Connectsistanbul helps you and your group to connect with the city, by connecting you to Turkish people that share your interests.

get independent advise about hotels, hostels and restaurants
Normal travel agencies have agreements with hotels and restaurants that pay them commission for bookings made. Connectistanbul has a different business model: clients pay an hourly fee or fixed amount for the work we do. Connectistanbul does not take commission from anyone. We can help your group to negotiate with hotels and restaurants about the price. This way the prices are transparent and your lines of communication direct. You can arrange flight tickets and/or final hotel bookings via a travel agency of your choice in your own country.

keep communications with organizations in Istanbul going
Because people and organizations in Turkey value face to face communication not all organizations are focused on their website or email. This can be challenging for ongoing communication from a distance with Turkish partners. It can be of great help to have a person in Istanbul, for the duration of your project, that can follow up when needed and ease feelings on both sides when communication fails. Connectistanbul likes you to reconnect when things get lost in translation.

make a timetable for your program
Istanbul is a city with tidal waves of traffic and ever changing roads. Unless you travel by metro or tram there is no relationship between distance and travel-time. Asking connectistanbul for advice, helps you to make a realistic planning. In the tourist zone of Sultanahmet on the historical peninsula the traffic problem is not so obvious. But when you are -for instance- a business group with appointments all over the city, traffic planning becomes a must. Traffic jams occur throughout the day on various locations, not only in the morning and evening. Many roadblocks can be avoided by using short-cuts that are not on any maps. Locals (not of the city, but those who inhabit the neighborhood you are traveling in) know these ever-changing shortcuts. Connectistanbul helps you to access that living knowledge.

find guides who communicate in an interactive way
Typically tourist guides in Turkey load information onto the groups under their care. Some groups however wish for a guide who is more in the background, like walking with a friend. Such a tour can be more like a questions and answer session where information exchange happens in an interactive way.

find a Turkish expert or guide on your topic
If you need a Turkish speaker, connectistanbul has good relations with Turkish University professors and businessmen that are fluent in English. If your group wants to travel trough Istanbul with a specific focus you’ll need a guide who both knows about that topic AND knows the city. Official guides know a lot about the city and its mayor sites, but they can not be expected to answer questions about specific interests like for instance ‘sidewalks in Istanbul’. Connectistanbul likes to be challenged to arrange such tours. We can help you to find out about aspects of Istanbul that other tours do not cover.

create experiences
Connectistanbul is providing groups with experiences. The artistic background of the people that work under Connectistanbul helps them to deal with new content and also to create new forms in which this content can be presented to groups.