3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace
Traveler rating
4.4/5
Based on 12 traveler reviews. Ratings and reviews provided by Viator and Tripadvisor.
Quick answer
Is 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace worth booking?
3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace is a 72-hour experience in Istanbul, Turkey, from $422 per person. It scores 55 out of 100 on the Outty Ranking, which we label “Worth a Look”, based on a 4.4/5 rating across 12 reviews. This booking is non-refundable, so pick your date carefully. Same-day spots are currently showing.
- Outty Ranking
- 55 / 100
- Rating
- 4.4/5 (12)
- Duration
- 72 hours
- From
- $422 per person
Get to know Istanbul with a guide and independently on this 3-day tour. On one day, enjoy a full-day tour of Istanbul’s top attractions, including visits to the beautiful Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace, along with the spellbinding Grand Bazaar and Hippodrome, site of long-ago chariot races. Plus, on the other two days, enjoy free time to relax and explore as you wish. Your tour includes accommodation in comfortable hotels, select meals, and round-trip transfers. Numbers are limited to 12 on this small-group tour so you enjoy a personalized experience.
What you get
About this experience
Get to know Istanbul with a guide and independently on this 3-day tour. On one day, enjoy a full-day tour of Istanbul’s top attractions, including visits to the beautiful Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace, along with the spellbinding Grand Bazaar and Hippodrome, site of long-ago chariot races. Plus, on the other two days, enjoy free time to relax and explore as you wish. Your tour includes accommodation in comfortable hotels, select meals, and round-trip transfers. Numbers are limited to 12 on this small-group tour so you enjoy a personalized experience.
What's included
Included
- Professional guide
- Hotel/airport pickup and drop-off
- Breakfast
- Meals as per itinerary (B=breakfast)
- Two nights of accommodation
- Entrance Fees of the sites
Not included
- Food and drinks, unless specified
- Gratuities
Where it starts and ends
Hotel pickup
Pickup is included for all travelers.
Before you book
- Cancellation
- All sales are final. No refund is available for cancellations.
- Languages
- en
- Ticket
- Mobile Only
- Runs on
- Every day
- Group size
- Up to 9 travelers per booking
- Operated by
- Fez Travel
Know before you go
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- According to availability at time of booking, accommodation will be in one of the mentioned hotels
- This tour is available on any day. Be aware that some sites are closed on some days. St. Sophia Museum is closed on Mondays and replaced with St. Chora. Topkapi Palace is closed on Tuesdays and is replaced with the Basilica Underground Cistern. The Grand Bazaar is closed on Sundays and will be replaced with a visit to the Spice Bazaar.
Photos
What travelers are saying
Outty’s summary of the themes that recur across 12 traveler reviews. Written by us, not quoted from reviewers.
The guide
10 mentionsTravelers single out the guide as the reason the experience works.
Knowledge and storytelling
7 mentionsReviewers describe the commentary as informative rather than scripted.
Photo opportunities
3 mentionsThe views and photo stops come up again and again.
Food and drink
3 mentionsThe tastings and food stops are a highlight for most reviewers.
Pace and timing
2 mentionsSeveral reviewers comment on how the schedule is paced.
Small groups
2 mentionsThe group size is repeatedly described as intimate rather than packed.
Traveler reviews
12 verified traveler reviews for 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace. Ratings and reviews provided by Viator and Tripadvisor.
Fantastic guided tour of Istanbul
We had the most amazing couple of days with our Fez guide, Ömer Faruk, in Istanbul. He was friendly, knowledgeable, obliging and helpful. It was fun spending two whole days with him exploring beautiful Istanbul. He gave us not only many interesting stories about the sights and history, but also important info on all sorts of logistical things - meeting places, ATMs, local transport, toilets etc. It was especially interesting to learn from his conversations during the tour about his life in Turkey, about local customs, religion and heritage. We would thoroughly recommend him. The other Fez people we engaged with for shorter times were also extremely helpful - our greeter at the airport and our driver. Many thanks to you all for a memorable experience. PS: Also thanks to Fez for arranging such good weather and cute cats!
