26 Apr 2024
We booked this through our hotel as we wanted to do a Bosphorus Cruise, and thought it would be a great idea to add some stops onto it! I just want to warn other travellers about how bad this company is.
It was a huge mistake, and we would have honestly been better off doing a Bosphorus Cruise and visiting Dolmabahçe Palace on our own.
It does not stick to the advertised times and timings on their website. It starts at 9:30am, but you could be picked up as early as 8am, and have to wait until 10am for the guide to show up.
We only had 37 minutes in Dolmabahçe Palace, nowhere near the 2 hours advertised. And even if I am generous and include the time outside the palace listening to the guide, we are still 1 hour short. Not even enough time to even do the inside part of the main Palace with the audio guide. At the next palace, we only had 20 minutes, not the advertised 30 minutes.
Lunch wasn't until at least 3pm, which is so late considering the early start. And not surprisingly the lunch stop was the longest at nearly an hour! We paid for our own lunch and I am sure the company gets alot of commission for this!
The cable car wasn't worth it either. Super busy and crowded and over in a few minutes. The guide told us that on some days the group can queue for up to 2 hours!
The guide was also really inexperienced and had only been doing the job for 2 weeks, and whilst he tried his best and was knowledgeable, he seemed out of this depth dealing with the logistics of a large group and only seemed to care that we were back on time.
This tour is not worth it at all. You will barely get time to do the Dolmabahçe Palace justice and spend most of the day on a bus or waiting around. Give this a miss and do these activities on your own!