About us – the team behind the Istanbul Travel Guide

We are guides who have been telling the story of our city since 1989 – and this guide gathers what we have learned from more than 200,000 encounters.

We are a team of state-licensed guides and have been showing visitors Istanbul since 1989. Since then, more than 200,000 guests have walked with us through lanes, bazaars and palaces – in 25 languages. Our partner offices in Istanbul and Kuşadası know the city and western Turkey from daily life, not from brochures. Every tip in this guide comes from those years: from our guests' questions, early mornings in Sultanahmet and evenings on the Bosphorus.

Our tours are exclusively private: you travel only with your family or your own group, with a dedicated guide who follows your rhythm. Our prices are fixed, with no hidden surcharges. When booking, you pay a 30 % deposit; the balance is paid in cash on the day of the tour. Our tours never include visits to carpet, jewellery or leather shops – your time belongs to the city, not to a sales pitch.

What makes this guide special: we tell Istanbul the way a good travel magazine would – with stories, small anecdotes and a sense of when each place is at its best. When Hagia Sophia is still quiet, where to watch the sun set over the old city, which simit stall is worth the queue. And when you would rather experience than read, simply set off with us – in Istanbul or on excursions as far as Cappadocia and Mesopotamia.