We were hoping to get to know real Istanbul better and we were not disappointed.We decided to take "off the beaten track" day tour. Elif our guide turned out to be a great fun. She was easy going, friendly, open and knew a lot about local things. She told us a lot about history of Turkey and Istanbul. She took... More

Booked a Jewels of Istanbul tour online with Bitinya in dec 2012. communication was very clear and Erkan was at our hotel very promptly. He is a very personable and very good tour guide. This was a walking tour a little off the beaten path that we enjoyed tremendously. He even bought us some unique Turkish sweets and coffee along... More

My husband and I brought our college age boys and High School daughter to Istanbul in August. Erlandson was our guide. He was fantastic. He met all our needs. He was a great communicator and really fun. We need a day trip in which we covered the historic highlights. And a night tour where he gave us a taste of... More

My family of 5 just returned from a wonderful trip organized by Bitinya tours. We made the airline and Istanbul hotel reservations with the aid of Ersin the owner. The tours, transfers, airline tickets in Turkey as well as local tour guides and drivers were done by Bitinya tours. Our Istanbul tour guide Erkhan was the best tour guide. The... More

My wife and I spent two days with Erkan Karakose on a personal tour visiting key sites and neighborhoods in Istanbul. I found Erkan to be incredibly personable and it was a pleasure to spend the time with him, but I was deeply impressed by his knowledge of the history, politics and architecture of the city. Specifically, I was a... More

A friend and I did the “Off the beaten track & Istanbul tastes” tour that was recommended by a friend and we couldn’t have been happier. We loved the private tour and our guide, Elif, stayed with us ALL day. She picked us up from the hotel and dropped us off. It was casual and easy going, but we felt... More

Using a recommendation provided by a friend we contacted Erkan to book our guided visit to Istanbul. As we visited the many sites of Istanbul with Erkan, he shared his incredible knowledge about the different attractions and the stories about the people who built them. He continuously pointed out unique features and smaller details in each of the attractions that... More

Booked by internet before trip based on reviews with TripAdviser. Erkan met us as we got off our ship and although there were some problems getting the ' tram' to our first destination/starting point, Erkan simply hailed a couple taxis' and we were on our way! Very nice and friendly, made us all feel welcomed to his country! We did... More

I sent an email to Bitinya after another tour company canceled on us (we contacted them, they hadn't bothered to let us know!) Erkan replied right away and over email we chatted and a perfect day was set up for us. Mutlu was our guide - she was so nice and knowledgable. It was like having a friend show us... More