Uncover the best of Topkapi Palace the local Way

"We did the full day tour of Hagia Sofia, Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern, and Topkapi Palace with Aysha. She is extremely knowledgeable about the city of Istanbul, the local architecture, and the history of Turkey (from the Greek period all the way up to Erdogan), and was able to confidently answer all of our questions. The tour was over seven hours long (including two breaks for coffee and lunch), yet she was somehow able to keep our 17 year old son engaged the entire time. She even walked us back to our hotel and pointed out several points of interest in the area where we were staying and taught us how to navigate the rest of the city. We have travelled with our kids to five continents and done tours like this in each of them. Aysha was one of the best we have ever encountered. If you want to get a great overview of Istanbul’s major sites in a single day, definitely do this tour and definitely ask for Aysha."

"Cengiz is an amazing guide and I highly recommend him to anyone visiting Istanbul. He’s deeply knowledgeable about the city, has wonderful stories and anecdotes to tell about nearly everything you see, answered all my questions about history, culture, and art, no matter how obscure, and is just fun to hang out with too. He will tell you about ancient history, show you hidden corners of popular tourist sites, and also give you a flavor of what it’s like living in Istanbul today. He was able to customize the trip to my interests and schedule, and is flexible if changes are required. He goes above and beyond to make sure your visit is comfortable, arranging a driver for my Hamam visit the next day and giving me other practical tips for getting around the city. The tour by Cengiz was the highlight of my trip—can’t recommend him enough!"

"Our full day private tour with Cengiz was without a doubt one of the highlights of our trip to Turkey. Cengiz was professional, knowledgable, and fun to be with. We learned an incredible amount about Turkish culture and lifestyle, beyond just the basics of the history of the important sights and monuments we visited. We fully would recommend him to anybody looking for a top-tier guide and would love to visit other parts of Istanbul and/or Turkey with him again on a future visit. Thank you Cengiz for a memorable day! "

"I think our tour was scheduled to be four hours when we booked it. Esra spent the entire day with us. She changed up the itinerary to show us the sites we wanted to see. As two women traveling alone (mother and daughter), we felt safe with Esra and she made sure my daughter who is a vegetarian found a delicious lunch. Esra is very knowledge about the culture and history of her country/ city. By the time our tour was over, we thought of her like an auntie. You will definitely get your money's worth with a tour led by Esra."

"Great tour of Sulthanmet region with Tolga. Tolga was great, knowledgeable, easy to understand, friendly. Everything you need in a tour guide. Tolga also gave good suggestions for food and other tourist activities. We thoroughly enjoyed the 3 hours. N.B Don’t wear shorts, even long shorts, as you will need to purchase coverings at the entrance to mosque and Hagia Sophia."

"We had an amazing time with Emre who was subbing for his wife, Gulce. Emre was an absolute wealth of knowledge regarding Istanbul and the nation of Turkey. He kept our attention the whole time and was quite witty as well. Thank you With Locals for having such qualified tour guides to make a city tour so meaningful. "

"I booked a surprise tour for my son and my mom in Istanbul and they have been raving about it to me. My mom couldn’t even pick a favorite thing. Ahmet took amazing care of them, balanced history and culture, and they had amazing conversations throughout their journey together. Ahmet’s communication pre-tour was top notch. Thank you for taking such great care of them ❤️"