Response from the operator: Thank you so much for your wonderful review. We are truly delighted to hear that you had such an amazing time in Istanbul and that Ömer Faruk helped make your experience so memorable. It means a great deal to us to know that his friendliness, knowledge, and thoughtful guidance added so much to your two days in the city. We are especially pleased that you enjoyed not only the history and sights, but also the personal insights into daily life, local customs, and culture in Turkey. We are also very glad to hear that our airport greeter and driver were able to make your journey even smoother and more enjoyable. Your kind words will be shared with the whole team. And of course, we are especially happy that we could also arrange the good weather and Istanbul’s adorable cats for you. We will gladly take the credit for both! Thank you again for choosing Fez Travel and for your kind recommendation. We hope to welcome you back again for another memorable journey in Turkey.
via Tripadvisor
Tours of Turkey with Fez Travel
We booked our tour to Turkey through Diamond Star experience, who sub contracted it to Fez Travel, so we had no idea what this was going to be like. But I needn't have worried. After an initial problem with the first pick up at Istanbul, it all went very well. The Tours were well organised and the guides were very good. But the most amazing part was the one on one contact I had with a Ms Pinar of Fez Travel. The support she provided was amazing whenever I needed help or advice she was there virtually 24./7 No problem to much, always a result . During a our time in Turkey we visited Istanbul , Cappadocia and Kusdasi including 5 tours, 1 boat trip withe evening out and best of all the hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia and all went well. All in all a good holiday. I would heartily recommend Fez Trave . Phil Martin.
Response from the operator: Thank you, Phil Martin, for sharing your experience and for taking the time to write this review! We are so pleased to hear that, despite your initial uncertainty about the transition from Diamond Star Experience to us, your tour ultimately went very well and resulted in a good holiday. We sincerely apologize for the initial issue you faced with the first pick-up in Istanbul. We strive for seamless service from the start, and we regret any inconvenience this caused. However, the most wonderful feedback is regarding the exceptional support provided by Ms. Pinar of Fez Travel. It brings us immense pride to know that her dedication and "virtually 24/7" support turned potential challenges into "always a result," ensuring your time across Istanbul, Cappadocia, and Kuşadası—including the memorable hot air balloon ride—was stress-free. We are thrilled you found the tours well-organized and our guides very good. Your hearty recommendation of Fez Travel means the world to us and serves as a powerful testament to the dedication of team members like Pinar. We Fez Travel look forward to the opportunity of welcoming you back on another journey.
via Tripadvisor
Would not recommend Fez Travel for a tour and/ or transfers in Istanbul
We were put on to Fez Travel tour and transfers by our travel agent in New Zealand. I will be speaking with the travel agent about our experience with this company. We were picked up from Istanbul airport. It was not at all obvious to us where we were to meet the Fez Travel transfer van. As it happens, they were outside of Exit 14 at Istanbul airport and we were directed there by their opposition. While we were talking to Fez employees, a trolley guy from the airport pushed a row of trolleys into two of our party. I understand this is not an issue with Fez but they did nothing about it (prior or post) and their faces looked blank, when it happened. The transfer to our hotel was fine and in fact difficult for the driver to navigate too but he did it well. Day 2 - we had our Fez tour guide turn up for a private tour at 8:30am when we were scheduled to meet at 9am. He agreed to wait until we had had breakfast. My mother is 81 and is in a wheel chair. He walked us out of the hotel and to our surprise up to the local tram service. A conversation ensued with the guide (Harkem) about my mother being in a wheel chair and we were expecting (had paid for) Fez Travel to provide a van for this private tour. He talked us out of this by saying the places we were going too were close by and it was too hard to get the van in and around the sites. The van was provided on day 2 (after our insistence). Our first visit was the Hippodrome in Istanbul. Harkem was very well informed about this place and its' history and gave an excellent narrative for about 20 minutes. He was open to questions and we found him quite jovial. The rest of Day 1's tour was pleasant but difficult to get my mother around in the wheel chair. The tour guide definitely took us to places where he was getting a kickback. One of the last roads we got my mum down in the wheelchair (the guide would not help with the wheel chair at all) was bordering on dangerous to take my mum down as it was very steep, with deep cobble stones. Day 2 with Harkem was a very different experience - he was very stand offish and would not walk with us. I have many photos of him walking 10 metres in front of us. He was providing very little commentary and was seemingly disinterested in coming to work today. He was a completely different personality to the same person we had on Day 1. My brother and I went to the royal palace with Harkem and he dropped us at the gate and said I will meet you at the exit where there is a cafe. This is not what we had paid for. Getting into the palace was a drama where his passes didn't work and he had to ring his head office obviously to pay for the tickets. We left Harkem at our Hotel at the end of the day with very little fanfare or good byes. I did pay him a $78 AUD tip which I regret as Day 2 would have been better spent by ourselves (and not wondering what we had done wrong to upset the guide). Fez Travel were prepaid to get us from our Hotel to our cruise ship at the end. We had a driver turn up at the hotel that didn't know where he was going. The Galata Port is a very busy place with vehicles and people everywhere. The driver asked us where we wanted to be dropped. We had never been there before. I said this to him "you are the driver". He ended up dropping our party of 4 including my mum in a wheel chair on a traffic island outside the port. It was obvious to us a little later that the driver could have dropped us at our gate underground which would have been metres away from our baggage drop area. I suspect Fez Travel used a third party for this private transfer. I would definitely not recommend Fez Travel for transfers and/ or private tours.
