Best of Istanbul Full-Day Tour with Hotel Transfers Private or Group

The Hippodrome of Constantinople

The day begins where the city's public life began: the Hippodrome, the long open square in front of the Blue Mosque that was the chariot-racing arena of Constantinople, holding tens of thousands of spectators for races, triumphs and riots. Three monuments still stand on the ancient central spine: the Egyptian Obelisk of Theodosius, carved in Egypt around 1450 BC and brought here in the fourth century, the bronze Serpent Column cast after the Greek victory over the Persians in 479 BC, and the Walled Obelisk once covered in gilded bronze plates.

At the northern end the German Fountain, a domed neo-Byzantine pavilion given to the sultan in 1898, marks the start of the walk. Your guide uses the Hippodrome to explain the three layers of the old city, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman, before you step into the first mosque; it takes about twenty minutes and sets the whole day in context.

The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque)

Across the square rises the Blue Mosque, built between 1609 and 1616 for Sultan Ahmed I and the only imperial mosque in Istanbul with six minarets. Inside, more than twenty thousand hand-painted Iznik tiles in blue, green and white cover the lower walls and galleries, and two hundred and sixty windows light the great dome and its four half-domes; the name comes from the blue of the tiles and the painted interior. It is a working mosque, so you remove your shoes, women cover their heads with a scarf, and everyone covers shoulders and knees; the tour times the visit between the five daily prayers.

The guide points out the carpet lines that organise the rows of worshippers, the mihrab facing Mecca and the sultan's loge, and explains how the mosque, the madrasa, the tomb and the market formed a charitable complex. Allow about thirty minutes, plus a few more in the courtyard for photographs of the cascading domes.

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia faces the Blue Mosque across the park and is the monument that defines Istanbul. Built in 537 for Emperor Justinian as the cathedral of Constantinople, it was the largest church in the world for nearly a thousand years, became the imperial mosque after the conquest of 1453 and today serves again as a mosque with visitor access. The dome, 31 metres across and floating on a ring of windows, still astonishes engineers, and the marble revetments, the gold mosaics and the giant calligraphic roundels tell the building's two histories at once.

Entry for visitors is through a dedicated gate with a ticket bought on the spot, which your guide handles so that the group skips the queue; the visit lasts around forty-five minutes. Dress modestly, as in the Blue Mosque, and expect a crowd at midday: the guide schedules the three ticketed monuments around their busiest hours.

Topkapi Palace

Behind Hagia Sophia the Imperial Gate opens into Topkapi Palace, the walled complex of courtyards and pavilions from which the Ottoman sultans ruled for nearly four hundred years. With the guide you cross the first courtyard to the Gate of Salutation, see the Imperial Council hall and the kitchens with their rows of chimneys, and continue into the third courtyard for the Audience Hall, the Imperial Treasury with its jewelled dagger and great diamond, and the Chamber of the Holy Relics with the mantle of the Prophet.

The ticket is bought at the palace with the guide, and the visit takes about ninety minutes, with free time on the fourth-courtyard terrace above the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. Topkapi Palace is closed on Tuesdays, so on that day the guide adapts the programme; the Harem has a separate ticket and is not part of the standard route.

The Basilica Cistern

A few steps from Hagia Sophia a staircase leads down into the Basilica Cistern, the largest of the underground reservoirs that supplied Byzantine Constantinople, built in the sixth century under a basilica that has long disappeared. Three hundred and thirty-six marble columns in twelve rows support brick vaults over a sheet of still water, lit today by coloured lights and crossed by walkways; fish move between the columns, and at the far end two blocks carved with the head of Medusa, reused as column bases, are the cistern's most famous sight.

The visit takes about thirty minutes and is a welcome cool interval in summer; the ticket is bought on arrival with the guide. The guide explains how the Roman aqueducts fed the city and why the cistern was forgotten and rediscovered, and then it is a short walk to the bazaar.

The Grand Bazaar and the day's end

The tour finishes in the Grand Bazaar, the covered market begun in 1461 just after the conquest and expanded over the centuries into a city of its own with vaulted streets, courtyards, hans and nearly four thousand shops selling carpets, gold, leather, ceramics, lamps, spices and sweets. Your guide takes you through the main streets, shows where the quality work is and stops for Turkish tea or coffee, after which you have free time to shop; prices are negotiable and that is part of the fun.

The Grand Bazaar is closed on Sundays and public holidays, when the tour visits the Arasta Bazaar behind the Blue Mosque or the Spice Bazaar by the Golden Horn instead. Lunch is not included; the guide suggests halal restaurants near the sites, from kebab and pide to lentil soup and simit, as everywhere in Istanbul. The vehicle then returns you to your hotel, finishing around 16:00.