Day 1 – Arrival in Istanbul & Dinner Bosphorus Cruise Dinner Included
Welcome to Turkey! Arrive into Istanbul. Transfer from airport & check in to your hotel.
In the evening between 19:30 – 20:00 you will be picked up from your hotel and transferred to the boat for a Dinner Cruise on the Bosphorus, with a drop-off back to the hotel at the end of the tour. During the tour you will be able to see historical places like Dolmabahce Palace, Ortakoy Mosque, Maiden’s Tower, Rumeli Fortress, Bosphorus Bridge, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, Beylerbeyi Palace, etc.
After the dinner you can dance the night away to entertaining music provided by a professional DJ and traditional show programs or simply relax with a drink and enjoy the view. We combine a delicious meal with unparalleled views of Istanbul and live entertainment to create Istanbul’s leading Bosphorus Dinner Cruise. End of the entertainment at about midnight 12:00 PM, transfer to your hotel. Overnight in Istanbul.
Day 2 – Istanbul Old City Tour Breakfast Included
Morning: having breakfast in the hotel. Pick-up time for the tour is at 09:00 to enjoy a full day tour in Istanbul. First stop will be Hagia Sophia: the 4th biggest church in the world. Construction dates to the 4th century and it was chosen as the 2nd best engineering structure of human history by the BBC.
Then we will visit the Blue Mosque: the best interior-designed mosque in Ottoman architecture with its 20,000 pieces of Iznik tiles. It is unique with its 6 minarets. Moving on with the Hippodrome: the center of Byzantine entertainment where 30,000 civilians were killed by order of the queen with arrow rain inside it during the Nika Revolt.
Lunch break at 13:00. After lunch we will discover the Grand Covered Bazaar: one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with more than 58 covered streets and over 4,000 shops attracting between 250,000 and half a million visitors daily. It is well known for its jewelry, pottery, spice, and carpet shops. We will visit a handmade Turkish carpets demonstration. Time to return back to the hotel.
ADDITIONAL TOUR (45 EURO PER PERSON): Topkapi Palace – The great palace of the Ottoman sultans from the 15th to the 19th centuries housing an exquisite collection of crystal, silver, and Chinese porcelain, robes worn by the sultans and their families, the famous jewels of the Imperial Treasury, miniatures, and the Holy Mantle enshrining relics of the Prophet Mohammed.
Day 3 – Istanbul Relics Tour Breakfast Included
Morning: having breakfast in the hotel. Pick-up time for the tour is at 09:00 to enjoy a full day tour in Istanbul. First stop will be The Chora Church, originally built in the early 4th century as part of a monastery complex outside the city walls of Constantinople erected by Constantine the Great, to the south of the Golden Horn. However, when Theodosius II built his formidable land walls in 413–414, the church became incorporated within the city’s defences, but retained the name Chora.
Then we will head to the Church of St. Mary of Blachernae. In 450, Empress Aelia Pulcheria began to construct a church near an ayazma or holy water spring situated outside the walls of Theodosius II at the foot of the sixth hill of Constantinople. After her death in 453, the shrine was completed by her husband, Emperor Marcian. Next stop will be the Palace of Blachernae, constructed on the northern slopes of the Sixth Hill of the city in circa 500. The hill itself was partially remodelled, particularly in later times, and a number of terraces created to support the various buildings comprising the palace complex. Although the main imperial residence during the 4th–11th centuries was the Great Palace at the eastern end of the city...
Our last stop is The Bulgarian St. Stephen Church. Orthodox Christians of the Ottoman Empire used to pray at the churches of the Phanar Orthodox Patriarchate, as they were part of the Rum Millet—that is, the Orthodox Christian community of the Ottoman Empire—but the Bulgarian nationalist movement of the 19th century advocated the creation of a separate Bulgarian ecclesiastical organization for Bulgarian Orthodox Christians, as they considered the Phanar Patriarchate a predominantly Greek Orthodox institution. These efforts culminated in the recognition of the Bulgarian Exarchate through a firman issued by the Ottoman sultan Abdulaziz in 1870. Time to return back to the hotel.
Day 4 – Departure from Istanbul Breakfast Included
One of Grandoria’s adventures concludes after breakfast. We hope you have enjoyed your journey through Turkey. Wishing you all the best and a pleasant flight. Transfer from the hotel to the airport will follow.