Response from the operator: Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We are very concerned to read your review, as the service and experience you describe do not reflect the level of care, professionalism, and hospitality that Fez Travel is committed to providing our guests. Unfortunately, we have been unable to identify your booking details based on the information in your review. In particular, the guide’s name mentioned (“Harkem”) does not correspond to any of our guides. While we understand that names can sometimes be misheard or spelled differently, we do not have a guide by that name in our team. We would very much like to investigate this further and understand exactly what happened so we can address it properly. Could you kindly contact us directly by email at feztravel@feztravel.com with your booking details (lead passenger name, travel dates, and your travel agent’s reference if possible)? This will help us identify the guide and drivers involved and take the necessary steps. We sincerely hope you will give us the chance to look into this matter properly. Please reach out to us at your earliest convenience so we can investigate and respond directly.
via Tripadvisor
Three days full of beautiful things and lovely smells
After the pickup at the AirPort we had a ride to the hotel, relaxed, dinner and then bed. The following day was on our own and we went to the Basilica Cistern and that was a fantastic experience not to be missed. After that we just strolled around town. Next morning Ömer met us at the hotel and we Walked to meet the other couple and went on to Hagia Sofia. Once the girls were dressed properly we took the fast lane in to the mosque. Fantastic. Ömer, our guide, was full of knowledge and annecdotes about all the areas inside. Next we had a Turkish icecream before we headed to Topkaki Castle. Another amazing place full of history. Bring lots of water, it’s huge. Lunch at the Pudding restaurant, good value. The Blue Mosque and the Hippodrome came next. Another amazing building and lots of people. A walk to a carpetmaker was comming up. Situated in an old caravanserai we were shown the tricks with Turkish mats and the beauty of silkmats. Then the Grand Bazar, me and wiffy decided to do that on our last day because we ran out of fuel in the heat (30+ ’C) Next day the bus took us across the Bosporus to the Asian side to see the town from above. After that we visited the Beylerbeyi Palace, a rokoko building built to impress Europeans. And then we embarked on a small Cruise up and down the Bosporus to see all the grand buildings and yachts and a fortress, the trip ended back in Europe. We had some makrell in a wrap for lunch before the third mosque with all it’s beautiful tilework . The very last thing was the Spice Bazar, lots of spices, delights and jewelry. Ömer escorted us back to our hotel via lokal trams and we said goodbuy to a very good guide after a short trip full of beuty.
Response from the operator: Thank you for choosing Fez Travel and sharing your experience. We’re delighted everything went smoothly and that Ömer’s guidance enriched highlights like Hagia Sophia, Topkapı, the Blue Mosque, and the Bosphorus. We’d love to welcome you back—happy to tailor a Grand Bazaar visit or add Cappadocia, Ephesus, or a gulet cruise next time.
via Tripadvisor
Istanbul, Gallipoli and Troy Fez tour.
Omer, our guide was very helpful, had good historical knowledge and sense of humour which we all appreciated. He also was our guide to Gallipoli and Troy and he made this trip one to remember. I recommended Fez travel.
Response from the operator: Thank you for your fantastic review! We're thrilled to hear that Omer made such a positive impact on your trip. It's wonderful to know that you and your group appreciated his historical knowledge and sense of humor, making your time in both Gallipoli and Troy truly memorable. Omer is a valued member of our team, and we're so glad he helped create such an outstanding experience for you. We truly appreciate your recommendation of Fez Travel!
via Tripadvisor
Good to know
- Duration
- 72 hours
- Free cancellation
- Non-refundable
- Minimum age to book
- All ages
- Availability
- Bookable today
- Runs on
- Every day
- Price range
- $422 to $635
- Hotel pickup
- Included for all travelers
- Booked in 30 days
- 4
- Verdict
- Worth a Look
Who runs this experience
Operated by Fez Travel, who run 20 experiences we rank across 6 cities, with an average Outty Ranking of 48.6.
