14 Jul 2023
The most memorable aspect of the tour was our guide, Ali. We enjoyed getting to know him over the course of our walking tour in the Bohemian neighborhoods of Fener and Balat. Besides his knowledge of the subject matter, he took nearly 60 pictures on our tour and sent them to us after the tour was over. The tour itself was memorable if for no other reason than the amount of walking we did that day. Although I do recommend this tour, you need to be prepared to walk quite a bit and up some pretty steep hills. My favorite part of the tour was the Greek school - the exterior was phenomenal and seemed out of context for that neighborhood due to its relative newness and architectural style. It was remarkable. Ali covered everything on our list and even more as he was even able to get us into a church that wasn’t originally on our itinerary - I think it was the Albanian church. By the end of the tour we were ready to call it quits for the day and so Ali took us back to our hotel. I would estimate that we walked between 8-10 miles that day. I’d definitely recommend this company for any tour you’ve interested in taking in Istanbul - and I’d definitely recommend taking any tour with Ali as your guide. You’ll be glad you did!
Thanks Ali Bey!