The needed Bursa tour day ! - The Bursa day tour was a cool refreshing getaway from Istanbul ! I personally appreciated the ferry ride and of course the cable car from the top of Uludağ mountain was an amazing experience ! It's really worth it especially during the winter season. Special thanks to the whole team for their availability and ability to answer to all my questions at any time of the day ! Finally, big thanks to Eric who perfectly handled my reservation ! Until next time :)

Wonderful Bursa Trip with my family - Hi, Mr Eric. My name is Husni. Thank you for the Bursa Trip. My family's happy for the service. Great trip, driver in time. Muhammad, the tour agent is very nice and responsible 👍. Definitely for U Mr Eric👍👍👍👍👍. Make my trip a wonderful day with my family. Keep it up 💪 Eric.

Family visit to Bursa - Our last minute reservation went so smoothly, thanks to Wric! Meeting the guide, Muhammed, was easy and he was helpful. All stops occurred as promised except for the oldest tree which was due to weather. But all was fantastic - took from 8:30a to 10:15p. Thank you!

It’s more about visiting... - It’s more about visiting local venders than actually seeing Bursa. The Tour Guide was excellent and he was just following the schedule and stops given to him. You really only see Bursa in the ride. Don’t get to experience it well at all.

I joined this Bursa day... - I joined this Bursa day tour from Istanbul, and I was very disappointed overall. First, the program was misleading. We were taken early in the morning to a completely unplanned Safari/ATV stop that wasted over an hour. This was not advertised at all in the Viator listing. It was obviously there to push us to buy extra activities. That time should have been used to visit the historical sites we actually paid to see. Second, we didn't even visit the Grand Mosque (Ulu Camii), which is one of the main UNESCO World Heritage sites of Bursa. This was the main reason I joined the tour! Instead, we only stopped briefly at the Green Mosque and Tomb, and even there we arrived during prayer time so we couldn't properly go inside. It felt rushed and incomplete. The guide didn't even bother to point out the Grand Mosque from the bus. The time management was very poor overall. We spent far too much time at unnecessary shopping stops, with no real value, just pushing people to buy things. Meanwhile, they rushed us at the actual historical sites that should have been the highlight of the day. Also, the guide insisted on returning early even though the listing said return would be between 8 and 10 pm. There was no reason we couldn't stay in Bursa longer to see the sites properly. Many people wanted to see sunset on the ferry ride, but the schedule forced us to be stuck on the road at that time instead. On top of all that, the included lunch was extremely low quality. It was basically rice, a few pieces of meat, and a tiny salad. For a ~$70 tour, this was unacceptable. Every other full-day tour I've joined in Turkey at this price point included much better meals, with multiple courses, choice of meat, and even dessert. This was really disappointing in comparison. Overall, the day felt rushed, poorly planned, wasted on shopping, and not worth the money at all. I specifically booked this to see Bursa's main UNESCO heritage sites, but I was not given that experience. I do not recommend this tour.

Extremely disorganized, not clear communication - Took nearly 2 hours to actually leave Istanbul due to major disorganization among the drivers/guide, and minimal English speaking despite what was advertised. I ended up prematurely leaving the tour because I was extremely uncomfortable and suspected that many of the glowing reviews for this tour were bots or otherwise fake.

Aimless driving around - We spent 90+ minutes across two shops that are obviously paying the tour operator to have us there. Bus’ AC died in the middle of the day. We even drove for 20-30 minutes with the bus' doors open for the air flow. We were in a ski town for an hour that looked like the Walking Dead version of one from Switzerland or Colorado, even considering it was July. We only really went to a single Mosque and mausoleum for ~30 minutes in Bursa city proper. The guide was great, the operator was not. I was picked up at 8:45 and dropped off at 23:43.

A glorified shopping tour - This is probably the most terrible experience I had the pleasure of partaking in. This is not a tour, this is a glorified shopping mall disguised as a bus. Go here, go there, visit this shop, buy at that store. None of which are cheap and clearly catered to tourists. Expensive "safari" ATVs, Turkish delight store, a silk store, a cafe at the mountaintop, a jam store, a shopping mall (I wish I was kidding about the last one...) All of this was designed to extract as much money as possible out of the passenger. The tour "guide" Waseem only deserves his name on quotations. What guiding? All he did was step out of the bus, shout "35 minutes free time!!" (Which would turn into an hour inexplicably), then sit down and enjoy a coffee or a smoke. Most guides I've met gather people around and describe the history and interesting tidbits about the locations. Not here. His English was poor, and when you voiced a complaint, suddenly he would switch to Turkish and pretend to have no knowledge of what you speak. We didn't even see the Green Mosque (except from the US). The lunch was simply miserable. Oversalted kebabs, bland undercooked chicken, day old salad (you could see the oxidation). And all the sides cost extra (170 lira, or over 4 dollars a pop!). The portion was very small and we only got to eat at 6 PM. The only things I somewhat enjoyed were the ferry and the mountain air. That's it. And for future suggestions, don't try to design your tours around ripping off your clientele after they already paid for it. Instead derive an interesting experience and you will receive more people. But I suppose the Turkish people are like that, they'll leave a dollar on the table if it means chasing after a rolling penny in the form of kickbacks. Also, stay away from all the public tours to Bursa. They're all the same itinerary. I saw loads of buses coming and going from different travel agencies. If you wish to visit Bursa, hire a private tour. It may be 3x the price but at least you're not pissing away money.

Not enough time in Bursa.... - Not enough time in Bursa. We instead spent more time shopping and then the guide conveniently decided to skip the Bazaar and didn't allow us to spend enough time within the city. Save yourself the time and take the ferry directly from Istanbul and then the bus.

Do NOT recommend- almost no time in Bursa - About 90% of the tour was spent on the bus or at commercial pit stops, where we were strongly encouraged to make purchases (potentially because the tour operators receive a commission to offset the low cost of the tour). We only had around 45 minutes to an hour to actually explore Bursa. Overall, it felt like a wasted day that could have been better spent in Istanbul.