The Other Tour is a boutique, TÜRSAB-licensed travel agency (Before Travel, 7651) based in Istanbul, guiding curious travelers across Turkey since 2011. Over the years, we have built a small, hand-picked team of professional tour guides in Istanbul, Cappadocia, Ephesus, and the Mediterranean. We are always quietly looking for more of the right people.

The word right is the important one. Please keep reading.

We Only Work With Great Guides — and With Great Ethics

Turkey has thousands of licensed tour guides. Many of them are excellent. Some of them are not. And a smaller number are licensed in name but unfortunately operate in ways we do not respect — pushing guests into carpet shops for hidden commissions, rushing through monuments to hit the next stop, reciting memorized speeches without listening to the people in front of them, or treating tourists as transactions rather than as guests in their country.

We do not work with those guides. We will not work with those guides. And we have turned down highly experienced applicants — including some with very impressive CVs — for exactly these reasons.

If you guide for the commission, this is not the agency for you. If you guide for the person standing in front of you, please keep reading.

Our Non-Negotiables

Before you apply, please make sure you can honestly agree with all of the following. These are the values we have built our reputation on, and we protect them carefully.

Guests come before scripts. A tour with us is a conversation, not a monologue. If a guest is tired, we slow down. If they are curious, we go deeper. If they want to skip a monument and sit in a tea garden in Balat for an hour, that is a perfectly good tour.

Punctuality, presentation, and follow-through. You show up on time, dressed appropriately, prepared for the day, with a working phone, and with the day’s logistics clear in your head. If something goes wrong, you communicate with us and with the guest immediately. We solve problems together.

Honesty over performance. If you don’t know the answer to a question, you say so, and you find out by the next day. Guests can tell when a guide is bluffing. We would rather have a guide who says “I’m not sure — let me check” than a guide who invents history on the spot.

Respect for the country, the city, and the people in it. That includes respect for shopkeepers, drivers, ferry crews, museum staff, street cats, the call to prayer, neighborhood quietness, and travelers of every nationality, religion, and background. We do not tolerate prejudice from our guides — and we do not tolerate it being aimed at our guides either.

Confidentiality and trust. Our guests share their stories, their dietary needs, their family situations, sometimes their grief, sometimes their joys. What is said on a tour with The Other Tour stays with the guide. Always.

What We Look For in a Guide

Beyond the license and the ethics, we look for the human qualities that make a tour unforgettable:

A genuine love for Istanbul and/or your home region — the kind that shows in small details, not in volume. A storytelling instinct that turns dates and names into real human moments. A calm, patient temperament with groups, families, children, elderly guests, and travelers with accessibility needs (we run a number of wheelchair-assisted tours). Real fluency in at least one foreign language — and the humility to keep improving it. Curiosity that didn’t end the day you got your license. A sense of humor. Kindness.

If you read those lines and recognized yourself, we would like to meet you.

What We Expect From Our Guests — We Expect From You First

Years ago we wrote a piece called “What Do We Expect From You?” addressed to our guests. It set out the kind of traveler we want walking through Istanbul with us.

Here is the truth we eventually realized:

Every single thing we ask of our guests, we have to ask of our guides — first, and to a much higher standard.

You cannot lead a brainstorming session you wouldn’t be welcome at. You cannot ask a guest to challenge their assumptions if you are unwilling to challenge yours. You cannot host an open conversation while quietly judging the people in it.

So before you apply, mirror every expectation we have for our guests onto yourself and check the fit honestly.

We want guests who are open-minded. → You must be more open-minded than any guest who will ever walk with you.

We want guests who are smart, well-educated, and free-thinking. → You must read, study, and stay intellectually awake long after your license exam is behind you. The license is the starting line, not the finish.

We want guests who think outside the box and consider different perspectives. → You must be able to hold multiple perspectives on Turkish history, religion, politics, and society in your head at the same time — and present them fairly, without flattening complexity into propaganda.

We want guests who question and challenge us. → You must welcome being questioned and challenged on tour, including by guests who know more than you on a specific topic. You answer with honesty, not defensiveness.

We want guests who are open to discussing the world’s problems and eager to find solutions. → You must be able to talk about hard things — migration, faith, identity, regional conflict, climate, gender, freedom of expression — with intelligence and grace, without preaching and without performing outrage.

We want to challenge assumptions in an atmosphere where everybody is comfortable. → That atmosphere is your job to create and protect, every minute of every tour.

We want guests who come with energy and an open heart. → You must bring more energy and more openness than anyone else on the bus, the ferry, or the walk — on hour one and on hour twelve.

We say a good tour ends with everyone finding common ground. → That outcome is never luck. It is the quiet, skillful work of a guide who knows how to make a conservative Christian family from Texas, a young LGBTQ+ couple from Berlin, a Jewish grandmother from Buenos Aires, a Muslim tech worker from Jakarta, and a quiet Japanese photographer all feel equally welcomed on the same tour, on the same day. This happens regularly with us. Our guides handle it beautifully. If you cannot — please do not apply.

If you read that list and felt energized rather than uncomfortable, you are probably one of us.

What We Offer in Return

We are a small agency, and we do not pretend to be the biggest. But the guides who work with us tell us they stay because of the following:

Fair pay, paid on time. We agree on rates clearly before a tour and we pay promptly. No “we’ll settle next month.” No vague promises.

Respect for your time and your craft. Your name and face go on our website — proudly, with a real profile. We do not hide our guides in the background the way most agencies do. You are the reason guests leave five-star reviews, and we make sure they know your name.

Good guests. Because our marketing speaks honestly about what we are, the people who book with us tend to be the curious, the kind, and the open-minded. You will rarely deal with a difficult group.

A team, not a roster. You will meet, learn from, and guide alongside guides like Ömer Çelik, Burak Plakay, Tolga Bensan, Defne Erdoğan, and many others. Good guides bring good guides — that is how this team has grown.

Growth. If you want to write articles for our blog, specialize in culinary tours, develop a niche around Jewish Istanbul, Byzantine churches, bird-watching, chess tours, bookshops, or anything else you genuinely love — we will help you build that.

How the Application Process Works

We try to be honest about the process so nobody’s time is wasted.

First, you fill in the form below — completely. The more we know about you, the better. We particularly value the personal questions (favorite food, favorite book, fun fact) because they tell us who you actually are, not just what’s on your CV.

Second, if we feel there is a fit, Fethi Karatas or Özge Özenç will reach out to set up a conversation — usually a coffee in our Karaköy office in Selanik İş Hanı, or a video call if you are based elsewhere in Turkey.

Third, if the conversation goes well, you will be invited to shadow a tour with one of our senior guides. This is a two-way evaluation: we want to see you in action, and you want to see how we actually work in the field. There is no pressure on either side.

Fourth, if the shadow tour confirms the fit, we begin assigning you tours — starting small, then growing with you.

We do not promise anyone instant work. We do promise an honest process.

A Note for Guides Outside Istanbul

We work across Turkey and actively look for excellent guides in Cappadocia, Ephesus, Pamukkale, Antalya, Bodrum, Fethiye, the Mediterranean coast, the Aegean, and beyond. If your license is regional, please tell us exactly where you are licensed to operate. We will respect those boundaries — it is the law, and it is also the right thing to do.

A Final Word

We say no to most applicants. That is not arrogance. It is the only reason our small team works the way it does.

If you are a licensed Turkish guide who takes the job seriously, treats guests like guests, refuses commissions on principle, and genuinely loves the country you are showing — please fill in the form. We read every single application personally.

Welcome to the conversation.