Meet your guide at your hotel and start your private tour of the highlights of Istanbul! Expand your knowledge with the explanations of a private local guide, who will tell you all you need to know about the highlights of the Old City of Istanbul, including Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and Grand Bazaar.
Hagia Sophia was built in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian and played a very important role in both the Christian and Islamic worlds. After the Ottoman conquest, the bells, the altar, the iconostasis, and the sacrificial vessels were removed, and many of the mosaics were eventually plastered over to convert the church into a mosque.
Then visit the Hippodrome, where the chariot races were held during the Roman Empire, and a subterranean wonder: the Basilica Cistern, a former water storage chamber and one of Istanbul's greatest surviving Byzantine sites.
The tour also includes the Blue Mosque. Built in the early 1600s for Sultan Ahmet I, it is a truly magnificent masterpiece of architecture with amazingly delicate proportions for a building of such massive scale.
Marvel at Topkapi Palace, the former imperial residence of Ottoman sultans and a great monument of Oriental architecture, and see the houses of high council members of the Ottoman Empire along Sogukcesme Street.
Your Istanbul tour will end with a pleasant stroll at the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world with over 4,000 shops selling colorful ceramic products, leather, rugs, carpets, handicrafts, clothes, silver, and gold.
Private tour
Entrance fees
