Istanbul for art & culture lovers

I enjoyed the tour and the explanations offered by Hal, our guide. They were very informative and made the entire experience worth the time and money. I appreciate the guide for making the tour more interesting by sharing real life experiences from the life of the sultans, the harem and how all the Topkapi palace life contributed to lifting the ottoman elite. This kind of things you can't find in books. We visited as a family, with our daughters 9 and 6 years old, and although we had to translate for them, they were captivated and stayed interested the entire time we had Hal guiding us. This was a very good experience and I recommend to anyone interested to get real insights while visiting the Topkapi palace.

The guide was knowledgeable and had good English skills. That part went well. The option Part of our tour which was the phosphorus boat tour was not as smooth. It took me three times to get them to explain to me how to find the boat tour. It was only my persistence that we were able to catch the last cruise the next day. Seeing istanbul from the sea was nice. However, the boat on the tour has seen better days. There was no explanation or audio about what we were seeing from the water so basically get on an old boat and ride around.