Faruk

Hostanblue

Responds quickly
  • I live in Istanbul
  • I speak English, Türkçe
  • Verified Local host
  • Response time less than 4 hours

Hi there! Nice to meet you

Faruk

My aim is to meet people all around the world while introducing the different perspectives of Turkish culture and also my city, İstanbul. I'm looking forward to host you all...

  • I live in Istanbul
  • I speak English, Türkçe
  • Verified Local host
  • Response time less than 4 hours

Book one of my offers in Istanbul

Let's explore Istanbul together! As your local guide, I'll show you the best of Istanbul on a private & personalized tour for you.

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All Withlocals tours are completely customisable to your needs. Just let me know your preferences for a private and personalized experience!

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Reviews

Caroline
17 July 2025
We booked this tour expecting an authentic local food experience, as advertised by Withlocals. Unfortunately, it fell far short of our expectations. Before the tour, we clearly communicated that we were food enthusiasts looking for hidden gems and genuine Istanbul flavours—the kind you can’t find without a knowledgeable local guide. Instead, the majority of the tour was spent walking through a modern shopping mall, and the food selections were uninspired and ordinary. For the price we paid, both the quality and quantity of food were unacceptable. What made it worse was our guide admitting that he doesn’t cook and simply relied on TripAdvisor or recommendations from other guides to choose stops. If we wanted a generic tourist experience, we could have done that ourselves—without paying a premium for a foodie guide. Given how strongly Withlocals markets these tours as curated by passionate locals, this was a major letdown. We cannot recommend this company for food tours in Istanbul. Not a food tour, just a mall walk
Anakaren
17 July 2025
Farouk was a delightful tour guide. All the food stops we made were delicious. He has a calm personality which eased our experience. By the time we reached our final stop, we were so full and had to take our meal to go but it was delicious even as a midnight snack! Highly recommended if you’re looking to try spots and food the locals are eating ! 10/10 recommend
María
23 June 2025
We really enjoyed our walking tour with Farouk. We visited parts of the city that we would have not visited by ourselves but really enjoyed seeing a more authentic part of Istanbul life at night with lots of explanations. He is very nice and his English was perfect. We would really recommend Farouk as your guide: friendly, helpful and very knowledgeable! Very enjoyable walking tour with Farouk!
Mark
22 June 2025
We booked the 10 tastings of Istanbul as our first activity in the city. We were keen to try lots of the local cuisine and learn about the city and country. Faruk was a a great choice as our guide. He showed us round the Beyoğlu area taking us to four different cafes to eat a variety of food which was all delicious with plenty of sight seeing in between. We discussed food, culture, history and general life in Istanbul and really enjoyed his hospitality and company. A great way to start our trip and he gave us plenty of information on other things to do during our visit. After being royally fed we spent the afternoon using the ferries to see the city and let our food go down 😀First day in Istanbul
Duprette
12 June 2025
Faruk was engaging and easygoing and took his time explaining things to us. We never felt rushed and enjoyed learning about tradition and his wonderful story about his marriage proposal. We had an amazing time with him and my parents booked an extra tour with him.Tasting Sensation
Reshma
9 June 2025
We had a great time sampling delicious food with Faruk. He modified the agenda based on our feedback and preferences. He was easy to communicate with and was very responsive to requests and texts. Highly recommend! Fun evening in Istanbul
Lindsay
2 June 2025
My friends and I had an amazing, customized food tour of Beyoglu with Faruk. I wasn't sure how it could all be fit into the allocated time, but he made it happen. We hadn't been to Beyoglu before and the tour gave us a really good introduction to the area. Faruk is really pleasant and we really enjoyed the time with him. Highly recommended!Wonderful experience
Susan
1 June 2025
Faruk made our tour start very easy by coming to the hotel to pick us up. The tour was really interesting and Faruk took us to places only someone who is a local could know. He paced the tour well for us. The food was delicious and authentic. We found it hard to eat everything there was a lot of food. Faruk has excellent communication skills and was very responsive to our messages prior to the tour and provided lots of relevant clear information during the tour. We highly recommend this tour and him as a guide.Great tour with Faruk.
Jeroen
26 April 2025
Dit uit is de moeite waard. Je wordt langs verschillende eettentjes geleid, waar een gerecht wordt aangeboden. Vaak zijn het gezellige restaurantjes, waar je zelf niet zo snel komt en ook vaak voornamelijk lokalen komen. Dit maakt het extra leuk. De gerechten waren verrassend lekker. Faruk is een uiterst vriendelijke man die goed Engels spreekt, hij is namelijk ook docent Engels. Hij vertelt over de gerechten en over zaken in de stad waar je langs loopt, de cultuur en gebruiken van de lokalen.Super leuk om te doen en erg lekker
Leslie
12 April 2025
We had a great time with Faruk, who was kind, sincere, knowledgeable and entertaining. Did his best to accommodate a gluten free diet and brought us to places we would have other wise never visited. Great guy, great food, great experience. Happy to recommend

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