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Backpackers
Travel offers an innovative half-day
Istanbul city tour of
the City Walls, Chora Church
and Golden Horn, out-of-the-way Istanbul sights,
for as little as €15.
They pick you
up at your hotel in Sultanahmet,
drive along the 4th-century Byzantine City
Walls, stop for a visit to Yedikule (Fortress
of the Seven Towers), then continue
to the Kariye
Museum (Church of the Holy
Savior in Chora), where you see the
splendid Byzantine mosaics.
Then they drive
you to the Pierre
Loti café on a hilltop
overlooking the city and the Golden
Horn, for a glass
of tea or cup
of Turkish coffee.
From the café
you can walk downhill through a historic
Ottoman cemetery,
or you can take the cable
car down to the shore of
the Golden
Horn and visit the Eyüp
Sultan Mosque, one of Istanbul's
most beloved and historic. (It
was here that the sultans of the Ottoman
Empire were invested with
the Sword of Osman,
the equivalent to a European imperial
coronation.)
From Eyüp, you drive along the
shores of the Golden
Horn to
the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in
Fener for a visit before continuing
along the Golden Horn to the Egyptian
Spice Bazaar, where you can browse
the shops, or board a TurYol
Bosphorus ferry for a 1-1/2-hour
Bosphorus
cruise. Or you can skip the Spice
Bazaar, stay in the vehicle and be
dropped in Sultanahmet,
as you wish.
Total tour time is 3-1/2 to
4 hours. The tour operates every
day except Wednesday (when the
Kariye Museum/Chora Church is closed.)
How can it cost so little? Do they
park
you in a carpet shop for two hours
and take a big cut of any sales? NO!
The secret is... it's transportation
and guidance only. Admission fees,
drinks, meals, etc. are not included.
A licensed
guide accompanies
you to explain what you are seeing
and make sure all goes smoothly,
but you
pay your own admission fees to
the museums if you choose to enter
(you don't have to) You
pay for any personal expenses
such as drinks, snacks, lunch, cable
car, ferry cruise, etc., as you choose
to buy them.
Thus, the tour fee is
not your only expense, but you
choose what
else to spend your money on as you
tour.
I think it's a brilliant concept,
because these sights (Yedikule, City
Walls, Kariye
Museum, Pierre
Loti café,
etc.) are the ones most difficult to
reach, and least visited by organized
tours.
Here's
full information on
the tour.
The tour fee is for travelers lodged
in Sultanahmet. If your hotel is near
Taksim
Square or in Besiktas, the fee
is €20.
You may also be interested in their Bosphorus
Cruise & Galata tour as
well. More...
And Backpackers
Travel knows
how to do it! They're the ones who
operate the great-value-for-money private
airport transfer service with comfortable
Mercedes-Benz vans.
The Chora Church, City Walls & Golden
Horn tours start
depart twice daily, just after breakfast
and just after lunch, and take about
four hours. Contact
Backpackers Travel for details,
and to reserve your place(s).
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