Istanbul, Turkey Port Reviews

We were disappointed that The Best of Istanbul excursion did not take us to see the whole city. Over all the excursions offered by Oceania cruise were not up to our expectations.

Friday is the day the mesquites close. Cruiseline should have warned about this. 7 hours in Istanbul is not enough. Should be a day like in Livorno, with 10+ hours to explore the city.

Again our NCL tour guide was excellent and we got to see and do alot

Wow. Istanbul. Beautiful and amazing

A very nice city just a lot of pushy people at shops and restaurants, especially in the bazaars! Slightly dampened by the weather but worth the visit. Everywhere is walkable if you are able to.

One of my favorite ports! We went to the Grand Bazaar and then walked around town visiting Haga Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

Excursion guide was always way ahead of group.

The city is extremely large, but the old historic section of Istanbul is where all the tourists head. We took a tour, but also explored on our own, as this area is quite walkable. Yes, it is important to see the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and if possible, the Basilica Cistern, Topkapi Palace, and the Grand Bazaar, all of which we tried to do, a bit rough on a one-day visit. The list goes on! We even stopped to have our photos taken at Topkapi with the sultan outfits, so very fun! There is so much to see and do in Istanbul, and it is a fascinating and opulent city to visit.

We did the Classic Istanbul excursion. I think our tour leader was burned out. He kept walking ahead of us and we had to look for him. It was an okay excursion but not great. The best part was the Bazaar where we were on your own. One person had to use the restroom and when she asked him, he said can you wait and then kept walking. Good news is he walked fast and ahead of us that she was able to run to the restroom and the run to catch up.

Rained for the entire 5 hour walking tour. Very short port time. Much I wanted to do but no time.