Private Guide for Istanbul
 

My husband and I (both mid 60's and only slightly decrepit) are going to be in Istanbul for 3 days in mid-February. We would like to hire a private guide for part (or all) of the time. Any suggestions?

Also, any suggestions for guided tours around the city for when we are not with a private guide? (Like the hop-on-hop-off buses in some cities or the local group bus tours)?

Thanks!

I found it extremely easy to explore Istanbul on my own and I found The Rough Guide particularly useful. With only 3 days, you will need to be extremely selective -- you will probably not have time for even the usual highlights in that time. Hope that helps!

We were in Istanbul for 2 days as a port stop on a Black Sea cruise. Like Kja, we found Istanbul very easy to navigate on our own. We found the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet guidebooks for Istanbul to be quite helpful. The Rick Steves guide had some excellent "walking tour" info for Istanbul.

In two days, we managed to see quite a lot--Suleyman Mosque, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, Topkapi Palace, Underground Cistern, etc. We purposely missed the Grand Bazaar since we hate shopping, but you could easily include it in a 3-day visit.

There has been a terrific series on the BBC about the history of Istanbul which gives an insight into the buildings there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03l2shc

I agree that the Rough Guide is a very good companion, however I would also recommend Serhan Güngör as a tour guide - there's a nice interview with him on The Guide Istanbul website (also a very useful resource) http://www.theguideistanbul.com/news...serhan-gungor/

We liked Backpackers travel in Ist. Dilek Aman (sp) was our guide and we continued to have her for 3 days, She went above and beyond including escorting us to an dedicated eye hosp. as DH got an eye infection, then to the pharmancy and finally escorting us back to out hotel late at night just to make sure we got the translations, directions and care we needed. A really fine little gal!! Hesitant at first about the name "Backpackers" but what's in a name. Would go with them again in a heartbeat. I am not sure i would try to hit all the spota on my own and with a guide you skip the lines!!!

Thanks for the replies and I will follow up on the guides that amer_can and sethwilson recommended.

Istanbul is a very complex and fascinating city and while sure you can do it yourself..you have asked for guide recommendations and I think it can be money well spent with the right guide. We searched for a guide and contacted Burak Sansai and unfortunately he and his group were not available. We did engage a very nice woman and honestly I can't find her card anymore...but she took us right to the front of the lines and we enjoyed our time with her. Try a search on the top of this page for istanbul private guides and there many references as well as over on Trip Advisor under Istanbul...
Things to do tab and have a look there too. Good luck.

If you are still looking for a private guide in Istanbul I can highly recommend Kagan Kosagan. We used him for 2 days in Istanbul and a 3rd day in Ephesus and had an amazing time seeing all the sights with Kagan. I organized 3 private tours for 15 of our cruisemates and all agreed that they were the best tours they had ever taken. Kagan is knowledgeable, loves Turkey and will tell you all about the culture, people, etc. He took us to the Spice Markets and Grand Bazaar and gave us an orientation as to how to navigate these places. You would be very pleased with his services. February should be a good time to tour as there would be less crowds and you would be able to see so much in the time you have there.

http://www.privatetoursinturkey.com/index.html

Two female friends will be staying in Istanbul for 3 nights in October.
They would like to hire a private guide for one day of sightseeing. Although I know that this can be done with taxis, they are set on having an English-speaking guide, with a comfortable vehicle, for a day.

I've passed along the recommendations here and am looking for more names.

Many thanks!!

www.turkeytravelplanner.com has a list of recommended guides. Also see www.serifyenen.com

Thanks very much.

I will pass on this information, and if anyone has additional names, please post them here..

Any further recommendations for a guide/driver in Istanbul?

I would not recommend to hire Serhan Gungor. We had a mistake of hiring him (he had good coverage on the internet), but what a disappointement! We hired Serhan for two days in Istanbul, and I have to say, out of the whole week we were there, these were just two dull days. He was unprofessional, most of the time kept silence, was checking his text messages/emails all the time, and talked on the phone. Not to mention his hatred of successful women. Whenever I tried to learn something new asking him a question, like: what is this? his answer would be: I don't work like this. His stories were not interesting, if one can call them stories. He just gave very basic facts, that was all. I listened to the tour guides at various places during out trip, we even had a spontaneous tour at the Military Museum, conducted by a 26-year old military in service. He has no professional education as a guide, but in an hour he gave us a tour of the museum, so interesting and full of facts and stories, that Serhan could not give in 2 days!

We used an agency, Credo Tours in Istanbul. They arranged private guides throughout our trip through Turkey. The guides in each location were fantastic. One had been the private guide for Justice Bader Ginsberg in Cappadocia. The Istanbul guide did a great job in keeping our family, which at the time had two teenaged boys, engaged and interested. We wandered around on our own for the first day in Istanbul, but the next two days with a guide brought the city and its history to life....far superior to using a guidebook.

We used Efendi Travel to hire a guide with driver and he
was excellent.