Escorted Istanbul Holidays and Guided Tours
Istanbul stands on both sides of the Bosphorus, so you can cross from Europe into Asia in twenty minutes on a ferry and think nothing of it. The city was Byzantium, then Constantinople, then the Ottoman capital, and each of those versions left something still standing and still in use.
We travel here because it repays being shown round properly. The great sights of the old city sit close together, but the streets are steep and turn back on themselves, the Grand Bazaar runs to sixty-odd covered lanes, and a guide who knows which entrance to use saves a good deal of standing about. Our tours fly from the UK and stay in the city itself.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Istanbul Tours
More than in most European cities of comparable size. Transport is provided between areas, but the old city is walked: cobbled lanes, a steady climb up to Topkapi, palace courtyards spread over several acres and long galleries inside the museums. Shoes come off and go back on at mosque doors. Most reasonably mobile travellers manage well by taking the days steadily, but do ask us about the pace of a particular departure before you book.
Shoulders and knees covered for everyone, and a headscarf for women. Shoes are removed at the door, so slip-on footwear and a pair of socks you are happy to walk in are worth packing, along with a light scarf that folds into a handbag. Working mosques close to visitors during the five daily prayer times and for longer around Friday midday, so guides plan visits around them.
April is the month, with the main beds usually at their fullest in the middle weeks; plantings begin to open from late March if the spring is mild. Our five-day Istanbul Tulip Festival tour is timed for the festival, and exact departure dates change year to year, so ask us for the current ones. Expect mild days, cool evenings and the occasional shower at that time of year.
Yes. Our eight-day Istanbul and Cappadocia tour includes internal return flights between the two, with four nights at the 4* Mercure Sirkeci in Istanbul and three at the 5* Alden Hotel in Urgup, or similar. It covers northern and southern Cappadocia, with a balloon flight offered as an optional excursion. Balloons fly at dawn and are grounded in wind, so they can never be guaranteed; ask us about arranging one.
Sultanahmet and the old city
Almost everything people picture when they think of Istanbul is packed into one headland above the Sea of Marmara. Hagia Sophia was completed in 537 under Justinian and held the record for the world's largest domed interior for the best part of a thousand years; it has been a church, a mosque, a museum, and is a working mosque again today. Topkapi Palace was home to the Ottoman sultans for roughly four centuries, and its courtyards, treasury and harem quarters take a good half day if you want to look properly.
Across the old Hippodrome, where chariots once raced, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts occupies the palace of Ibrahim Pasha and holds one of the finest carpet collections anywhere. Our five-day tulip tour includes guided visits to Topkapi, Hagia Sophia and the museum. Underfoot it is cobbles and gentle hills, and shoes come off at every mosque door.
The Bosphorus and the Asian shore
The Bosphorus is about nineteen miles long and never more than a couple of miles wide, and seeing the city from the water changes how you understand it. Palaces, timber waterfront houses called yalis, fishing boats and enormous cargo ships all share the same channel. Both our tours include a cruise; the Istanbul and Cappadocia itinerary takes it at sunset, when the hills on the Asian side turn gold.
On the eastern bank, Beylerbeyi Palace was built in the 1860s as a summer residence for Sultan Abdulaziz, a much more domestic building than Topkapi and all the better for it. Further out in the Sea of Marmara lie the Princes' Islands, once places of exile for inconvenient royalty. A day on Buyukada is deliberately slow: no private cars, wooden mansions under the pines, and lunch by the harbour.
Tulips, tiles and Ottoman craft
Tulips are not Dutch in origin. They grow wild across Central Asia and were being cultivated in Turkish gardens by around 1000AD, long before bulbs travelled west through the Ottoman court in the sixteenth century and set off the Amsterdam mania. The flower gave its name to a whole period of Ottoman taste, the Lale Devri of the 1710s and 20s, and it remains a national emblem.
The city now plants millions of bulbs each autumn for a festival every April, with the largest beds usually in Emirgan Park on the European shore and further displays in Gulhane Park and around Sultanahmet.
The same motif runs through the tilework. Iznik potters perfected a cobalt blue and a distinctive tomato red in the sixteenth century, and our tulip tour includes a tile painting and contour drawing workshop, which is a pleasant way to spend a morning and makes you look harder at the walls afterwards.
