This award winning food tour is our most popular tour in Istanbul and is a full day of eating, drinking and walking across two markets two continents, visiting a dozen or more small eateries and meeting many of the faces in the kitchens.
Posted By : Trinette T
Brilliant day! A great mix of traditional food and places to see and experience. We had a great time with Esin, giving us a wonderful insight into the culinary delights of Istanbul.
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Posted On : 2024-06-29 08:29:44 
Posted By : RebeccaH4813
This was a fantastic tour! Our fearless leader, Benoit, was a true gem! His passion for Istanbul, food, culture and history was on display during this several hour tour. Benoit seamlessly guided our group through multiple neighborhoods explaining the history of each neighborhood. We indulged ourselves at countless eateries, tea shops and markets. Benoit was patient, warm and engaging. He answered everyone's questions and he was warmly welcomed by people on the street (including a previous tour participant was has a popular internet food channel) as well as shopkeepers. As a tourist, I would have not found the majority of these unique places, so experiencing them with Benoit and our group was truly special. Pointing out special produce and items in each market was fantastic! And, don't worry, as a participant in this tour, you will be stuffed by the end of it. I paced myself throughout the tour and still could barely eat anything at the last few stops. Istanbul is a fascinating city with many cultural influences and there is no better way to better understand it than through a food tour. I have participated in other Culinary Backstreets tours in other countries and they never disappoint!
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Posted On : 2024-06-23 12:06:26
Posted By : 826jessib
WARNING: Do not take this tour if you are a Dainty Nibbler! With several breakfasts, snacks, and hearty bites, you will not go hungry and as much as your stomach begs you to stop eating, you will and should not.
This tour was an absolute blast. Our guide, Gonça, a master storyteller, gave us so much wonderful historical context linking food, culture, language, and geography. The only disappointment of the tour was that we didn't do it on our first day in Istanbul due to it booking up weeks in advance - having the context would have improved our overall stay immensely.
The day was gorgeous, the ferry ride was smooth, and the stops on both sides of the city ranged from typical breakfast foods to sweet and savory treats to a leisurely seafood lunch that even I enjoyed as a less-than-enthusiastic fish eater. I cannot recommend this tour enough.
Pro Tip: If you've taken a Culinary Backstreets tour before, ask your guide if they know each other...you may get a fun anecdote out of the deal!
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Posted On : 2024-06-19 13:08:53
Posted By : LizBla
This is my fourth Culinary Backstreets tour in Istanbul and they are some of the best tours I've ever taken. I've now experienced four different guides and the company standard for knowledge, enthusiasm, flexibility, personality and humor with their staff are clearly very high. I recommend these tours to anyone and intend to work my way through each of their offerings-- there's no better way to learn a neighborhood than with CB.
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Posted On : 2024-06-18 07:16:33
Posted By : 276suzyv
Fantastic! The vast way to learn about a city’s culture is through the eyes of a local and your stomach. We learned and tasted so much with Gonca as our guide.
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Posted On : 2024-06-17 09:17:16
Posted By : Roving06507718006
Everything about this tour was wonderful! We learned so much from Gonça and ate so many incredible dishes. Could not recommend it more.
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Posted On : 2024-06-16 04:31:21
Posted By : 992wynnd
OUR HOST KADIR WAS AMAZING. Literally one of the highlights of our trip to Turkey.
Not only did Kadir show us 10+ different food dishes and locations on our tour, but he was a great host and friend for the rest of the time we were in Turkey. Even after the tour he stayed in contact with us through WhatsApp and helped us find dishes we were searching for in Turkey weeks later. He was immensely helpful, funny, informative and kind.
The pacing of the tour was spot on. A lot of food, amazing value for the money too. Just can't speak highly enough about this.
If my entire 17 day trip was a repeat of this day-long tour... I would be ecstatic.
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Posted On : 2024-06-13 23:22:56
Posted By : Climber42278678605
Incredible food tour! Our guide Benoit was awesome, weaving in history of Turkey/istanbul with food history. We definitely went on the “backstreets” and visited places for food and historical sites that I am sure we never would have found on our own. I learned so many interesting things and every single bite was delicious. Loved the variety and quality of the food we ate! Thank you for a great tour!
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Posted On : 2024-05-31 09:01:13
Posted By : anneian2018
We absolutely loved our Backstreets tour. Kadir our guide was brilliant and offered us some local knowledge beyond our expectations. The tour was extensive with great opportunities to taste the true Turkish foods. We highly recommend it!!
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Posted On : 2024-05-24 14:55:56
Posted By : Angel A
My husband and I make a point to do food tours in every new country that we visit. This tour was by far the most expansive and knowledge rich food tour we have ever done. Our guide Kadir was absolutely incredible, and we left the tour with a level of knowledge about the city and its people that I don’t think you’ll get on any other tour in the city. If you do one tour in Istanbul. Book. This. Tour.
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Posted On : 2024-05-22 23:14:58
