19 Oct 2022
The good bits - The boat was not overly packed and there was lots of seating.
The bad bits...
We had to meet in the tour companies shop 15 mins before the tour. We then left the shop and walked with a small group of people to another meeting point in the square where we waited for about 15-20 mins to catch up with a large group of people. We then walked about 1km with this massive group through the streets to the ferry. Why didn't we just meet at the ferry?
There was a commentary on the boat but it was barely audible and very disjointed.
The trip itself was basically just a big sales pitch. Food. Drinks. More Food. The adverts to food and drinks over the tannoy was much more audible than the actual tour commentary. Then someone trying to sell some photos of you dressing up in traditional clothing. Then more food and drinks sales pitches. Then someone trying to sell photos of you on the both. Then more food sellers. (We succumbed to this one - 100TL/£5 for a chocolate crepe which you could buy for about 30TL on land). Then the traditional clothing photo sellers came back around again. Then more food/drink sales pitches.
The tour itself was not too bad for the most part. It went up one side of the river and came back on the other. Although it turned around before actually getting anywhere near the Rumeli fortress so we could only see it in the distance.
So generally a pretty poor experience and I wouldn't recommend it.