Travel advice on Turkey?

[Dan]

Hi folks, does anyone out there have any experience traveling / living in Turkey? My wife and I are heading out there for 2 weeks around the end of May. We would like to see Istanbul, Cappadocia, and do a short walk on the Lycian Way near Antalya (maybe 5 or 6 days). Is two weeks long enough for all three spots, or do we need to trim something? If we trimmed our time spent in Cappadocia to only two days or so, is that too short? 

 

Thanks for any advice!

[bigwavedave]

Never been there, but you should go here...

https://youtu.be/P1g36YXcGfQ

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

I can't be of any help, but I'm just glad that they redenominated their currency.  The last time I was there, One Million Lira could barely buy a pack of gum.

[Apex Insider]

I did a 3 day stopover in Istanbul on my way home from Sochi. It was one of my favourite cities, ever.

 

May is a perfect time. The weather is great and the tourists thin. I had a friend go in July and he hated it. He didn't like the crowds and the many vendors hawking crap to said tourists.

 

Istanbul is big but the old city is very compact. We stayed on the European side near the Blue Mosque and walked mostly. I think in 4-5 days you can see pretty much everything in Istanbul. I'm told Cappadocia is a must-see. I wish we had time.

 

The food in Istanbul was outstanding. They take their sweets ultra seriously. I would weigh 300 lbs if I lived there. I had the best coffee of my life there as well. Even the kebab that is sold aggressively to tourists is delicious. I can give you restaurant and hotel recommendations if you like. My buddy complained he could not get an alcoholic drink but we had absolutely no problem. 

 

Other Istanbul highlights: Basilica cistern, hamans (Turkish baths), Istanbul Archaeology Museums, smoking shish, eating lokum and drinking tea in the many hookah bars.

 

Watch your wallet in the bazaars. I'm not talking about pickpockets, I'm speaking of the merchants who are the sweetest talking, slickest salesmen ever. They'll have you buying crappy rugs and knock-off Nikes before you know it. Visit the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market for sure but don't actually buy anything except in the smaller bazaars like Arasta.

 

Have fun. I'm jealous.

[Monk]

My parents went last yr had a great time lots to do and dare food was great traffic is crazy there as well theift is big there to do watch your personal belongin

[Dan]

Hey Apex Insider, thanks very much for the detail! It's helpful to know that 4-5 days might be enough for Istanbul; that makes me think that we might actually be able to make it to all three sites that we're interested in. 

 

I would definitely be interested in your hotel recommendations if you have a chance. We'd like to keep it under $75/night; less than that would be even better. 

[BlueB]

Hi Dan, I'm sure you'll have good time. 

 

I'm talking here from distant memories, 25 years ago when I sailed around Turkey, Black, Marmara and Aegean seas. However, I visited villages out of the beaten track and got to interact with common people. Maybe the thing have changed, so take it with a grain of salt... 

You mentioned going for "a short walk". Does it mean like hike, going to the country side, etc? Then you'll meet real Turkish people. They are extremely hospitable and generous at first. Mind you, the cultural differences are HUGE. For instance, for Turks, it is impolite to offer you something from a box or dish - they have to give it from their hand: pick a cigarette, or nicest piece of Turkish delight and give it to you. It is impolite to refuse. Now, if they really like you and want to make you special, they'll try to put it straight into your mouth! Eating watermelon and feta cheese together is quite normal. Kissing on both cheeks is often used as greeting/good buy. Older/higher standing members of the community sometimes think it is ok to touch/or propose other stuff to European looking female, as she is considered uninhibited. The things can go very wrong if you are not careful and smart. We almost unintentionally caused war of 2 local clans, by simply socializing with both. 

 

Istanbul is a mad house, but very interesting, especially for a North American I guess. I'm sure you'll visit the Blue Mosque, but don't fail to see the Hagia Sophia - the original (also try to find and read a short story by Milorad Pavic "The Blue Mosque"). Take a ferry to Asian side, have some tea (super strong and sweet) during the ride. At the sweets parlors eat borek, try Turkish version of yogurt (diluted and salted), eat tulumba, baklava, hurma, drink boza, raki...  