See everything Fez Travel runsWhy this scores 55
The Outty Ranking is a weighted composite. Here is how this experience performed on each component.
3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace: questions travelers ask
Practical detail on this experience, plus the wider planning questions for Istanbul.
How much does 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace cost?
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Prices start at $422 per person. The final price depends on the date, the time slot and the number of travelers, and peak weekends in Istanbul usually price higher than midweek mornings. Live pricing and remaining availability are confirmed on the booking screen before you pay.
How long does 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace take?
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Plan for about 72 hours from start to finish, not counting travel to the meeting point. Most travelers leave another 30 minutes on either side so the rest of the day in Istanbul is not rushed.
Is 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace worth it?
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It holds an Outty Ranking of 55 out of 100, which we label "Worth a Look". That score blends traveler sentiment (4.4/5 across 12 reviews), the depth of that review evidence, recent booking momentum, value for money against comparable culture & history in Istanbul, and how flexible the cancellation terms are.
Can I cancel or reschedule 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace?
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No. This experience is sold on a non-refundable basis, so only book a date you are confident about. Similar experiences in the city do offer free cancellation if flexibility matters more than price.
Is 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace suitable for kids and families?
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Yes, all ages are welcome. Families should still weigh the 72-hour running time, and strollers are easier on the earlier, quieter departures.
How far in advance should I book 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace?
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Around 4 people booked this in the last 30 days, so popular slots go early. Two to three weeks ahead is comfortable in shoulder season, while summer weekends and holidays in Istanbul can sell out a month out. Same-day spots do open up when other travelers cancel, so it is worth checking if you are already in town.
What should I bring or wear?
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Bring photo ID, your booking confirmation on your phone, a refillable water bottle and comfortable shoes. Dress for the weather in Istanbul and add a light layer if any part of the 72-hour experience runs outdoors or after sunset.
Where does 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace start and how do I get there?
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The exact meeting point and directions are on your voucher once you book, and they sit in central Istanbul within reach of public transport. Arrive 15 minutes early: late arrivals are treated as no-shows by most operators.
What are the best things to do in Istanbul?
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On Outty we rank every Istanbul experience on the same 0 to 100 scale, and alongside this one the highest scorers right now include Princes Islands Blue Journey from Old City Istanbul, Famous Istanbul Pub Crawl #1 Nightlife Experience, Best of Istanbul 1, 2 or 3-Day Private Guided Istanbul Tour. The city page groups everything into most popular, highest reviewed, last minute and family-friendly so you can build a day around what actually delivers.
When is the best time to visit Istanbul?
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Booking patterns follow the same curve: prices and queues climb in peak weeks, while shoulder season gives you better availability on the top-ranked experiences and more room to change plans.
How many days do you need in Istanbul?
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Three full days covers the headline sights without sprinting. A workable rhythm is one anchor experience each morning, such as this one, an unhurried afternoon in a single neighborhood, then a food or nightlife booking in the evening. Five days lets you add a day trip outside the city.
Do I book through Outty or through the operator?
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Outty ranks and explains the experiences, then hands you to Viator to complete the booking with the operator directly. The price is the same as booking on Viator yourself, and Outty earns an affiliate commission on the referral, which is how the rankings stay free to read.
What is included in 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace?
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Included: Professional guide; Hotel/airport pickup and drop-off; Breakfast; Meals as per itinerary (B=breakfast); and Two nights of accommodation. Not included: Food and drinks, unless specified; and Gratuities. Always check the voucher for the final list before you travel.
Does 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace include hotel pickup?
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Yes, pickup is offered for every traveler from 1167 listed pickup locations in and around Istanbul. You can also enter a custom pickup address when booking.
What languages is 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace offered in?
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It runs in English. Pick your language when choosing a date and time, as not every departure runs in every language.
Will I get instant confirmation and a mobile ticket for 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace?
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Confirmation is sent by the operator after booking, usually within 48 hours; if it is not confirmed you are not charged. Mobile tickets are accepted, so you can show the voucher on your phone.
What happens to 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace if the weather is bad?
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This experience depends on good weather. If it is canceled because of poor weather, you are offered a different date or a full refund.
What do travelers say about 3-Day Small-Group Istanbul Tour: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace?
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Across 12 reviews averaging 4.4 out of 5, recurring themes include the guide, knowledge and storytelling, photo opportunities. Travelers single out the guide as the reason the experience works. One thing to know: Several reviewers comment on how the schedule is paced.
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