Uncover the best of Topkapi Palace the local Way

"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!"

"Emre met us at our hotel so we didn’t have to stress meeting him at a busy place. Great start to our day out. He was so kind and friendly we felt like he was one of the family. Paced himself so we weren’t rushed and was so knowledgeable about every stop. Combined a day of serious knowledge making it fun and keeping us engaged over 8 hours. We did two tours together and with the tasting he made sure we tried every Turkish favourite until we literally had to beg to stop eating. We have done a lot of with locals but Emre was outstanding and we will keep in touch with him.A friend for life. "

"As a professional tour guide, native Turk, and expert on Turkish rugs, Bulent was a good choice as a guide for our tour. We were on a stopover layover through Turkish Airlines and had only a morning to do a tour. Bulent was willing to adjust our start time to avoid some of the big crowds from cruise ship tours that day. Having a guide experienced with the venues, the metro rail and how to quickly recover a lost item ( I left my mobile phone at a security point) helped us make the most of the time we had. We were able to do a quick stop at the Spice Bazaar and make it back to our luggage storage & airport transfer pickup point with his navigation help. Come with questions to make the most of his knowledge. The local drink or snack wasn't provided, unless it was considered as covered by the samplings in the spice bazaar shop. "

"We had the pleasure of spending 3 hours with Gulce on our first morning in Istanbul. In just a few moments we felt right at home with her - she is a lovely person to talk with, her English is exceptional and her knowledge of her city immense; which made the next 3 hours both great fun and extremely interesting, Gulce was quite happy to shape the itinerary to meet our needs based on wife’s loose ’history, art, shopping’ wish list and we covered everything from the Blue Mosque to the Basilica Cisterns to the Spice Market, finding time for some excellent Turkish Coffee in a hidden away cafe and a trip on the tram! The time we spent with Gulce wasn’t only great in itself but it also helped us set our agenda for the rest of our stay in Istanbul by making what could otherwise have been a quite daunting city approachable and accessible. We would fully recommend Gulce to anyone who wants to really get to know about this fantastic city. "

"It’s hard to pick a guide when there are so many good profiles but I am so glad we picked Ayse. Super friendly and so knowledgeable. A great command of English ( and fluent in mandarin too!) My request to Ayse was to blast us with history and wow did she deliver. Istanbul is an incredible place to visit. If we’d had more time I would have booked Ayse for another tour ! 5 stars from us!"

"Ahmet offered to meet us at our hotel to show us how the bus and metro work (our hotel was not central and we are older visitors). This was hugely helpful and the day just got better. Istanbul was exceptionally busy (a public holiday) but he deftly navigated queues etc so that we were able to maximise our time together. Equally he was sensitive to our particular needs (eg pacing ourselves). We very much enjoyed his company. It was like spending a day with really knowledgeable and personable friend."