 

Short lanquage crash course, phonetically from memory: 

taze - fresh 

meze - food 

su - water 

pida - pita bread 

shish-kebab - BBQ 

bira - beer 

booyroom - please, help yourself, thank you 

pendzer - window 

kapi - door, gate 

budzak - corner (of a room) 

droom - road 

sokak - alley, small street 

raki - like Greek ouzo (anise brandy) 

 

Do not speak Greek words by mistake, or discuss any Greek issues. 

 

Good luck! 

[lowrider]

The slightly paranoid me says have you checked the US Gov't travel advisory for turkey there are definitely some no go zones.

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

The slightly paranoid me says have you checked the US Gov't travel advisory for turkey there are definitely some no go zones.

Agreed.  I dont' want to hear about you on CNN ? Ok? 

 

What are you doing with doggy? 

[Dan]

Hi BlueB, thanks for the information. Lowrider, great point! I hadn't even thought of that, and given the countries that border Turkey on the east (Iran, Iraq, Syria), I really should have. I took a look and (somewhat amazingly), the US government currently does not have any travel advisories for Turkey. We'll only be in the west and central areas, so should be fine, relatively far away from the potential hot spots / more conservative Islamic areas. 

 

Bryan, did I just hear you offer to dogsit?   I'll ping you offline; I will definitely need to find a sitter or probably more than one, because Erin and I will both be out of town before our Turkey trip: it works out to a pretty long time that Chance needs sitting. 

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

 

Bryan, did I just hear you offer to dogsit?   I'll ping you offline; I will definitely need to find a sitter or probably more than one, because Erin and I will both be out of town before our Turkey trip: it works out to a pretty long time that Chance needs sitting. 

Yes, happy to take Chance for several weeks.  Email/ Call me anytime.   I haven't had Leo for several months so I miss having a dog around.  

[snowmatic]

Behind China Turkey has the most growing economy of the World.

Turkey is very nice to visit. But Istambul is very Western now. If you want to come closer to Turkish culture go deep into the country, or to less known villages beside mediterian see. Don't miss to visit some antique locations and buildings. You can find them everywhere.

Enjoy strong tee, coffee, seefood, sweet Turkish food and so on.

Turkey has skiareas too! http://www.skiingturkey.com/

Turkey has longest gondola of the World (from Leitner) at Bursa and the longest cablecar of the World (from Garaventa) at Anthalia Tahtali Olympus mountain. Climbing up 5377fts at once, thats a lot. http://www.olymposteleferik.com/en/home/

If you go deep into the country ask for accomodations which are proof to earthquake.

There can be strong earthquakes in Turkey destroying houses. Just because of weak construction coming from corruption.

Turkey like to show sometimes to the World how modern Turkey is.

On skiresort Erzurum Palandoeken they build a great new ski-jumping area containing everything ski-jumpers need (lift and tables K20, K40, K65, K95, K125). What desaster can happen on weak constructions (no earthquake there / on Year after first use) we can see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlTFDxvxiw8

Any ski-jumping installations had been destroyed.

So not anything is perfect in Turkey, but you will meet a lot of lovely people.

[Allee]

I bookmarked this site a while back, super good information on travelling in Turkey. http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/index.html. His recommendation is to land in Istanbul, catch a domestic flight straight to Cappadocia, and leave Istanbul until the end ... which in your case, would probably be a good idea. I don't see that what you have planned will be a rush in two weeks at all. As BlueB says, spend a week walking in and around Antalya, meet the locals, take a sailing trip, relax by the seaside, and you'll get a much more authentic experience.

 

Everyone I know who has been to Istanbul has raved, quite a few people I've met travelling have said that it's their favourite city. There's a ton to do there, and the tourist sites are supposed to be spectacular. The Grand Bazaar alone will be a whole day. But if it's anything like Cairo and most of the crazy major cities I've been to, three days will be enough before you just want to flee screaming. When you're not used to it, the controlled chaos is exhausting. Maybe another reason to save it until the end - so when you're burned out, you get to go home!

