Istanbul Guided Tours

Istanbul Guided Tours By Serhat Engul

Hello, my name is Serhat. I am a history-enthusiast, born and raised in Istanbul. As a person who enjoys history and past experiences, I consider myself very lucky for having been born in this city whose history dates back to ancient ages.

As luck would have it, as a person who is in love with history, I got to have a job in which I can pass my knowledge of history to others. I am really happy to be able to share my knowledge of history with others instead of having to keep them only to myself. I want to briefly tell my story.

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• Tour Guiding Education

My adventure of finding my dream job started in 1999. I was a young man who had just graduated from high school and I was supposed to decide what department to choose at the university.

Honestly, education system in Turkey is not perfect at all. It is not you but your luck that determines the department you will study at during your university education in Turkey.

One enters a country-wide general exam and chooses a department according to his points. To be honest, tour guiding was not my first choice. I wanted to study history and but I eventually found myself in the tour guiding department.

I received a good history and English language education. At that point, I understood that this is exactly for me. If I had become a history teacher, I would probably be doing an ordinary job at a school.

However, tour guiding provided me a good grasp of English language and a wide vision. I have been using these tools to visit foreign lands, inform the foreign visitors of my city and of course earn my living.

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• Tour Guides in Turkey

There are two ways to do guiding in Turkey. The first one is to organize a tour for foreign visitors in Istanbul, which we call incoming. The second one is to organize a tour abroad, in the cities of my expertise for domestic tourists through tourism agencies.

Thanks to the tour destinations of the agencies I was working with, I have been specialized in countries like India, Cuba, Italy, Spain and Indonesia (Bali).

I have been to tropical countries like Cuba and India many times with Turkish groups and enjoyed it enormously. As a result, I discovered and met different lands and cultures. I believe this is the best way to earn money.

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• Expertise on Istanbul

During the recent years, I have been trying hard to specialize in Istanbul, the city I was born in. It is not easy to know everything about Istanbul. Because this is the city with an official history of 2650 years. We are talking about a city that served as the capital to three empires; Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman.

In today’s Istanbul, one can find traces of these three empires and even the Ancient Greek City-State, which marks the first formation of the city. It requires a deep knowledge of history.

People sometimes ask me while I am guiding: “Aren’t your bored of showing people the same historical artifacts?”. Actually I am not. Because the areas of the city where historical structures are located make me feel at home.

I am doing this job out of love and I believe I am reflecting my passion to other people. Therefore, people whom I have guided comment in Trip Advisor website and write that I am making the city come to life on their eyes. This makes me happy.

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It seems that my interest in learning and discovering will go on during the course of my life and I accept this as a blessing. To really see things for what they really are, analyze what is seen and visualizing the history is an invaluable ability. I see the same excitement in some of the explorers who visit Istanbul and it gives me great pleasure to pass my knowledge of history to them.

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Istanbul Clues Website

Istanbul Clues Blog has been a good space to share my love of and curiosity in history. It is still in its infancy. I believe with all my heart that this website will become a strong tool to pass my knowledge to people and encourage them to join one of my Istanbul guided tours.

I end this post by wishing to meet you in Istanbul one day.

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Best Guided Walking Tours in Istanbul By Serhat Engul

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