City break
Istanbul in eight days, with a private car and an exclusive licensed guide
Seven nights in the city with a private car, an exclusive licensed guide, a Bosphorus cruise on a private yacht and tickets for Hagia Sophia and Topkapi with the Harem.
Private, tailor-made The vehicle and the guide are for your passengers only, and you choose the starting day.
Key facts
- Duration 8 days / 7 nights
- Route Istanbul 1 destination
- Quotation Quotation within 24 business hours (72 business hours for groups and MICE)
- Recommended months April, May, September, October
- Departure type Private, tailor-made
Overview
The longest of the four city programmes in our 2027 catalogue, and the only private one. Seven nights in the city, a private car with driver, an exclusive licensed guide on the days indicated and an itinerary shared with nobody: the agency chooses the starting day and the traveller sets the pace. Compared with the scheduled programmes, three things change substantially. First, the Bosphorus cruise is on a private yacht and lasts two hours, rather than a shared scheduled boat. Second, four entrance fees are included, among them Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace with the Harem, which the scheduled programmes leave out. Third, there is time for what no three- or four-night programme can reach: a whole day for Topkapi and the Grand Bazaar, another for Balat and Fener, and the Asian shore twice over, with Üsküdar and Beylerbeyi by sea and Çamlıca and Kuzguncuk by road.
Route: Istanbul
- Physical level: Moderate
- Languages of the guided visits: Spanish, English
Highlights
- A private car with driver and an exclusive licensed guide on the days indicated: no shared vehicle, no other group, and you choose the starting day.
- A two-hour Bosphorus cruise on a private yacht, not on a scheduled boat.
- Four entrance fees included, among them Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace with the Harem, which the scheduled programmes leave out.
- A whole day for Topkapi and the Grand Bazaar, and another for Balat and Fener, which no shorter city programme can reach.
- The Asian shore twice over: Üsküdar and Beylerbeyi by sea, and Çamlıca and Kuzguncuk by road.
What is included and what is not
Included
- 7 nights’ accommodation in Istanbul with breakfast, in a hotel as listed of the stated category, or similar.
- An exclusive licensed guide on the days indicated in the itinerary, approximately from 09:00 to 17:00.
- A private car with driver throughout the programme.
- A two-hour Bosphorus cruise on a private yacht.
- Entrance fees listed in the itinerary: the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, the Basilica Cistern and Topkapi Palace with the Harem.
- Private arrival and departure transfers between the airport and the hotel.
- Bottled water each day.
Not included
- All meals other than hotel breakfast: lunches and dinners are not included.
- Visits and entrance fees not expressly listed in the itinerary.
- Optional excursions, quoted on request: a Turkish Night in Istanbul with dinner on the Bosphorus and a traditional Turkish bath.
- International flights (home country – Istanbul – home country).
- All drinks.
- Personal expenses (minibar, laundry, telephone, etc.).
- Tips for the guide, the driver and hotel and restaurant staff.
- Travel insurance, which we recommend with cancellation cover.
- Visa or electronic entry authorisation for Türkiye, depending on nationality.
Day by day itinerary
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Day 1
Arrival in Istanbul
Meet-and-greet at the airport with a welcome sign and a private transfer to the hotel, with no waiting: the vehicle is for your passengers alone and leaves as soon as the luggage is on board. This applies to both airports, Istanbul Airport (IST), to the north on the European side, and Sabiha Gökçen (SAW), in Pendik on the Asian side.
Because the programme is private, arrival day is built around the actual flight rather than a group schedule: if the aircraft lands at six in the morning, the pick-up is at six in the morning. It is worth saying, because it is one of the differences most felt against a scheduled programme, where the transfer has to fit the day’s operation.
The rest of the day is free, with no visits. On a seven-night programme there is no need at all to force the first day: the city is not going anywhere and tomorrow begins on the Bosphorus.
If the flight lands in the small hours, or if your client wants the room earlier, we arrange the previous night or an early check-in and quote them with the programme.Notes for the day: The meet-and-greet is with a welcome sign in the arrivals hall. Any change of flight or terminal must be notified in advance.
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Day 2
The Bosphorus by private yacht, the Spice Market and the Asian shore
The programme begins on the water, which is the best way to understand Istanbul before setting foot in its monuments. The Bosphorus cruise lasts two hours and is on a private yacht: no timetable, no shared deck and the option of stopping wherever it is worth stopping, among palaces, fortresses, neighbourhood mosques and the wooden mansions that still stand on both shores.