Turkey has been on my hit list FOREVER. One of these days, Travelzoo is going to send me a tour package I simply can't say no to. Please post pics and review somewhere when you come back, because I am SUPER interested in hearing what you thought.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Allee

[snowmatic]

Turkey has been on my hit list FOREVER

Yes, it's a beautifull country, the gate to the Orient.

But let us turn back to actual situation in Turkey.

Growing economy isn't anymore now, it's turning near to zero the last months. Disunion is an other thing now and Turkey has just 2'000'000 fugitives from Syria.

If you like to have one of the biggest adventure in your live, go to Turkish City Mersin, which is locatet East of Antalya.

Throw away or deposite your passport before.

Try to take a small place in a boat (wrek) to Europe. That will cost you $6'500 up to $8'500.

You will take over the see as a boat-people together with to many fugitives and also with some guys from IS or al-Nusra (Al-Qaeda) which are on illegal intrusion to Europe.

(Informations just heard/get today on a radio broadcast from serious journalism.)

[lordmetroland]

 

 

In low light, if I'm squinting really hard, I feel I can just about see tracks on the big jump. Dude, did you carve this thing? That's some insane alpine snowboard carving s**t right there!

[st_lupo]

My wife and I were in Turkey for two weeks in 2004 for a friend's wedding.  We did Marmaris-->Cappadocia-->Adana-->Ephesus-->Istanbul.  I think 2 weeks is going to be enough to do what you are planning.

 

Most of the people we met were fantastic.  Some salesmen were... salesmen, but in Adana we lived with a local family and regardless of the mismatch in communication (some didn't know any English at all, and we knew no Turkish) they were the sweetest, most open,  accommodating and honest people I have met.  Big cities are hectic, noisy and fun.   "Personal space" has a completely different meaning so after a few days its good to move on to a more "chill" beach-side apartment to recoup.

 

Travel

--------

Travel around Turkey was pretty easy with a good selection of routes on bus and airplanes.  The buses are in good condition, have lots of inter-city routes and are a good way to see things from a local's-eye-view. When I was there airfare was pretty reasonable and I think the safety record of Turkish Airlines was pretty good.  But make no mistake these were second (or third)-hand 737s.  The only time I've sat on an airplane and noticed a liberal use of tape on the wing. Scooters are fun but watch the traffic around busy cities.  Out in the countryside it is a great way to travel around at a leisurely pace, and is fun getting "mobbed" by the local children in the smaller villages.  

 

Accommodations

----------------------

This can be hit-or-miss.  My experience is that the hotels that were arranged by the local travel companies were pretty much crap (full disclosure: we were on a budget so didn't have the cash for the 4 star hotels).  But, for the same price as the hotels that were arranged by the local travel agencies, it was pretty easy to find clean and pleasant apartments/pensions when doing a little research in a Lonely Planet guidebook.  In Cappadocia we stayed at a place called Kelebek Cave hotel and Pansion and really liked it.  The rooms were dug into the sandstone hills, just like the ancient settlements.  It was very clean and comfortable.  

 

Food

-------

It was said earlier, the candies and desserts are out of this world, as are the pastries and breads.  Don't remember exactly what I had, but I remember I loved eating breakfast, børeks among other things.  Hope you like tea served sweet :)  Go with bottled water instead of the tap for drinking.  The kebabs that are cooked by street vendors over a charcoal grill outside of the mosques after prayer are typically very good.  If you like spicey go with the Adana Kebab.

 

People

--------

Generally fantastic.  Got yelled at by a salesman once because my wife declined to take some offered cough medicine, but the "regular" folks and families are typically just wonderful.  There are some simple etiquette idiosyncrasies such as not blowing your nose in public and not showing the soles of your shoes, but I'm sure there are allowances for tourists.  It's probably best not to bring up discussion topics like the Kurds, Armenia and Greece.  

 

Istanbul

-----------

I absolutely agree with Allee; save Istanbul for the last.  Get over the jet lag and get rested because you are going to need some energy to get through just a small portion of this city.  

