BootsnAll Travel Community

Any recommendations on the best guide book to Turkey? I know Joe E below said in an old post that he dislikes the Lonely Planet book. So I'll strike that off the list of candidates. I was browsing through the Rough Guide and Let's Go guides and they seemed decent. But there's too many guidebooks, it's nute. So if you have opinions, dish 'em out please. Thanks.

Read what Tom Brosnahan, Turkey guru supreme, has to say.

Lonely Planet Turkey is fairly complete. I'm not sure what Joe Ehrlich has against it.

The prices, of course, are obsolete upon publication, given the state of inflation in the country.

If you do go to Turkey, and have a few days, taking one to walke around the walls of Istanbul is a GREAT and cheap way to really understand just how old and previously grand this city is.

What I have against the Lonely Planet Turkey has only to do with its author, Pat Yale.

She hates young backpackers. She lives in Goreme and only recommends the guesthouses there that are owned by her friends. It is a sore spot amongst the other guesthouse owners in town that offer the same level of accomodation.

She is the last person that should be writing a guidebook for our crowd. Imagine an elderly spinster librarian: that is Pat Yale. She is the opposite of fun.

Other than my personal dislike for that woman (and the fact that Tom is not writing it anymore), the Lonely Planet Turkey is a fine book. That's what I use.

One thing to keep in mind: as with any Lonely Planet guide, the majority of the other travelers carry it and the cafes and guesthouses know it. There is no shortage of fine food or guesthouses in Turkey. Use the book for a general guide, but keep your ears to the ground as to what has changed with reagrds to food and lodging. Don't be a sheep!

For posterity, I'll note that the Rough Guide dissapointed me. Mainly, it didn't have enough maps. People with the Lonely Planet guide also seemed to have this complaint but less so.

Someone mentioned that the Let's Go guide was surprisingly good.

--d

I've been trying ot decide what books to choose for turkey as well. It was mentioned somewhere that getting the blue guide to turkey covers a very good range of the historical and archeological information and the lonely planet was a good details book to pair with it. What worries me is that the versions I've been able to find at all 2002 or 2003. I have the let's go on a budget for greece and it looks very comprehensive. Can anyone give me any more suggestions to what I've found?


Caroline

Bringing this thread back.

I am headed to turkey and was wondering if anyone has used the Let's go? I'm currently in New Zealand trying to decide which guide to get and they have the rough guide and lonely planet in stock but not let's go. dahno1 mentioned that he had heard the let's go was good but I was wondering if anyone has seen it or used it.

I would order it online but need to know if it is worth it and if people thought it is out of date considering it was last published in 2003.

quote:

Read what Tom Brosnahan, Turkey guru supreme, has to say.

I can't find anything he says about any guidebook on his site static. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

Pat joined us for dinner at our pension the other evening (she does appear to be friends with the owner of the pension that we chose), and I would hardly call her an old spinster librarian type. she may not lead the same lifestyle as some of us, but she seemed nice enough, and certainly not old! (if you call her old, you call about half this board old, including I would guess, yourself)
(she does seem to be a cat lady, though) hehe

about the LP, we are trying to find alternative things to do in Turkey than just hang out on the beach and see ancient ruins and museums (yawn!), and we're having a hard time with that. if you're into more alternative types of travel, you may want to see if there are other guides with more info on the adventure sports, trekking/hiking trails, campgrounds, etc. we find the LP to be a bit lacking in that area, given that we know Turkey must be a haven for these types of things (it's got all kinds of fantastic landscapes for doing all kinds of fun things)

PS - Joe may be happy to hear that Pat has indicated retirement from the LP career.