Istanbul Fener-Balat Colourful Neighbourhood Tour

While millions of visitors crowd around the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, the neighbouring district of Fener-Balat quietly gets on with being one of Istanbul's most fascinating and photogenic areas. These two connected neighbourhoods along the Golden Horn have been home to Greek, Jewish, and Armenian communities for centuries, and that multicultural history shows in every street. Your guide leads you past rows of brightly painted Ottoman wooden houses, into the stunning Church of St. George (seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch), through a 1,500-year-old iron church, and along cobbled lanes where old men play backgammon outside tea houses. Stop at a local bakery for freshly baked simit, peek into antique shops full of genuine treasures, and photograph the famous rainbow stairs. This is the Istanbul that Instagram made famous, but your guide takes you beyond the photo spots to the real stories of a neighbourhood in transition.