Bosphorus Cruise & Istanbul Seven Hills Tour

Tour Highlights:
Tour Dates:  Every day
Tour Type:    Vehicle & Boat Cruise Sightseeing
Tour Starts:  10:00 am
Tour Ends:    18:00 pm
Visiting Sights:  Old Balat Streets & Golden Horn, Byzantine Old City Walls, Pierre Loti Hill & Cable Car, Bosphorus Bridge, Camlica Hill of Asia Continent, Bosphorus Boat Cruise up to the second bridge and famous Spice Bazaar.

Bosphorus Cruise Sightseeing & Istanbul Seven Hills Tour
09.30 – Collected our guests from their hotel in the morning and meet with our local professional guide then start to full day complete Istanbul tour with first stop the old Balat. Take a walk through the hundreds of years historical buildings of Balat town to the Golden Horn. We continue to drive to Pierre Loti Hill to see a beautiful panoramic view of Golden Horn side and historical peninsula. Also, you are going to enjoy the way back down from the hill by a Cable Car. Crossing the Bosphorus Bridge to Asia continent of the ıstanbul and climbing up to famous Camlica Hill will be an epic experience for you. After the Camlica Hill, drive to Uskudar town and embark on the boat for Bosphorus boat cruise sightseeing which is the best way to get feel for Istanbul. From the cruise boat, we are going to see the great Ottoman Mansions, Dolmabahce Palace, Ortakoy Mosque, Ciragan Palace, Galata Tower, Beylşerbeyi Palace, Bosphorus Bridge, Rumeli Fortress and many other places alongside European and Asian part of Bosphorus shores. All the history and significance of all these places will be explained by your experienced local tourist guide. Arrive at Golden Horn pier in Europe continent by boat. Our last stop will be famous Spice Bazaar. We will visit the Spice Bazaar.
18.00 – At the end of the full day Istanbul tour, return transfer back to the hotel.

Brief Info for the Tour Sights:
Walking on the Balat Streets & Golden Horn: Jewish quarter of Old City Istanbul. Walk trough the historical buildings, experience the local life of the old Jewish settlement. Another Istanbul neighborhood deeply associated with Jewish settlement is Kuzguncuk on the Asian shore.
Golden Horn: the ancient Greek colonists chose Halic or Golden Horn to be the site for Byzantium. The natural harbor made it convenient for sea traffic both commercial and martial. It is considered to be world’s largest natural harbor and separates the European shore of Istanbul into two.
Pierre Loti Hill & Cable Car: Pierre Loti is the famous hill with a beautiful panoramic view of Golden Horn and the Historical peninsula. You will also enjoy the way back down from the hill in Cable Car. There is a very nice cafe on the top of the hill. The famous cafe entitled with the name of Pierre Loti, a famous French writer, is reached on getting to this ridge on which the perfect view of Golden Horn can be watched. The real name of Pierre Loti, who lived in Istanbul for long years and was a real Istanbul lover, was Julien Viaud.The historical cafe is an ideal place to watch this mentioned view.
Byzantine City Walls of Constantinople: Built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, when well-manned, they were almost impregnable for any medieval besieger, saving the city, and the Byzantine Empire with it, during sieges from the Avars, Arabs, Rus’, and Bulgars, among others (see Sieges of Constantinople). The advent of gunpowder siege cannons rendered the fortifications vulnerable, but cannon technology was not sufficiently advanced to capture the city on its own, and the walls could be repaired between reloading. Ultimately the city fell from the sheer weight of numbers of the Ottoman forces on 29 May 1453 after a six-week siege.
Bosphorus Bridge: It is connecting the European and Asia sides of Istanbul, 1560 meters. The Bosphorus Bridge was the fourth longest suspension bridge in the world. Unique chance to step from one continent to other in 3 minutes. Every October, the annual Intercontinental Istanbul Eurasia Marathon crosses the bridge on its way from Asia to Europe. During the marathon, the bridge is closed to vehicular traffic. In October, visitors participate in the ‘fun run’ and cross the bridge on foot. Many take picnics to enjoy the view. The bridge was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 1000 lira banknotes of 1978-1986.
Camlica Hill: Camlica Hill has very nice view of the charming Bosphorus and mouth of Golden Horn. There are historical-designed teahouses, and restaurant inside a public park with monumental trees, flower gardens, and fountains. Çamlica hill is 268 meters above the sea level. Çamlica Hill is located within the borders of Üsküdar district, on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, near the first suspension bridge. Camlica, a place with two hills overlooking the Bosphorus and the Marmara Sea, is one of the most favored promenades in Istanbul, and also one of the highest and most charming places in the city.
Bosphorus Cruise Boat Sightseeing: One of the best ways to get a feel for Istanbul takes a cruise on the legendary Bosphorus. The majestic strait that ruins through Istanbul, linking Europe and Asia. From your cruise boat, you can view the dramatic sights lining the Bosphorus’ wooded shores: the Beylerbeyi Palace, the Rumeli Fortress, the Ciragan Palace, The Dolmabahce Palace, the Maiden’s Tower, the 19th-century mansions of the Ottoman elite and much more… As part of the only passage between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean via the Marmara Sea, the Bosphorus has always been of great importance from a commercial and military point of view and remains strategically important today.
Spice Bazaar: Built in 1660, Spice Bazaar is the place to lay in a fresh supply of spices, nuts, honeycomb, Turkish delights, dried figs, caviar and mature hard Turkish cheese, small gifts and more. Located in the Eminönü quarter of the Old City district, it is the most famous covered shopping complex after the Grand Bazaar. There are several documents suggesting the name of the bazaar was first “New Bazaar”. The building was endowed to the foundation of the New Mosque and got its name “Egyptian Bazaar” (Turkish: Mısır Çarşısı) because it was built with the revenues from the Ottoman eyalet of Egypt in 1660.