Best of Istanbul & Best of Turkey

I believe CWSocial is currently traveling, but she did both of these tours back-to-back in 2022. Links to her trip report and an excellent follow up post about logistics are below.

http://tinyurl.com/4suefw27

http://tinyurl.com/2akn5zkh

I did the Istanbul tour in 2015 and loved Turkey so much that I returned for the Best of Turkey tour in 2023. I also spent two days in Istanbul on my own in 2016 when I had a layover there.

There is some overlap in Istanbul on the first two days of the Turkey tour, but obviously the Istanbul tour included much more and also allowed for more independent (and relaxed) exploration. Istanbul is a huge, diverse and fascinating city. There’s plenty to see and do there! The overlap didn’t bother me - I enjoyed revisiting some sights. However, you could skip some “repeats” to explore on your own. Just let the tour guide know your plans.

If you are planning to do these tours back-to-back, I think I would recommend doing the Istanbul tour first. This would help you get really comfortable in the city so you could skip returning to some sights and feel prepared to do some things on your own. Then the rest of the Turkey tour will take you to other amazing places in Turkey, including Cappadocia, coastal areas and Ephesus.

These were wonderful tours with really terrific guides. I highly recommend them!

Thanks, Cl, for posting those links. And hello from colorful Tirana!!

Yes, there is some overlap of highlights of Istanbul. We elected to repeat everything and were very happy with the revisits. With 2 different guides, we heard 2 different perspectives. A 2nd cruise on the Bosphorus was a pleasant repeat! And much of the Istanbul tour covered places and areas of the city that the Turkey tour does not go.

Even with that, we went 2 days early - and I've been back again for 8 nights - and found plenty to do.

Our tours stayed in 2 different areas of the city, so we had two neighborhoods to wander. And we had a hotel change. That might not always be the case with the hotels. Our Istanbul guide was heading our way and kindly dropped us at our new Turkey hotel.

I'd choose order of the tours by logistics of flights. We did the Istanbul tour first and didn't return to the Istanbul Airport, rather flying out of easier Izmir.

I preferred Istanbul first because our in depth visits were first. You might be able to skip some repeats, but perhaps not everything because of the logistics of the walking route or bus pickups.

Thank you Renee and CWSocial for your input and thanks CL for the links. I am looking forward to doing both the Istanbul and Best of Turkey.