The most wonderful tour company. I reached out to them at the last minute during the holidays to…read moretry to book a tour to Cappadocia, Ephesus and Pamukkale. Mustafa Ceviz bent over backwards to arrange everything and even customized the trip to make things work for me. Everything was flawless. The accommodations were more than I expected and all of the experiences were top notch. He even reached out several times during the trip to check in. I would absolutely recommend this company to anyone looking to book an experience in Turkey.

Istanbul Tour Services / Turkey Tour Services is a travel office centrally located in Istanbul,…read morejust 3-5 min walk from the Sultanahmed. They specialize in offering tours to various interesting places all over Tourkey such as Ephesus, Cappadocia, Pamukkale, Gallipoli, Troy. They offer both day tours as well as tour packages. Together with my friends we decided to book a Cappadocia tour with them. Mustafa, who is the owner was super responsive and friendly. He replied to our email within less than an hour and took care of booking our flights, hotel, tours to local attractions as well as a balloon flight over Cappadocia! Everything went super smoothly! The balloon flight was simply AMAZING!! One of the best experiences in my life :) If you are in Turkey, you have to visit Cappadocia!

I'll start with WOW and go from there. I've done a few of the free walking tours with the…read moreSandeman's folks and they did a great job in Edinburgh and Prague but they're not in Istanbul so I turned to Yelp and found these folks. Meeting by the Cistern, we walked a solid 20,000 steps (according to my Fitbit) through a half dozen of Istanbul's best known sites including the Topkapı Sarayı, the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome and Hagia Sophia. Along the way, we made several stops and there were a good number of spots where our super tour guide gave us time to explore on our own. When she led us around, she had constant knowledge of the sites and the city of Istanbul and of Turkey. A vast and deep knowledge. I was impressed. Our tour was well organized and well run. The lunch spot was excellent. A couple of tips. - Bring a backpack and a bottle or two of water. - An umbrella is a good idea as the tour runs even if it's raining. - Sunscreen! - Comfortable walking shoes that have a good tread. Istanbul's streets are smooth stone and you don't want to slip and fall. - For the Blue Mosque, you'll be expected to dress appropriately. There are free head coverings. - Extra batteries for your phone/camera. You will take a lot of pictures in six hours! - Pay attention to the meet up spots after the self-exploration. A certain Yelper *cough* Bruce K. *cough* got himself separated from the tour and was nearly stuck on his own until he spotted the green umbrella!

We had such a wonderful day tour in Istanbul with our very knowledgeable and informative tour guide…read moreOzlem. She had so much insight and took us to the places where everyday Turkish people shop, visit and go about their daily routines. We went to many neighborhoods including Kadikoy and Moda. We saw so much including going to the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. My sister was looking for a specific item and Ozlem knew just where to get it. We enjoyed a beautiful lunch in Kadikoy where the locals eat and had the best food where some items are only made in one city in Turkey which made it very special! There was a special shop we asked her about that makes this out of the world ice cream sundae and she took us there to have it. Beautiful picture taking everywhere and on the boat over the Bosphorus. There is a lot of walking but you get to see everything and Ozlem is a wonderful guide and only takes you to the best of the best places!

My husband and I got attacked on a 9 hour Istanbul-Varna night bus by elderly Turkish Bulgarians…read more(Bulgarian Turks?) for having our seats inclined! 2 hours into the trip we got got off on a stop in some village and lots of new passengers got on while we were stretching. By the time we got back to our seats 4or more people started shouting in Turkish and when we sat down an elderly man (70+) started hitting my seat and my head (he missed!) ! Later they switched to Bulgarian, so we understood that they wanted the seats up (strange since they were shorter than me (5'5) and not too overweight, so there was plenty of seats), nonetheless the driver told us (yelled to be precise) to pull up the seats accusing of having no respect for elderly! This all is in Bulgarian, which I don't understand well (I am Russian so I understand some words) and was explained later, no one could speak English of course. It was scary, considering it was during late hours in the middle of nowhere with the entire bus (almost ) looking at you with anger! The incident was brought up to the driver, the manager at a Nisikli location, the boarder patrol and resulted in nothing. I was going to dispute the credit card charges, but the fair was sop low and there was one nice young man working. If you are a blond young female, be sure to bring a bodyguard on that trip!