Then the Spice Market, with a guided visit inside: spices, dried fruit, teas and sweets. It is a neighbourhood market as well as a monument, so by mid-morning it is full of people who have come to shop rather than to look.
The day closes on the Asian shore, with the district of Üsküdar and Beylerbeyi Palace, the Ottoman summer residence at the water’s edge: a house built for heat, with the strait coming in through the windows and none of the ceremonial scale of Topkapi or Dolmabahçe.
An exclusive licensed guide and a private car throughout the day, approximately from 09:00 to 17:00. Lunch is not included; the guide suggests where to stop depending on how the day runs.Notes for the day: The private yacht cruise depends on sea conditions: in rough seas the day is reorganised and the sailing is moved to another day of the programme.
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Day 3
Classic Istanbul: Sultanahmet with the tickets included
A day on Sultanahmet Square, and the one that marks the difference from the scheduled programmes: here the tickets for the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern are included, so all three are entered rather than explained from the street.
It begins at the Roman Hippodrome, on the square itself, with the Egyptian obelisk, the serpentine column and the German Fountain. Then the Blue Mosque, with its İznik tiles and six minarets. After that Hagia Sophia: it is worth knowing that it is a working mosque and that foreign visitors follow a separate tourist route through the upper galleries, while the ground floor is reserved for prayer; that route closes during the five daily prayers and, at Friday midday, for a longer period. A private programme helps precisely here: the guide can move the order of the day to avoid clashing with prayer, which is not always possible on a scheduled group.
The afternoon is for the Basilica Cistern, with its forest of columns and the Medusa heads, also with the entrance included.
An exclusive guide and a private car. Lunch is not included.Notes for the day: Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque are working mosques: shoes must be removed, shoulders and knees covered, and women must cover their hair. The visiting arrangement and opening hours depend on current regulations and may change without notice.
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Day 4
Asian Istanbul: Çamlıca and Kuzguncuk
A second foray onto the Asian shore, this time by road and at a gentler pace than on day two.
Up Çamlıca Hill, the highest point in the city, with its contemporary mosque and the view that really explains Istanbul: the whole Bosphorus, the bridges, both continents and the Sea of Marmara beyond. It is the stop to make on a clear day, so that if the morning breaks overcast, a private programme can swap it for another day of the itinerary rather than spend it in the haze.
Then a walk through Kuzguncuk, one of the most characterful districts in the city: a main street of colourful houses climbing up from the water, with the mosque, the church and the synagogue a few metres from one another, neighbourhood cafés, workshops and an urban allotment in the middle. There are no monuments to visit, and that is the point: it is a day for walking, looking and sitting down, which is exactly what a seven-night programme can afford and a three-night one cannot.
An exclusive guide and a private car. Lunch is not included; Kuzguncuk and the Üsküdar area have good neighbourhood cooking.Notes for the day: The view from Çamlıca depends on the day’s visibility. Kuzguncuk is covered on foot and has slopes.
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Day 5
Old and modern Europe: Pierre Loti, Taksim, İstiklal and Galata
A day on the European shore beyond the historic peninsula, which is the Istanbul of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
It begins at the top, on Pierre Loti Hill, with the view over the Golden Horn and the estuary from the Eyüp cemetery. It then comes down into the modern centre: Taksim Square and İstiklal Avenue, with its arcades, its bookshops and the heritage tram that runs from one end to the other. On the way is the stop at the Pera Palace Hotel, the hotel of the Orient Express era and of the first European travellers to Constantinople.
The day ends in the Galata Tower area, the Genoese quarter that has become the most photographed part of the city, with time for the streets running down towards Karaköy.
A warning about the route: this is a day of serious gradients. Between Pierre Loti, the descent of İstiklal and the slopes of Galata, a fair few metres of climbing and descending add up, so comfortable shoes are advisable and the passenger should be told. As the programme is private, the car can pick up and drop off wherever needed and shorten any walking stretches that do not appeal.
An exclusive guide and a private car. Lunch is not included.Notes for the day: A day with steep gradients at Pierre Loti, İstiklal and Galata. Going up the Galata Tower is not among the programme’s included tickets.
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Day 6
Topkapi with the Harem and the Grand Bazaar
A whole day for two places that a short programme can only half do.
The morning is for Topkapi Palace, with the entrance included and, this time, with the Harem, which is ticketed separately and is left out of the scheduled programmes. The Harem changes the visit entirely: it is not an extra set of rooms, it is the domestic part of the palace, the part that explains how the Ottoman court actually lived as against the ceremonial side of the courtyards. The kitchens, the treasury and the terrace above the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn are also covered.
