Istanbul Boat Cruise and Dolmabahce Palace & Two Continents

My family and I enjoyed every second of the tour. Murat was our tour guide and he was very patient and extremely knowledgeable. My favorite part of the tour was visiting the palace and learning about the Sultans. Murat did a great job explaining things and allows us to ask as many questions as possible. It felt like Murat was our local friend showing us around. that’s how great the dude was at his job. Food was also great. If I get to come visit Turkey again, I would definitely do the tour once again. #moneywellspent

This was an interesting tour. Our guide spoke English well and was friendly and informative. Unfortunately, it was pretty much a repeat of day 2 of our Best of Istanbul 2 day tour. The only part that was different was a bus ride to the Asian side and a look around from a coffee shop on a hill. This is an enjoyable tour, but after the 2 day tour we wished we had spent the day seeing something we hadn't seen before.

Sadly this tour was not as expected, although the itinerary ticked a lot of boxes the reality was it didn’t meet expectations. Firstly the communication by the Turkish tour operator was dire, no comms whatsoever, I had to get Viator to obtain information about pick up times and my hotel in Istanbul to confirm details. The pick up on the morning of the tour did arrive on time, I was taken to a meeting point (car park) and advised which coach I would be joining for the main tour ... so far so good. We embarked the coach and our tour guide introduced himself”Berlout”? He advised that the tour would be in English and Spanish as we had mixed nationalities ... no problem I thought, how wrong was I.... The tour processed, hardly any commentary of local knowledge and facts, we were transported between A and B and basically self guided. The Bosphorus sailing was good, thankfully the boat had English commentary as the guide sat with the Spanish speaking guests for the entire journey, he only asked as we disembarked if there was anything I would like to know. As I was only sitting 2 rows ahead of him and travelling alone, it would have been courteous to ask me that question whilst we were sailing. We then proceeded to a leather shop for the usual big sell, unsurprisingly nobody bought anything. Lunch came next, usual tourist fayre at a coach stop restaurant, food was pretty good to be honest and service was fast and efficient. Next we headed to the palace, sadly very rushed, we were supposed to be there 2 hours but completed the sprint around in 1.5 hours, again very limited commentary, thank goodness for Google. Such a shame as this is the highlight of the tour, a stunning palace with so much history. We then proceeded to the view point, what a total waste of time. The view is not the best, a 5 minute photo opportunity would have been acceptable but no ... we had to stay 45 minutes whilst our guide talked to the Spanish guests over coffee ... deep sigh Thankfully the tour concluded, the price included hotel drop offs and I was more than ready to return my hotel in the old town. It transpired all the other tour guests were staying on the Asian side and I was the sole guest staying on the European side. The driver dropped the guests off at their respective hotels on the Asian side and then asked me if I would like to get off at Istikal street (main shopping street on the Asian side) and make my way back to the hotel on my own so they didn’t have to bother taking one passenger back. I politely said no thank you and said I needed to go back to my hotel. Just for info, if I had disembarked where asked, it would have taken 55 minutes to walk to the hotel and cross the Bosphorus again or pay for local transport to get me back. Quite a daunting prospect for a single female traveller ... Would I recommend this tour with this company, absolutely NOT, would I recommend you the sites visited on this tour with another company , yes (except for the view point and leather shop) as Istanbul is one of the most amazing cities in the world.