 

Plan on a full day at the bazaar.  Probably a full day for the Blue Mosque (incredibly beautiful) and the Hagia Sofia (absolutely immense) together.  Keep an eye out for the 9th century viking graffiti upstairs in the Hagia Sofia.   Topkapi Palace and some chill time at a cafe along the Bosphorus can make for another nice day.  I can try to find the name of the area where we stayed, it was in walking distance of the above areas.

 

Cappadocia

---------------

Some opportunities for guided hiking.  Lots of ancient settlements to explore.  Two to three days should nominally be enough.  You've heard of the ski area Erciyes?

 

General Opportunities

----------------------------

Keep your eyes open and just be ready to find things that you just wouldn't expect when living in the US and go with it (but safely).  Wake up in the morning from the call to prayers, watch the women going out on building tops to fire up huge clay ovens to bake the day's bread, ancient ruins everywhere.  There is really a lot to spark the imagination, you just have to keep an eye out for it.  

 

Side note: any women/girls that are travelling might want to have a scarf available while travelling just in case you want to enter an area that requires they cover up their hair.

 

One of the coolest things during my trip (other than participating in a wedding itself), was exploring around outside of Adana.  Our host family took us to a nearby mountain with a fairly well preserved Roman castle on the top.  All around the mountain were remains of aquaducts and buildings dating back to the Roman empire... and none of this stuff was fenced in, controlled, or regulated in any way.  The aquaducts were just spread throughout some guys pomegranate farm.  Our host family talked to the farmer and he agreed that one of his children would guide us up the mountain to the castle, where we could just then explore at our leisure.  Absolutely phenominal!  The castle I think was called Anavarza.  Talk about feeling like Indiana Jones!  I think you can find similar opportunities over all of  Turkey in the countryside. 

 

Whatever you do, you are in for a treat.  Travelling from Oregon, it's probably best to plan for a bit of jet lag at the start, and temper your ambitions for the first few days accordingly.  Jet-lag plus different language, different culture/customs, etc can wear you out.  We spent the first three days on the beach in Marmaris to acclimate.

 

Best of luck and enjoy!

 

Oh yeah I almost forgot: depending on how far off the beaten path you go, toilets are likely to be very different... and wet. 

Edited April 21, 2015 by st_lupo

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

This trend looks good for US tourists:

 

Besides seeing the typical stuff in Istanbul, I remember that my hotel had some great breakfasts with a variety of cheeses and olives.  That was great stuff.

[Dan]

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks so much for all the information and suggestions - I really appreciate it! Sorry to have gone dark for a few weeks -- my coworkers found out I was taking two weeks of vacation, and have been trying to squeeze that two weeks of work out of me before I go. 

 

In retrospect, saving Istanbul for last sounds like a good idea, but my wife and I are coming from different places (we are both heading to Turkey straight from separate work trips), and meeting in Istanbul. My wife gets in a day before me, so she's on point to get the town all sussed out by the time I arrive :-), and we had already booked a place to stay. Given all that, we decided to sticking with spending our first chunk of time in Istanbul.

 

One thing I've learned since starting to plan this trip is that Turkey is big! It's a little bigger than Texas, so it really makes sense to fly (when possible) rather than taking a bus. Having said that, it seems like most of the domestic routes fly through Istanbul, so flights that don't start or end in Istanbul aren't always convenient, while the long-distance buses -- as folks here have commented -- seem to be pretty nice and have better schedules. (They're nice motorcoaches that travel at night, so just go to sleep and wake up in your destination. Beats losing 6 hours of daylight in transit with a layover in Istanbul.)

 

Having said all that, here's the bones of what we're planning:

 

-meet up in Istanbul, spend about 5 days in Istanbul seeing the sights and hopefully relaxing a bit. My sister has friends/co-workers in Istanbul,  so we may have some local hospitality at some point

-Fly to Kayseri, one of the airports that services Cappadocia. (We bought discounted tickets, and they were something like $25 apiece, quite a bargain)

-About 3 nights in Cappadocia

-night bus to Fethiye - this is on the SW coast, quite a bit west of Antalya. From what we've heard, in the last 20 years or so, Antalya has become a stereotypical Mediterranean party destination, with lots of clubs and bars. Not our scene, so we chose to head to the Fethiye area, which is supposed to be more chill.