The afternoon is for the Grand Bazaar, with ample time for shopping. With an exclusive guide the difference is practical: the time can be spent on a single kind of item — carpets, copper, İznik ceramics, jewellery — with someone who translates, who knows how bargaining works and who can tell your client what something is worth before they buy it. That is the main reason this day is done privately rather than in a group.
An exclusive guide and a private car. Lunch is not included; inside the bazaar and in the surrounding streets there are eating places where the guide usually stops.Notes for the day: Topkapi Palace has a weekly closing day and the Grand Bazaar closes on Sundays and on religious holidays, so the day is adjusted to the calendar for that date.
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Day 7
Balat and Fener at your own pace
The last day of the programme and the quietest, in the two Golden Horn districts where Istanbul best preserves its multicultural past.
Fener was the district of the Greek Patriarchate and Balat that of the Jewish community; today both heritages, the Greek and the Armenian among them, can still be read in the façades, the lintels and the buildings of the old schools. It is covered on foot, without a tight schedule: the streets of colourful houses, the lanes climbing up from the water, the cafés, the restoration workshops and the second-hand shops that have arrived over the last decade.
It is the day that best closes a long stay, precisely because there is no list of monuments to tick off. After six days of palaces, mosques and bazaars, Balat and Fener are covered by looking, stopping for something to drink and talking to the guide about what has been seen before.
If your client would rather use the day differently — back to the bazaar, a hamam, a second pass through Sultanahmet — on a private programme the itinerary is reorganised at no cost: that is the advantage of the car and the guide being theirs alone.
An exclusive guide and a private car. Lunch is not included.Optional activities
- Turkish Night in Istanbul with dinner aboard a Bosphorus cruise
- Traditional Turkish bath (hamam)
Notes for the day: Balat and Fener are covered on foot and have steep slopes. The religious buildings in both districts keep their own visiting hours and some open only for worship.
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Day 8
Departure
Breakfast at the hotel and a private transfer to the airport, with the pick-up four hours before the flight. End of our services.
The four hours are not excessive caution: Istanbul’s two airports are far from the centre and on different shores, city traffic is unpredictable at any hour, and security at an airport the size of IST takes time. Better to wait in the terminal than to miss the flight on a ring road.
If the flight leaves at night, late check-out or one more night can be requested, which we arrange and quote separately; on a private programme the morning can also be used for a final visit with the car and the guide, if it has been planned at the time of booking.
And if your client wants to travel on, seven nights in Istanbul are an excellent base for moving to another region: Cappadocia is a little over an hour away by domestic flight and the Aegean connects by road or by air. Tell us the cities and the dates and we will prepare the quotation for the whole trip.Notes for the day: The final day’s pick-up is four hours before the flight time.
Expected hotels
| City | Nights | Category | Hotel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Istanbul | 7 | 4* / 5* | Nippon Hotel Taksim · Elite World Hotel Taksim · Taksim Gönen Hotel · Ramada by Wyndham Hotel Taksim · Point Hotel · Ramada Grand Bazaar Laleli · Byzantium Hotel · 10 Karaköyor similar |
Hotels as listed or similar; the final confirmation is given in the quotation.
How the rate is calculated
Rate tailored to the season, the hotel category and the number of travellers. Request a quotation.
Departures
Private, tailor-made
The vehicle and the guide are for your passengers only, and you choose the starting day.
The exact dates of each departure are confirmed in the quotation, together with hotel and domestic-flight availability.
Operational notes
- The order of the visits may change according to opening hours, traffic and the day’s operation. The content of the programme and the level of the contracted services stay the same.
- Mosques require shoes to be removed and shoulders and knees covered; women are required to cover their hair. Bringing your own scarf is advisable, although the busiest mosques usually lend one at the entrance.
- Working mosques close to visitors during the five daily prayers and, in particular, around the Friday midday prayer. When a visit coincides, the commentary is given outside or the day is reordered.
- Museums and palaces may have a weekly closing day and different summer and winter opening hours. The final itinerary is adjusted to the opening calendar in force on the travel dates.
- During the religious holidays (Ramazan Bayramı and Kurban Bayramı, whose dates move with the lunar calendar) museum and shop hours change and the monuments get busier.
- Our local team in Istanbul looks after the passengers throughout their stay, with an emergency line operating 24 hours a day.
- Passports must be valid for at least six months beyond the return date. The electronic visa, where nationality requires one, is applied for at evisa.gov.tr. Checking entry requirements and carrying valid documents is the traveller’s responsibility.
