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Skip the ticket lines at the Tokapi Palace with a guide. Benefit from a 30-minutes tour, and then discover the museum with your audio guide app at…
Skip the line and enter the most important museum of Turkey and the Balkan Peninsula. Enjoy a guided tour inside and see the four courtyard museum…
Skip the ticket lines to enter the Hagia Sophia, the Topkapi Palace and Basilica Cistern with both a licensed live guide and an audio guide. You'll…
Visit the top sites of Istanbul on a guided tour that takes you through centuries of history. Marvel at the beauty of the Blue Mosque, explore…
Skip the line to get into the Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Basilica Cistern, Dolmabahçe Palace, Blue Mosque, and more on an exceptional guided tour.
Skip the long ticket lines to the two most famous landmarks in Istanbul. Let a local host lead you through the fast-track lane to enter the museums,…
Explore the best of Istanbul’s Byzantine and Ottoman monuments on a 7-hour luxury sightseeing tour. Discover where East meets West at 5 top…
Enjoy a flexible package that includes public transportation, entrances to 12 top museums without waiting in line, guided tours at Hagia Sophia,…
Explore Istanbul at your own pace on board a double-decker, open-top, hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus. See all the famous landmarks, from the Hagia…
Istanbul
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Topkapi Palace's history is vibrant. The building served as the residential, administrative, educational and cultural building of the Ottoman sultans for nearly 400 of their 624 reigning years. Today it doubles as the Topkapi Palace museum.
Be sure to notice the Fountain of the Executioner next to the ticket windows before you head in. This is where the executioner would wash his hand and sword after a decapitation.
This impressive building of hundreds of rooms where the sultan and his family lived has been restored in lush ornate fashion. It’s a separate ticket, but definitely worth it.
The Topkapi Palace diamond is the pride of the palace. The riches in the Treasury are not purely aesthetics, they make up the complex Topkapi Palace history.
Relics from the Prophet Mohammed and Moses, among others, are collectively called the Sacred Trusts.
You’ll need at least half a day to explore the palace, but make a whole day out of it to really take it all in. Try to arrive at opening to avoid the crowds!
You’ll get denied entrance to the Sacred Relics Department if you’re showing some skin. No shorts, short skirts or sleeveless shirts are permitted. It is the holiest section of Topkapi Palace, Turkey.
Along with the harem section, Topkapi Palace, Istanbul houses four courtyards or “avlu.” Shade or eateries for resting aren’t too hard to find. There’s a café and a restaurant in the first courtyard, a second café in the third courtyard, and a second restaurant in the fourth.
Thank goodness we booked the tour. Our guide took us on a route around the whole palace, including the harem, bringing each place to life as we passed through. It all took a good three hours. Imagine how long it would have taken us if we had tried to do it alone ! Much, much longer. Or, more realistically, we would have missed a lot of places and missed out on the stories and the descriptions our guide provided to really understand palace life. The guide spoke very good, well articulated, English. Ours was a small group of seven, so it was easy to keep together, hear the guide and have the opportunity to ask questions. Sadly, there are still inaccessible areas under renovation, but that didn't detract too much from the experience. Skipping the ticket queue was a great time saver as well. Just be aware that there is a lot of walking with some flights of stairs too. But it is well worth it for this fascinating attraction. Wear comfortable footwear and have a bottle of water in your bag.
The guide was very friendly and knowledgeable. He guided us through the palace, explaining major details and even interesting side stories related with the palace. He did not seem to rush us and took the time to explain what we should visit and answer any questions the group had. If you want to know more about the palace and its history, I recommend this tour. Although a bit expensive, I believe it is about right in terms of price/quality, as you would be paying around 10£ per hour + tickets. You also have the perk of skipping any queue (in our case there was none because we started early.
I don't know where to start! Everything was extremely well organised. Everyone was very polite, always on time and very pleasant to be with. The local guides were very knowledgeable (and I am an art historian), friendly, polite, genuine. I am a woman in her 60s, I travel solo and never felt lonely or scared. I met wonderful people who shared the same tours. I could not recommend this tour enough. An amazing cultural and human experience.
Had never used Get Your Guide before and found it on a Google search when arrived in Istanbul. The guide was found exactly where indicated in our emailed information, he had answered the phone number provided when we had a question before the tour, he led the tour at a leisurely pace on a very hot day and provided more useful information on the sights than I could have ever imagined. He was the best guide I have ever had on an excursion!
Cards delivered to our hotel as promised. The tour guides were excellent with the Museum Pass and very knowledgeable and friendly. The Istanbul card easy to use on the public transport all over the city. I recommend to everybody to get these cards, they make your life a lot easier. 10/10 Thank you!
