istanbul: City Highlights Tour w/Hagia Sophia & Blue Mosque
Description
Visit > Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, and Grand Bazaar, Guiding in English, Pick up service provided. This is a customized half-day small group tour to the heart of Sultanahmet. Visit treasures of Istanbul such as Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque. Learn history about Byzantines, Ottomans, and modern Turks from your expert local guide. Experience shopping in the grand bazaar, which has been the center of shopping for centuries. Walk along the historical hippodrome and see the German Fountain and obelisk
Tour Options
Itinerary
The ticket is included if you choose the “with entry ticket” option. Meaning Divine Wisdom, Hagia Sophia was the largest building on earth barring the Egyptian Pyramids or the Great Wall of China. Today's Hagia Sophia was built by the Emperor Justinian in 537AD. It was the religious center of the city during the Byzantine period. It was used as a church for 916 years and as a mosque for 481 years, In 1934, by the order of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, it was converted into a museum and has since been open to the visitors.
Built by the Ottoman Sultan Ahmet I in the year 1616, it is located opposite the Hagia Sophia. Blue mosque today is one of the most famous landmarks of the old city with its famous six minarets and magnificent dome. Although it is officially named Sultanahmet Mosque,, the (nıck) name Blue Mosque was given to it by the visitors because of the amazing blue tiles decorating the interior walls.
Built by the Roman Emperor Septimus Severus in 203AD, during the Roman period hippodrome was the civil center for the people of the city whıch once could hold 100,000 spectators. Located in the heart of Sultanahmet surrounded by Blue mosque, Hagia Sophia and Topkapi palace, today it is home to The Egyptian Obelisk (Dikilitaş), The Serpentine Column (Burma sütun), The Constantine Column and German Fountain.
One of the largest covered markets in the world with more than 60 streets and 5000 shops, where you will find in an authentic oriental atmosphere, all kind of gifts, leather clothing, rugs, antiques, jewelry, hand-woven fabrics etc…
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
Transfer provided from meeting points.Please contact to the local provıder to reconfırm your pıck up tıme sınce pıck up tımes may change accordıng to the pıck locatıon and operatıonal reasons.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
- Grand Bazaar is closed on Sundays
- We guarantee that you will be dropped off at the port before your ship onboard time. (for cruise guests)
- Pick-up times will be updated according to your cruise arrival&departure times. (for cruise guests)
- Please contact the local provider and confirm your pick-up time before the tour date.
- Please be advised that for our regular small group tours, a single departure time is available for guests already residing in Istanbul (8:30–9:00). Later departure options have been made available exclusively for cruise passengers arriving by ship.
Reviews(39)
Kemal, our guide, was excellent: cordial, professional, friendly, and very knowledgeable. He answered all our questions, demonstrating considerable expertise about the many sites we visited. But Viator should have informed us (in advance) that the Hagia Sophia is undergoing MAJOR renovations and repair of earthquake-related damage. This means a lot of the site is shrouded in scaffolding.
We lucked out with our guide Baris who was so incredibly knowledgeable in the history of every place we visited. He is a true professional and a really nice guy as well. We learned a lot today but also had a lot of fun with our group. I would highly recommend requesting Baris for your tour in Istanbul.
My tour guide was exceptional. He was kind, knowledgeable and answered all the questions with patience. He shared the rich history of all of our sights with his great knowledge. I was left with an appreciation for the city, country and culture. Thank you
Kemal did such a good job with finding what the people on our tour were interested in by spending the time seeing and providing it. He is very knowledgeable and considerate. He even got us back to our hotel because we were unsure of how to get back.
We loved our guide Ali, but I hesitate to recommend this excursion because: 1) exhausting walks, 2) Hagia Sophia entry fee sort of a ripoff at $30, and 3) Grand Bazaar is anything but grand with high prices, aggressive sales tactics, and overwhelming focus on mass-produced tourist items rather than an authentic market experience.
The tour is an excellent introduction to the important historical history of Istanbul. Leaving on an early tour gave us an opportunity to enter without the huge amount of crowds that are there later in the morning. Our tour guide Baris was outstanding. He was Very knowledgeable and personality plus. He gave us a very comprehensive and interesting tour.
Istanbul is an interesting city partly in Asia, and partly in Europe. The tour was very informative. Highly recommend.
It's a fantastic trip into Turkeys history, so interesting and guide Barsham ( ? Salaam if thats wrong )was very knowledgeable and passionate . It is a full 3-4 hours of walking with little to no possibility of sitting even for short time but so interesting and beautiful beautiful beautiful sites that compare to none I have seen before. Despite my difficulties with walking the distances..thankyou to our guide and other members for their patience..I really enjoyed seeing these true marvels of the world.
Skip it. Minimal info of interest. Heavy sales of leather goods. You can read more online or watch a YouTube or TikTok. The guide did not add to the atmosphere, no stories connecting anything in time, no legends, no excitement for the place or the period. The mosque is one room. You can do this yourself. Hagia Sophia has QR codes you can scan and read. Again, no enriching info given and the answers to questions were minimal. Worst part - the guide did not mention a stop at a leather shop. We were led into a room, closed the doors and gave us a fashion show of leather jackets. Such a sales pitch. Then aggressive salesmen swarmed all over. My friend and I were so taken aback! We were in a tight schedule to move hotels and would not want to kill an hour in crazy sales. We walked out and skipped the grand bazar part of the tour for fear of more pressure sales and to save time. Not worth the money and time.
We were fortunate to get a very knowledgeable guide - Kemal. He was very informative and patient. He was very accomodating and added a couple of extra things to see. Skip the line was very beneficial also as the lineups were very long. Bypassing the lines saved a lot of time for us to be able to see other venues and spend more quality time at each site.
