Best City Tours

A city tour is a guided visit to one city's main sights, usually in four to eight hours, starting at your hotel or a central meeting point. Most of the list is Istanbul, but there are also city days in Antalya and Trabzon for travellers based there. Istanbul is the city where the choice of format matters most, because its main sights sit close together but queue times change a lot during the day.

Walking, group or private

Istanbul city tours on this page come in two formats. The cheapest are the group tours with tickets and hotel pick-up: the Hagia Sophia (Ticket Included), Blue Mosque & Grand Bazaar Group Tour at $120 per person for 6 hours, the Topkapi, Hagia Irene & Grand Bazaar Group Tour at $170, and the Full-Day Old City Tour with Tickets & Lunch at $220, which combines both halves.

Private tours cost more per person but let you set the pace and the route. The Istanbul Private Full-Day City Tour starts at $180 per person without tickets; the Private Istanbul Heritage Tour at $200 per person adds skip-the-line help at the ticket offices. If you have already seen the classics, the Istanbul Modern Art Tour at $100 per person spends the day at the Pera Museum, Istanbul Modern and Arter, tickets included.

What the price does and does not cover

Look at three lines on each tour page: tickets, transport and lunch. Topkapi Palace and the Hagia Sophia upper gallery are the two largest ticket costs in the old city, and they are included on some group tours and not on most private ones. Private tours that list "Transportation by Private Van (Optional)" are walking tours by default; the van is an add-on. Lunch is included only on the full-day group tour.

Timing in Istanbul

The old city is at its quietest before 10am and after 3pm. Cruise ship days at Galataport bring large groups to Sultanahmet in late morning. Mosques close to visitors during prayer times, and the Friday midday prayer closes the Blue Mosque for longer than the other prayers, so a Friday tour usually visits it in the afternoon. Topkapi Palace is closed on Tuesdays; plan palace days for the rest of the week.

In summer, the walk between the Hippodrome, Hagia Sophia and the Grand Bazaar is short but exposed to the sun. Covered sights like the Basilica Cistern and the Grand Bazaar are a good middle-of-the-day stop.

City tours outside Istanbul

In Antalya, the Private Antalya Old Town Tour from $90 per person walks through Kaleici and the old harbour and finishes at the Duden Waterfalls. On the Black Sea, the Trabzon City Tour from $75 per person covers the Hagia Sophia of Trabzon, the Ataturk Mansion and Boztepe Hill.

Combining with other tours

A common plan is one city tour on day one, then a Bosphorus afternoon from our Bosphorus tours and a shorter visit from our half-day tours on another day. Before you go, our Hagia Sophia guide explains the visiting rules for foreign visitors.