We're a duo of full-time licensed tour guides in Istanbul, Hakan & Emre, both with many years of experience in guiding and interesting background stories. Hakan is a born & raised Istanbulian, he grew up in urban Istanbul in a traditional family that owns a bakery. Spending his entire life in Istanbul, Hakan had the privilage to become a student in the most historical school in Turkey, Istanbul University. Having the opportunity to spend his student years in the only school located in the Old City of Istanbul, he learned the area like the back of his hand. After graduating from collage, he got his first job as a journalist. Fascinated with his hometown's history and the tourism sector, he went to his second university, and became a licensed tour guide. He's been working since 2019. Emre on the other hand, has his roots going back over a century in Istanbul. He spent his childhood in central Istanbul, and found himself abroad for his highschool studies. Later came back to Istanbul, and decided to learn the world's hardest language: Chinese. Spent 4 years in China, mastering the language and even participating in a band that performed in bars and festivals. Came back to his hometown Istanbul to finally realize his teenage dream of becoming a tour guide, did his masters in guiding and got his license. He's been guiding tourists in multiple languages since 2018.
Very informative. He presented the historical background very well with visual aids of maps and photo illustrations and correlated the past with the present architectural structures.
Great tour! The 1.5 hours is perfect to get a basic understanding of the history before you go explore more at your own pace. I highly recommend.
The guide was very sweet and funny. I really enjoyed the tour and learnt new things! Thank you
Hakan was a great guide, friendly, professional and very knowledgeable. Would highly recommend!
We did a 1.5 tour of Istanbul. We actually did this the day after seeing the major sights due to availability. But this worked really well as it gave some good context for what we had seen. Our guide, Emre, was really nice. Gave a good amount of information and kept it moving at a good pace. He was very welcoming of questions. Would definitely recommend.