3 Days Private Istanbul Tour Including Bosphorus Cruise

Your guide will meet you after breakfast for a tour of the Ottoman Istanbul. A short walk takes you to the Blue Mosque which was completed in 1616. Our next stop will be the Topkapi Palace, more than just a palace, it is an assemblage of museums containing collections amassed by the Sultans for almost five centuries. Our visit also takes you to the famous Harem where the Imperial Family resided. We then stop at Divan Yolu for lunch at a local restaurant.

Next, we walk through the old cobbled streets down to Rustem Pasha Mosque and then the Spice Market, where Genoese and Venetian goods were sold at a time when there was no Suez Canal, and all the spices from the East were also brought here after being loaded on vessels in Egypt.

• Lunch

Our second day in Istanbul takes us to a number of Byzantine Relics.

We first stroll to the great square which was once the Byzantine Hippodrome. Now it is a great park like area surrounded by the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and the Underground Cistern, commonly called the Basilica Cistern. The Hippodrome exhibits the Walled Column, The Serpent Column and the Egyptian Obelisque from the Byzantine times and the German Fountain is located in the North end of the Hippodrome.

Next, we visit the Hagia Sophia, the most important Byzantine building in the world.

After lunch at a local restaurant we take a short drive to The Chora Church to see the climax of Byzantine Mosaic Art.

We end the tour with a visit to the Grand Bazaar.

• Lunch