Guided Tour of Basilica Cistern with Skip-the-Line Tickets

I booked a combi tour Topkapi Palace and Cistern Basilica. The day before I received a WhatsApp message providing details of where to meet the guide and optional times to visit the Basilica which helped to plan our day. Our guide for the Palace did not have a strong voice so having to compete against other visitors and guides did make audio difficult. The guide at the Cistern Basilica did not stay with our small group very long and again it was difficult to hear what he was saying over other guides. The skip the queue concept proved to be invaluable though as all attractions had very long ticket and entry queues and we jumped the lot. In hindsight I would just pay for audio guide and not a physical person.

Very nice visit of the Cistern. It is not very clear where to meet the guide and then we walk back to the original gate.

A tick off my bucket list. Glad I used the Headout skip-the-line. Smaller than I thought but now I know there are 130 of these cisterns in and around Istanbul. Looks like some research required.

Obtaining tickets was very easy but app said we needed earphones but we didn't because it was a guided tour. Need speaker and headphones for guide. Our guide was very friendly and knowledgeable

Able to gain quick access to the attractions and the guide excellent background information prior to using exploring the attraction on our own

The basilica was absolutely amazing however we were disappointed that we had paid for a 1 hour guided tour but the tour guide left us after 5 minutes. We were under the impression that he would walk with us and talk about the basilica cistern

The tour guide himself is very knowledable about the history of Basilica Cistern. There are a few points he mentioned that I have never found anywhere while doing my quick research on this cistern before going on this tour. However, it was not very easy to recognize the tour guide at the meeting point. The ticket info mentioned that he would be holding a special banner/flag with Headout logo but he didn't. Luckily that I managed to find him.

Let me tell you what I did NOT like: lack of responsiveness of the museum staff and guards at the entrance. Unclear directions on your side for being greeted by our guide, i.e. where and how. We were quite confused at our time of admission. Otherwise the experience was pretty good.

When we at five minutes before our tour commenced at 10:00 AM we were directed to the tour guide and as soon as we joined the the tour he moved off without checking our tickets. when we went to enter through the tour area, he singled out myself and travelling companion, as having not been registered in his tour and told us to contact the office. we do not have mobile roaming when travelling and it was only after 20 minutes seeking assistance from one of the staff of the Cistern that we were eventually allowed in to visit in an unguided mode. we were extremely disappointed at not having a guide but consider that our misfortune was the direct result of the guides inability to manage his tour group. in most countries we would expect a refund of the additional cost for the guided tour but in this case we not holding out and their expectations are low. we would not recommend this service to anyone.

Our guide was lovely and gave us plenty of information about the history of the Cistern. It's a beautiful place to visit.

I loved how I didn't have to wait in the long line! We had a guide breifly that escorted our group in and gave us an overview of what the cisterns were about. Perfect for us!

Very easy to use. I recommend this app I bought two tickets to see Basilica cistern with guide,it was a amazing experience ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was an an enjoyable tour. We were amazed by what we saw and the history behind it. We found the guide easily, and she explained everything very well.

The Basilica Ciatern is a beautiful place and definitely a must see. We had no trouble meeting our guide and he was pretty knowledgeable of the monument and its place in history. What let this experience down was the difficulty we had in hearing our guide in the very crowded Cistern. He ended up trying to give us all info at entry of the Cistern and then left us to go and to walk ourselves around the place and look for whatever he had mentioned. So I would call this a semi-guided tour.

Great tour with good coverage of histoey and rhen great to be avle to take our time to explore at our own pace Worth it to skip the lines also

Guide was great although would have liked more guidance inside the palace. Extremely disappointing that location to start tour was not correct in email or Google maps. Guides indicated they had alerted home office 2 months ago.

We had a group of 23 including two elderly grandparents in wheelchairs. Hardest part was getting an Uber to get all of us there. The guide was very nice, although he just did a background speech about the history, which was actually fine. Give lots of time for wheelchair lift...one chair and at time and very slow! Great place for pictures. The guide's store was nearby for WC break and good deals on shopping!

Incredible engineering and scope of the cistern. Deniz is a well informed tour guide and really made our experience as enjoyable as possible!

Nothing much to the tour. Guide was nice & frendly and got us into the venue efficiently and safely. He gave us the briefest introduction into the venue then left us to it. A more thorough explanation of the history of the place would have been helpful. I went and read the information board after he left us to it, which was more helpful. Getting us the guided tour really just enabled us to skip the que.

Was beautiful and full of history. We had a great time exploring and wondering through. Was also a good escape from the heat.