Touristanbul: Istanbul in hours is a complimentary tour of Istanbul offered by Turkish Airlines to its transit passengers while they wait for their connecting flight. Three tours are offered, lasting 9 hours (from 09:00-18:00) or 6 hours (09:00-15:00 or 12:00-18:00). According to their web site, tour participants receive a meal (or two in the case of the 9 hours tour) and "get to see the most significant historical places of Istanbul".
After breakfast, a shower and some WiFi use, I left Turkish Airline's CIP Lounge to search for Turkish Airline's "Hotel Desk". Since I wanted to take the tour at noon, I had to be at the Desk before 11:30. As a business class passenger, I went through the priority immigration lane. There was no one in front of me, so within 30 seconds I had my entry stamp and walked through customs (I had left my belongings in the lounge lockers and had only a newspaper in hand). After customs, I turned right and walked towards the Starbucks; the Hotel Desk is just next to it. From the CIP lounge to the Hotel Desk, it took me less than 15 minutes.
One of the Desk employees took my boarding pass and asked me to wait in the Starbucks area until noon when they would call me.
Just after noon my name was called. I met the tour guide and received a lanyard and pamphlet (the desk employee also returned my boarding pass at this point). There was only one other tour participant: a Lebanese gentleman on his way to Russia. The three of us walked out of the terminal towards our 15-seater Mercedes van.
We drove to the Sultanahmet area. I enjoyed the ride because I had the chance to see how much had changed since I last visited Istanbul 9 years ago. In fact this was my main motivation in taking this tour since I had already visited Istanbul's top tourist sites back then. Besides, how could I skip the opportunity to visit the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia one more time ?
The driver dropped us in front of Tamara Restaurant for lunch.
The restaurant is mostly used by tour groups, and we saw a group of 20 Chinese tourists going to the 1st floor with their guide for lunch. On the Touristanbul web site, here's what is promised: "We will introduce you with Ottoman cuisine and Turkish hospitality."
For the hospitality part, one could as well forget it. We did not receive a welcome and were never asked what we wanted - all the dishes were simply dropped in front of us. The tour guide refused to eat at the table with us and was busy chatting with the restaurant manager the whole time.
Now let's look at the food. If this is supposed to be an introduction to "Ottoman cuisine", then it's quite pathetic. Luckily I had a good breakfast in the lounge so skipped this lousy lunch of cold bread, old salad, watery lentil soup. I only ate the grilled chicken and some fruit slices (the fruit plate was to be shared by 3 persons). For sure, I can have much better food in cheap Turkish eateries in Brussels.
After this miserable Ottoman cuisine, we walked for about 2 minutes until we reached the Sultanahmet Camii or the Blue Mosque.
Next stop: Hagia Sophia where the guide gave a 2 minutes introduction then we had half an hour to visit the museum at our own pace.
After Hagia Sophia, we crossed the street to visit the Basilica Cistern. We had a quick introduction, then the tour guide announced that we could visit on our own, after which we were free until 16:00 when we had to meet her in front of the Hagia Sophia tram stop.
I spent at most 15 minutes in the cistern then had 1h15 to walk around. I met the guide at 16:00 in front of Hagia Sophia then walked towards the end of the Hippodrome. Again she barely provided any info.
The Serpent Column,the Obelisk of Thutmosis III and the German Fountain (the small green dome)
The base of the Obelisk of Thutmosis III
The Walled Obelisk behind the Serpent Column
The van was waiting at the end of the Hippodrome to drive us to the airport. I was dropped in front of the entrance to the departure terminal at 16:35, almost 1h30 before the scheduled tour end!
From the lunch to the few places visited to the uninterested tour guide, this tour was a huge disappointment. We could have visited another tourist site, for example the Topkapi Palace, but they opted for the most inefficient time use/management. I know that this tour did not cost me a single cent. But in my case, I had planned a later connecting flight to Brussels just for Touristanbul. More importantly, the bad quality of the tour defeats the purpose: one would imagine that such a tour is a great opportunity to bring tourists to Istanbul after giving them a flavor of the city in 6 hours. From my experience, I am afraid that this tour can leave a bitter aftertaste about the city and its food.
This post is part of the following series:
Flying Turkish Airlines from Brussels to Africa
Did you had a Chance to book a earlier flight to Brussels but you took the later flight just for touristanbul ?
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