- Much of the programme is covered on foot, on cobbled streets and slopes in Sultanahmet, Galata and along the Bosphorus shores. Moderate walking level; comfortable shoes are recommended.
- The car with driver and the licensed guide work exclusively for your passengers on the days indicated in the itinerary, approximately from 09:00 to 17:00. Different hours or more vehicle time are quoted separately.
- The Bosphorus cruise is on a private yacht and lasts two hours. It depends on sea conditions: in rough seas the sailing is moved to another day of the programme.
- Because the programme is private, the order of the days can be reorganised locally with the guide. What does not allow improvisation are timed tickets and services that would have to be contracted again, such as the yacht.
Best time to travel
Recommended months: April, May, September, October
Istanbul can be visited all year round. April and May, and September and October, are the ideal months: mild temperatures, which suit a programme covered largely on foot. July and August are hot and humid. From November to February, the low season, the monuments are free of queues, the days are shorter and the weather is cold and wet; the Bosphorus cruise still operates, with changes of route or vessel when the weather requires them.
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Frequently asked questions
What exactly does “private” mean on this programme?
That the car with driver and the licensed guide are for your passengers alone, that the agency chooses the starting day, and that the itinerary and the pace can be adjusted as you go. There is no other group to coincide with and no operating schedule to keep, and the Bosphorus cruise is on a private yacht rather than a scheduled boat.
How does it differ from “Istanbul I”, “II” and “III”?
In three things. The tickets: here the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, the Basilica Cistern and Topkapi Palace with the Harem are included; on the three scheduled programmes only Topkapi and the Cistern, with Hagia Sophia explained from outside. The services: an exclusive car and guide as against shared services. And the length: seven nights against three, four or five, which allows a whole day for Topkapi and the Grand Bazaar and another for Balat and Fener.
How many hours a day are the guide and the car available?
The licensed guide accompanies your passengers exclusively on the days indicated in the itinerary, approximately from 09:00 to 17:00. If you need different hours, more car time or a night transfer, mention it in the request and it is quoted with the programme.
Do we go inside Hagia Sophia?
Yes: the entrance is included. Please note that Hagia Sophia is now a working mosque, with a separate tourist route through the upper galleries for foreign visitors while the ground floor is reserved for prayer, and that this route closes during the five daily prayers and, at Friday midday, for a longer period. The visiting arrangement and opening hours depend on current regulations and may change without notice. A private programme allows the order of the day to be moved so as not to clash with prayer.
Can the itinerary be changed once in Istanbul?
Within reason, yes: that is the advantage of a private programme. Changing the order of the days, spending longer on a visit or swapping one district for another is settled with the guide as you go. What cannot be improvised are timed tickets or a service that has to be contracted again, such as the yacht; those need advance notice.
Which meals are included?
Hotel breakfast only. Lunches and dinners are not included, nor are drinks. On a private programme that is usually an advantage: the guide adapts the stops to what your client wants to eat rather than to a pre-contracted group menu.
How long does a quotation take?
We reply within 24 business hours for individual travel and private tours and within 72 business hours for groups, once dates, passenger numbers and hotel category are confirmed.
Is this the “Istanbul Private in Depth” programme from the 2027 catalogue?
Yes. It corresponds to “Istanbul Private in Depth”, 8 days and 7 nights, in our 2027 trade catalogue.
Booking conditions
- Deposit
- 30% of the total when the booking is confirmed. For bookings made 30 days or less before departure, the full amount at confirmation.
- Balance
- The remaining 70%, no later than 31 days before departure.
- Payment methods
- Bank transfer or credit card. Card payments carry a 3% surcharge; charges applied by the issuing bank are borne by the client.
- Cancellations
- More than 90 days before departure: handling fee only, plus penalties on services already issued · 89–61 days: 25% · 60–31 days: 50% · 30 days or less and no-show: 100%. Reductions in places follow the same scale. Refunds within 10–14 business days of written cancellation.
Credentials
- Legal name
- Colorido Tours Turkey Turizm Ticaret Ltd. Şti.
- TÜRSAB licence
- A-12116
- Office
- Istanbul
- Operating scope
- Turkey only. Egypt, Jordan and the Greek islands only as extensions of a Turkey itinerary.
- Guides
- Licensed guides in Spanish and English
- 24/7 emergency line during the trip
- +90 544 533 53 55
- Who handles your request
- Your request is handled by our reservations team, and the same person follows the file from quotation through to operation on the ground.
