Audio tours in Istanbul
Suggested plan for Istanbul
Doing every Trevurs tour in Istanbul takes about 3 h 30 min in total. A relaxed way to split it:
No fixed schedule: start whenever you want, skip stops, or spread a tour over several days.
Istanbul on a budget
The Trevurs app is free and has 2 audio tours in Istanbul: 41 min of narration across 21 stops and 10.5 km of walking routes. Download them over wifi and listen offline, with no mobile data. Entry tickets to museums, churches or monuments along the way are not included. Premium, from USD 1.99, adds unlimited offline downloads, every tour and no ads.
Istanbul at your own pace
Each tour starts at stop 1 and you go stop by stop at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No booking and no fixed start time, and it works offline once downloaded.
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Hagia Sophia: 1500 Years of Empires
Starts at stop 1, “The Hippodrome Where Emperors Fell” (map) · 22 min of audio · 2.8 km (~40 min on foot) · ~1 h 15 min in total
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Dark Istanbul: The Harem, the Eunuchs and the Strangled Brothers
Starts at stop 1, “The Law of World Order” (map) · 19 min of audio · 7.7 km (~1 h 55 min on foot) · ~2 h 15 min in total
In one day you can do Dark Istanbul: The Harem, the Eunuchs and the Strangled Brothers (~2 h 15 min) and Hagia Sophia: 1500 Years of Empires (~1 h 15 min): about 3 h 30 min of touring with audio and walking. That covers every Trevurs tour in Istanbul.
Why an audio tour
- ✓ No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for
- ✓ Start at any time of day, on your own schedule
- ✓ Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop
- ✓ No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route
- ✓ Works offline once downloaded
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.