Customized Guided Tour

ZerrinCustomized Guided Tour

I provide professional assistance in safety and comfort. I have unbiased information about stories, legends, traditions and culture of my country where East and West met and then split.  Introducing cultural, historical and contemporary heritage interpretation to my guests is always my pleasure. Everyone is more than welcome to see and understand Turkey at religious, historical sites, museums and at venues of other significant interest in a simple, safe and precise way as a licensed Tour Guide.

I prefer to offer a customized Istanbul guided tour to museums, art galleries, shops.  Would you like to visit to save time and consequently, save money by having someone? I take you exactly where you want to go in celebrity style with no tourist trap.

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When you need any suggestions, it is enough giving some basic information about yourself like;

  • where you want to see first,
  • which kind of art you are interested in,
  • if you have been here before and visited anywhere,
  • how many days you will stay,
  • how many people you are and etc. and then,
  • l can prepare best customized itinerary for you.
  • Also, if it is requested, a private car, van or private yacht can be arranged for your comfort, too.

Some sample tour types written below just to give you some ideas for customized guided tour;

  • Classic Istanbul:

We can visit most famous places as first step such as Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern, and Grand Bazaar. Those places are all in walking distances to each other. If you stay in Sultanahmet square ( old city), you do not need any vehicle to do this tour. We can customize guided tour for a day or half day to explore all these places. The speed of tour is in your comfort. We speed up or slow down the tour up to my guest’s comfort. Topkapi Palace is the largest place to visit in these sights. So I suggest you to start from Topkapi Palace when everyone energy enough. Harem of Topkapi Palace is a worth seeing place in the museum too.

Hagia Sophia was a sight museum

But It was converted to a functional Mosque. After praying time, It can be visited and sometimes they open the curtains of mosaics too. It is good idea to carry a plastic bag to carry your shoes in the mosque. We have to take the shoes off and leave them to shoe shelves. It is much better to put in plastic bag and keep it in our bag. We need to do it in Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque. CustomizedIstanbul Guided tour.

Basilica Cistern is another place to see. But nowadays it is closed because of renovation.

I suggest all my guests to visit Grand Bazaar at glance once with your guide. There are thousands of stores and too crowded. If you get in to Grand Bazaar without any idea what to buy where to go, It will be quite overwhelming for you. Just visit it with your guide first to have an idea. And if you want come back to Bazaar by your self for shopping. So I keep Grand Bazaar to end of tour. Sometimes my guests prefers to stay in Grand Bazaar by them selves for shopping.

  • Culinary Tour:

For me, the best way to understand Istanbul is through its food culture. Food stays as a common ground to communicate, no matter the distance we travel. Istanbul is a food heaven; miraculous city holds the best of everything because of being a capital city of very important Empires during the history for 1700 years, a melting pot of civilizations, food from all around Turkey, by holding layers and layers of culture, thousands of years.  Six different locations in Istanbul are the best choices to discover local life and taste of food; Fatih, Beyoglu-Besiktas, Kuzguncuk, Cengelkoy, Kadıkoy. If you prefer customized Istanbul guided tour, Your day will be more enjoyable.

We can reach a variety of food tastes from street food to local tastes, small places with hospitable great people, in the atmosphere of culture and history as an experience to be like a local in Istanbul.

  • Shopping Tour:

Istanbul is one of the shopping capitals of the world, the Turkish fashion, art and handcraft savvy… but with so many arts, handcrafts and styles where do you start? Let me help you navigate your route around the streets in Grand Bazaar or other shopping places of Istanbul and shop in celebrity style with no tourist trap just shopping. I am personally acquainted with dozens of Istanbul shops and shopkeepers, who are happy to give me no-nonsense, value for money prices. We can customize a guided tour for shopping too.

  • Christian Heritage:

We can visit Hagia Sophia, Chora Church, Zeyrek Mosque which was converted from a Byzantine Church, Red School, Hagia Maria Church, Virgin Mary Orthodox Church with Holy Spring in Ayvansaray and some others.

  • Jewish Heritage:

There are 20 functional Synagogues in Istanbul. We can visit a few of them such as Ahrida Synagogue which is the oldest one from 15th century in Balat, Zulfaris Synagogue in Karakoy which has been used as Jewish Museum, Neve Shalom as the biggest synagogue. Also we can do nice walking in casual Jewish district Balat and also Banks street in Karakoy.

  • Exploring Asian Side:

Mihrimah Sultan Mosque in Uskudar, Camlica Hill, Beylerbeyi Palace, Maiden’s Tower, local Market in Kadikoy and Kuzguncuk are the most famous places to see on the Asian side of the city.