-A couple of days of rambling east down the coast by foot. We'll see how far we get; we have no special ambitions to cover a ton of ground. 

-At the end of that time, bus back to Istanbul, one night in a posh hotel (thanks to credit card points), and back home. 

 

There will definitely be a ton of pics, I'm sure. Post here if you'd like a link to the album once we're back.

 

Cheers,

Dan 

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Welcome home Dan! Glad you are home safe and sound.  Sure enjoyed having "Chance" stay at "Uncle Bryan's".   We are all looking forward to an update on your trip and a few photos of your adventure.   I am sure you are playing catchup at work , but we will wait patiently.  Bryan 

[Dan]

Hi Bryan, just wanted to say again that Erin and I can't thank you enough for taking such good care of Chance. I'm pretty sure he expected you to come home with us -- when we got home, he looked at us like "Well, where's Bryan?" Also, I suspect he misses A/C. :)

 

You guessed right that I'm buried at work, so here's the micro trip report until I can get things together to go into more detail. 

-High level assessment of Turkey: fantastic. People are super-friendly, the food's great, and right now the currency (Turkish lira) is very cheap against the USD (2.6 TL to 1 USD, when a cheap doner sandwich costs like 3 TL).

-Time to visit: late May/early June worked out great for us. It's before the summer high season; we might have paid close to high season prices, but things were very uncrowded, and the weather was temperate and pleasant (except for the 3 days or so that it rained, whoops). 

 

Specific locations:

1) Istanbul: this is a fabulous city, but it's also quite a bit like big Western European cities. I mean they have great cafes, restaurants and shopping, but that only holds our interest for so long. The ancient architecture here (Hagia Sofia being the biggie) is awesome, however. And Turkish breakfast in the Cihangir neighborhood was amazing. 

 

2) Goreme. This is a small town in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey, famous for its unique rock formations and ancient underground dwellings / cliff dwellings. This was a very chill, laid back little town, though it's probably more lively a few weeks further into high season. The scenery was spectacular, and we really enjoyed our stay here. We stayed 3 nights/4 days here, but there are a lot of good hiking trails around town, and we easily could have stayed another 2 or 3 days. The town of Uchisar (about 7 km from Goreme through a very scenic canyon) would also be a great place to stay when visiting the region. 

 

3) Kayakoyu. Site of an abandoned village. (Apparently the movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin is based on the events that took place here...?) Moody, scenic, and relaxing. The village is on the Lycian Way hiking trail, and could make a good base if you want to stay here for a couple of days and do day hikes in the area. The restaurant Kalos at the base of the abandoned village is going to open a couple of hotel rooms in the next 9 months or so. The restaurant is tranquil and lovely, and we think that would be a great place to stay (might not be cheap though) when their rooms are available. Stay away from the nearby town of Oludeniz; it's been colonized by holidaying Brits, and every other shop serves English breakfast or Indian takeout. 

 

4) Antalya. We stayed in the Old Town here - the historic quarter, where car traffic is limited. It's lovely and charming, but pretty Euro-Disney. The whole quarter is twee architecture hosting bars and clubs playing EDM. It would be great if that's what you're looking for, but otherwise...maybe spend a day seeing the sites in the Old Town and then move on. 

 

We got around by overnight bus, domestic flight, and rental car while we were there. Of the three, domestic flight is the way to go if you can book far enough in advance. We paid from $25-$50 per person for each of our flights, and a 90 minute flight can save you a 15-hour bus ride. 

 

We would go back in a heartbeat! We want to visit Van in eastern Turkey, known throughout Turkey for its over the top breakfasts...

[Allee]

Sounds amazing. Hmmm ...given that we got pay-cut at work and my planned holiday for next summer has therefore been shelved, if a cheap deal comes up I might bump this up The List Of Things To Do.

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Chance is a sweetheart. I loved having him! Glad you had a great trip.