Tour guide was not pleasant at all. He was more interested in getting his way and was not kind to anyone in the group
Nice visit nice guide. Would recomend the visit. Harem reale impressive with all the ceramica decorations.
We actually missed this tour because we arrived half an hour late due to an unexpected shutdown of part of Istanbul’s tram system because of a bike race. The historian tour guide did not wait for us, even though we sent a text explaining the problem. We were added to another, similar tour that left later, but it was not the same one we’d paid for. I asked about a partial refund to reflect the difference in cost, but no one at the tour meeting place could answer that question. We did enjoy the tour we did participate in, but it was not as extensive as the one we’d paid for (it covered only part of Topkapi palace, but not the harem as advertised).
We missed the first tour due to going to the wrong location. There is a Cafe and Ticket office in the Palace grounds! If the instructions had said go to the cafe / ticket office to the left of the main entrance we would have found it ok! We eventually found the right location and we were kindly offered a tour the following day. When we turned up for that we found that the number of people on the tour was more like 30, not the 15 or so indicated in the description. We were to be given wireless headphones to hear the guide only they didn’t work ( no batteries in the receivers!) so it was crowd round and listen mode. The guide was a diminutive young lady with no flag so we found her very hard to follow and when we did gather round the noise of the crowd almost drowned her out. She did her best but she was really struggling to provide the service we expected. The Palace is really worth a visit but the tour we experienced was well below what we expected and a waste of money. A chaotic experience of a so called organised tour!
Great guide who clearly explained everything and an easy to find meet up location (just wait at the cafe and look out for your guide with the company flag).