Guided Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern

Experience the best of old Istanbul on a guided walking tour. Visit iconic sites like Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and more. Hear fascinating stories of Roman Hippodrome and Constantine’s Column.

Duration: 4 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Blue Mosque - This is a 17 century active mosque and the most visited one in Turkey. Original name is Sultanahmet mosque. Blue is the name give because of the blue tiles used inside.
  • it was closed due to renovation for last 6 years but it is open now since April 21st.
  • Hippodrome - This is the base of the Roman hippodrome which was built in…
What's Included
  • Entry ticket to Basilica Cistern and priority to skip line
  • Entry to Blue Mosque
  • Tea and coffee
  • Professional licensed English speaking guide
  • Entry tickets to Hagia Sophia and skip line
What's Not Included
  • Tipping to the guide
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
  • Lunch. Your guide will suggest you some local restaurants at the end of the tour for lunch.
Additional Information

Skip the long lines to get inside the Hagia Sofia and Basilica Cistern.
Tick most of the top sites of old Istanbul off your travel bucket list with our specialized small group tour.
It is a fully-guided tour inside Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya), Basilica Cistern, Blue Mosque, Roman Hippodrome, Gulhane park, Orient express train station and Spice bazaar.
Along…

Location
German Fountain
At Meydanı Caddesi
Travel to the Sultanahmet Tram Station. From the tram station walk down the hill on the right side of the road toward to the little mosque Firuz ağa . Take the first right onto the Hippodrome ( square ). You will see the green domed fountain in front of you.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.8
(46 Ratings)
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Mmbsw
Oct 5, 2024
Good tour with great guide Omer - Good walking tour with a small group.Our guide Omer was knowledgeable, friendly, and patient. We got to see these sites with plenty of time for pictures. Omer went the extra step of helping me connect with my ride. Highly recommend.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Melissagc208ds
Sep 28, 2024
Smaller is better - Omer was excellent! It was great to have a small group of only 4! He had great stories and insight for each stop! Highly recommend
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G6894zntaniar
Sep 5, 2024
Omer is a fabulous tour guide with lots of knowledge about each site. Highly recommended ++ - Perfect morning with Omer as our guide. He was so kind and helpful to make sure we had enough time to take photos of all the beautiful sites and ancient buildings. This tour is a great way to see the 2 majestic mosques and also the Cistern which was my favourite site - it was spectacular. Finishing at the historic spice market - we had a really great time with Omer including a stop for a cold drink on a very warm day ++ highly recommended
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Arigi
Aug 9, 2024
Discover Istanbul - Our private walking day tour was a great experience! Bahattin is a really professional guide and provided us a lot of extra details and suggestions.
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U7366zdwaynem
Jul 10, 2024
Great tour with Omer - We had an amazing and informative tour with Omer and recommend him highly. He was deeply knowledgeable of every place we visited and of Istanbul history overall. Very personable and attentive also. He even shopped with us at the spice bazaar. Time and money well spent.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Debberw
May 31, 2024
So much culture and history in a single tour! - We had only a few days to spend in Istanbul at the end of a longer trip. We are so glad we chose this small group tour company for this tour and another, to take in as much as we could in the available time. Between the two tours, we experienced SO MUCH of Istanbul's history and culture. And great food, but that's a different review! :) Our guide Omer was knowledgeable and passionate about Istanbul. He encouraged our questions (and we had many!). The skip-the line feature of this tour/tour company was a great benefit. With the small group we had a more conversational experience with Omer and the other two guests on our tour, in contrast to some very large groups we saw at each site. Omer is a great ambassador for Istanbul and for your company - we are grateful.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
107briannad
Feb 3, 2024
Pick this one! - Sahil was an excellent guide. He was very knowledgeable and guided us around at a leisurely pace. The sights were impressive and so OLD! Sahil explain the history clearly, which is tricky when we are looking at a 1500 year old Mosque. Definitely recommend.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Guide603027
Aug 5, 2024
Definitely must do ! - We had a lovely time with our guide Salih. He was knowledgeable and kept our entire family fully engaged with historical facts and stories. The pace of the tour was also just right. We got adequate time to spend at each place of interest. Highly recommend this tour
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Geomc196
Mar 10, 2024
Quick skip the lines - It was good to have the guide to skip the lines to get into everywhere quicker . A little free time at each destination would have enhanced the tour . To much irrelevant information about architecture made us lose interest . We did most of this tour again on our own .
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Q4044orisabeller
Apr 5, 2024
A very bad experience - The whole description on the website was inaccurate. The tour was advertised as a 4 hours tour with a guide for a fee of £50 p/pers which was supposed to include a guided tour of the Haggia Sophia, the blue Mosque and the Cister Basilica. In the description they mentioned that the entry fee to the Cistern of 300 TL wasn't included. I booked thinking that we'd have a kind of priority queue for the monuments. On arrival at the Haggia Sophia, we not only had to stand in the queue for more than an hour, we also discovered that the 25 euros entrance fee for Haggia Sophia wasn't included and that the entrance fee for the Cistern had dubbeled in price. Moreover, we would also have had to stand in a long queue for the remaining 2 monuments. I'm not sure how the guide was planning to do the tour in 4 hours whilst the waiting time to access the 3 monuments would have added up to a minimum of 3 hours! When we kindly ask the tour guide to speak to her boss, we were dismayed by the man's attitude- he was unprofessional, rude and blaming. In short, avoid this tour company, they're dishonest!
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up to 15 guests
1 Adult
November 2024
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