Travel

#See Istanbul through the eyes of Yaren Turkoglu of SRM travel - Review of Istanbul Tour Guides - Day Tours, Istanbul, Turkey

I found Taylan Tasbasi thorugh SRM Travel as recommended by Rick Steves' Istanbul Guide Book. Taylan provided a fantastic private guided tour of Istanbul for my wife and myself and my 3 daughters. He showed us all of the essential tourist spots including the Mosques, the Topkapi Palace, the Underground Cistern, and the Grand Bazaar. He was organized and extremely knowledgeable.

Beyond that, he took us to parts of Istanbul that were off the beaten path and that we could never have found on our own just by following a guide book. He took us through the winding streets and up dark and dusty stairways and had a guard open up a special door so that we could finish our climb to the top of the roof of one ancient building in order to have the same spectacular roof top view of Istanbul that was used in a recent James Bond movie.

He even took us on a ferry ride across the Bosphorus to see the less visited Asian side of Istanbul .

He understands American habits and when my daughters were tired of sightseeing he made sure we had a Turkish coffee and Turkish candy break. He even entertained my daughters by reading their Turkish coffee grounds to predict who their future boy friends would be.

For lunch, he took us to a great local restaurant not listed in the guide books and gave us the name of a restaurant for dinner that provided the best meal with the most spectacular view that we experienced in Istanbul

He is a guide that can make your visit a memorable one

I booked him through srmtravel.com and they were an efficient and courteous agency.

His email is taylantasbasi@hotmail.com