Hello, I’m Serhat Engul, a licensed tour guide who has been working in Istanbul for nearly 20 years. For the last 10 years, I’ve been introducing travelers to the city’s history and culture as a native Istanbulite through my articles on the Istanbul Clues website.
I started Istanbul Clues initially as a way to answer the many questions my tour guests asked me about Istanbul. Over time, this small project evolved into one of the city’s most comprehensive English-language travel blogs, attracting readers from all over the world.
Since I began full-time guiding in 2015, I have received nearly 65 reviews on TripAdvisor, all written by travelers who joined my private walking tours. My work and Istanbul Clues have also been frequently mentioned on Rick Steves’ Turkey forums, both as a trusted guide and as a reliable source of information about Istanbul.
My Private Walking Tours in Istanbul
My private walking tours focus on Istanbul’s most fascinating districts, including:
- Sultanahmet (Old City)
- Fener & Balat
- Beyoglu
- Kadikoy (Asian Side)
In addition to neighborhood explorations, I also offer thematic tours such as my signature Byzantine History Tour, which delves into a specific period of the city’s past.
My goal in every tour is to go beyond the typical tourist experience, introducing guests to Istanbul’s hidden gems and local culture while making its complex history come alive through stories and legends.
About the Istanbul Clues Website
On Istanbul Clues, I write in-depth articles about both Byzantine and Ottoman Istanbul, along with tips on museums, monuments, neighborhoods and cultural life.
These history-focused posts have sparked interactions worldwide. Many are discussed on forums like Reddit, and occasionally they attract the attention of academics from universities in the US and other countries, who reach out to me with questions about the status of the historical places in Istanbul.
Serhat Engul Reviews on TripAdvisor
My guests, who have been on a walking tour with me, wrote long reviews on my page on Trip Advisor. What I care about most during my tours is to make Istanbul’s exciting history come alive in the eyes of my customers. You can see from the comments how the stories and legends I have told inspire travelers.
Istanbul Fables (on Istanbul Stories)
Recently, I have been working to develop my storytelling approach to Istanbul through a series of fable-style stories.
These stories, published on IstanbulStories.com, feature three recurring characters:
- Alek, a seagull
- Misi, a cat
- Rubi, a mouse
Through their eyes, I narrate Istanbul’s history, culture and daily life in a way that’s imaginative, accessible and engaging for readers around the world.
About the Author – Serhat Engul
Serhat Engul is a licensed professional tour guide in Istanbul with over 20 years of experience. He has guided hundreds of travelers through the city’s major monuments and is the founder of Istanbul Clues, one of the most trusted travel blogs about Istanbul.
He has also been featured as a guest author on Culture Trip, a global travel publication.
If you’d like to book a private guided tour, check the details on the Homepage of this blog.
Conclusion
You can find information about the city’s history and culture in nearly 200 articles on Istanbul Clues. Additionally, there are articles where I’ve embedded maps I’ve created. For example, you can access the Istanbul Tourist Maps article, this site’s most read article, here.
As a licensed local tour guide, I also visit Istanbul’s major landmarks such as Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, Basilica Cistern, Blue Mosque and Dolmabahce Palace frequently with my guests. Thanks to this, the articles about these museums and mosques remain constantly updated and reliable. You can also browse the Museum category where nearly 40 museums in Istanbul are introduced in detail.
You can also find out which restaurants locals eat at and which dessert places they buy from in Istanbul on the food-related pages in here. You might also find this article about how to organize a self-guided street food tour in Istanbul helpful.
Furthermore, the categories labeled History here and Old City here will be quite interesting for history enthusiasts, one of this site’s primary target audiences. I consider history enthusiasts kindred spirits and frequently encounter them on my tours.
If you’d like to explore Istanbul through the eyes of a local history-loving guide, I hope our paths cross in Istanbul one day.
All the best,
Serhat Engul
