Hi there can anyone suggest a good private guide fro Istanbul- obviously good English speaker and I guess someone with driver or car etc....
I found someone who is supposed to be good. Apparently for the day they charge $370 US for my husband and I. They have a good car and driver. They are reputable but that sounds like a lot of money. Just wondering what others think. Also are most of the places like the palaces etc...open on a Saturday ..is that an ok day to have the guide? Should we get him to take us around to all the well known sites or do those on our own and do other stuff with him?We are in istanbul for four days. I thought we would have arrival day to wander around,maybe do bazaar etc... get the guide on the second day (get tips from him for the remainder fo time) etc... and day three and four on our own.
Thanks for your help
Mooky

How much does a similar guiding service cost in Australia?

If you are looking for quality and personal service you should be prepared to pay for it.

You can find a good guide by visiting the Turkish Tour Guides' Association web page.

www.tureb.org.tr

Thank you I am looking for a good guide and I am prepared to pay for it but I was not sure if this reflected the going rate for a quality service. In Austrlia I suspect it would not be that expensive but I have never needed to book a guide here so I don't know for sure. I will look on the site you suggested.Thanks for your advice. I am just getting the hang of how to use fodors and it's amazing.
Thanks again
Mooky

You can also use Turkey Travel Planner (http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com) for planning your trip.

Enjoy your stay in Turkey.

We just returned a week ago from Turkey. We did Istanbul on our own and then picked up a tour group for the rest of Western Turkey. Istanbul is very easy to do on your own, especially if you get a place to stay in the Old Town (Sultanahmet) where most of the sites are and most things are walking distance. We stayed at a nice little bed and breakfast, Ahmet Efendi Evi, and could walk to the Blue Mosque in about 7 minutes. The only time we needed transport was to see the Kariye Museum with its Byzantine mosaics. As we left the Grand Bazaar, we asked a man on the street for directions, and he told us a bus nearby to take. If you want to see the Dolmabahce Palace on the other side of the Bosphorus, it's easiest to take a taxi. Enjoy Istanbul. It's a great city.

That would be some 200 euros... This seems a good price to me, especially with the car included (although you will not drive a lot in 1 day as you will mainly be around Sultanahmet, and it is probably faster to walk than to drive in that area on a Saturday)... A professional guide is a ...professional, who has passed exams to get his official tourist badge. It's not a student job anymore...

But is it really necessary to have a guide for a day... What makes you think you would need one?

Thank you everyone. After reading your replies I think I may not worry about a guide. Your points are well taken with respect to the fact that it probably is easy to walk around to all the main sights, so in fact driver becomes less relevant. I thought that perhaps the guide could take us to the places further afield within the city etc....
ANy thoughts about the "must do's" during our stay in Istanbul that aren't the well known blue Mosque Topaki palace etc.....We will be travelling around other parts of Turkey after Istanbul and have that pretty well organised
Thanks again
your feedback has been great
Mooky

We loved the Spice Market better than the Grand Bazaar, which was too commercial for our taste. Also, don't miss the Istanbul Archeological Museum and the Kariye Museum, which has one of the finest examples of Byzantine mosaics in the world. You'll need a bus or taxi to go there. Right outside the Kariye is a wonderful place to eat: the Asitane restaurant.

Are guides at the Kariye Museum available to hire on site, or is this something that would need to be booked in advance? I think my reading and guidebook will be sufficient at other sites, but at Kariye I think I may benefit from a guide.

We didn't see any guides on site at the Kariye, but our guide book seemed to be sufficient.