkapı Palace
Four courtyards, the Treasury and — worth the extra ticket — the Harem. This is the part of the day people most often wish they had given more time.
- 16:00
The Grand Bazaar
4,000 shops and one guide who knows which lanes are worth your last hour. No shop takes a commission from us, so nobody is steering you anywhere.
- 17:30
Back to your hotel
Or dropped wherever you fancy dinner. If you are on a ship, you are back at the gangway with time to spare — that part is not negotiable for us.
What's included
- A licensed, English-speaking local guide for the whole day
- Private air-conditioned car and driver
- Hotel or cruise-port pick-up and drop-off
- All the planning — we book the timed entries and work out the order
- Honest advice on lunch, wherever you happen to be standing
Not included
- Museum entrance tickets (we buy them with you, at the gate price)
- Lunch and drinks
- Tips for your guide and driver — customary, but entirely up to you
- Anything you decide to buy
No shopping stops. None.
No carpet showroom, no leather factory, no jewellery workshop, no detour to somebody's cousin. We take no commission from any shop, which is why we can spend the whole day on the things you actually came for. If you do want to buy something, your guide will help you do it properly — read our honest guide to shopping in Istanbul.
Best of Istanbul — frequently asked questions
Is this a private tour or will we join a group?
Can we change the itinerary?
Are entrance tickets included?
Are there any shopping stops?
What if it rains?
Can you collect us from a cruise ship?
What you'll see
Ask us about this day
Tell us your dates and what you would like to see. We reply personally, usually within 24 hours — and if this itinerary is not quite right for you, we will say so and suggest a better one.
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