BootsnAll Travel Community

From Anakra, it is a reasonable bus ride down to Goreme.
Go hang out at the Flintstones Underground Cave Bar!

This thread is making me crazy. It was already near the top of my "where to next?" list, and this is just giving me a major Turkey Jones.

So what do you guys think is a minimum amount of time to see a fair amount of Turkey? One month minimum?

It's like Australia in that regard: you won't see everything, ever.
But with three weeks and static's free itinerary, you could see a lot.

This thread is def. hooking me...major Turkey Jones now...am already looking at airfares..this can't be good. Well, it can be very good in that I may end up going
Amazing how a little inspiration goes a long way....

quote:

But with three weeks and static's free itinerary, you could see a lot.

You're just playing me, aren't you static? You're trying to see if I'll let you order from the right side of the menu at IHOP. Seriously though, if you already have it written down somewhere, I'd love a copy for my Turkey folder.

What - static is offering up free itineraries?

C'mon, c'mon, post it for us!

Hope these few pix push yall over the brink. Get thee to Turkey.

This is the "quick and dirty" Turkey tour (for those that have only two or three weeks):

Reserve a room or a bed in Istanbul somewhere for your first night. In the summer, it fills up fast. I usually stay at the Sultan Hostel, but send my friends to the Apricot Hotel. The city is huge. It's an enormous city; there is plenty of lodging. Always book your first night in advance.

Arrive at IST, before you go through the Customs line, pay for a visa at the window to your left with US$20 (or whatever it says for your nationality), then go through the line to get your passport stamped.

Get some money out of an ATM. Get a cheat sheet from oanda so that you don’t get ripped off.

Take a taxi into town, unless you are a cheapskate, in which case take the airport bus. (Or the Metro (Subway) to Aksaray and trolly bus down to Sultan Ahmet).

The neighborhood that has all the good stuff is called the Sultanahmet. (“Sultan-AH-met”)
Check into your hotel or hostel, drop your bags and go buy a big bottle of water (“Su”) Believe me, you will need it. Go to the roof of the Sultan Hostel or the Orient and have a few beers. Watch the scene. Relax.

The next day, get your bearings in the morning, and then get your butt to one of the many travel agencies in the neighborhood and buy a bus ticket to Selcuk for the next morning. Specify which seat you want, avoid the ones over the rear wheels. (Yes, you are going to skip Troy. Avoid Gallipoli unless you are an Aussie/Kiwi. Bursa, though, is very worthwhile)

Go back, walk around but avoid the aggressive carpet touts by not answering their questions. Don’t buy any carpets in Istanbul! See the Blue Mosque at sunset. After sunset, eat dinner on the roof at Doy Doy's.

The next morning, take the bus down to Selcuk. It’s a boring ride and you will still have jetlag, so just sleep on the bus. You will arrive in Selcuk in the late afternoon. Touts will want you to stay at their hotel, but you want to stay at the ANZ or Artemis or The Getaway. Whatever you do, avoid Kusadasi!

The next day, go to Ephesus first thing in the morning (before all the tour buses get there), sleep in the afternoon, take a tour to Sirince in the evening. Ask your guesthouse how to do this. Also ask them how to see Pammukale

Wander over to the bus station and ask the nice gentlemen at the bus companies who is going down to Oludeniz/Fethiye. You always want to specify “big bus” not a minibus.

When you get there, stick around a few days and see Butterfly Valley

Relax on beach during the day; dance your booty off at night. For those under 30 there are tons of choices, such as Oludeniz Camping. I like spend a little bit more and stay up the hill at Aygul Hotel

Get a bus (or better yet, a boat cruise (gulet) to Olimpos.

Spend a few days lounging around in Olimpos (if you are under 30) or a few days in Cirali (if you are over 30). The thing to do in Olimpos is sleep in tree houses. Kadir's is the most famous place, but the places down the road are much better. All the places in Olimpos are the same price and inclusive of breakfast and your evening meal so choice is best made on size and atmosphere, not where the minibus drops you off.

Get a bus to Goreme. It’s a night bus, it arrives way too early and you will feel awful when you arrive. There is a free accomodation office in the Bus Station which, even though it is still before dawn, will show the options for lodging. I generally stay at Shoestring, Paradise Pension or Flintstones. These are the budget options. If you are not on a tight budget, I highly recommend the Local Cave House.

(It is a long way up to Goreme, so if you want to break the trip in half, stop off at Egirdir . It’s a nice little town on a lake and there are no tourists there. There is plenty of good, clean, inexpensive lodging everywhere in Turkey, so don’t worry.)

Spend a few days in Goreme, but don’t do anything the first day! Rest.

The next day, take a minibus tour through your guesthouse or take a walking tour with the world famous (and the original) “Walking Mehmet” (Ask for him wherever you see his poster. Everybody knows him!)

Spend a few more days in Goreme just enjoying the amazing terrain. Walk in the morning, sleep during the midday sun, drink and dance at night (Check out Flintstones Underground Cave Bar!). Goreme is the perfect town to do it in. After you check your email, browse the paperback books at the bookstore near the Sultan Carpet shop.

Buy your souvenirs at Has Silver, next to the bus station. Best prices in town (run by the Imam) Carpets at half the price of Istanbul prices are found at Sultan Carpet. Remember: any time a friendly guide or your hotel "shows" you a place to buy stuff, they receive a hefty commission.

Take a night bus back to Istanbul. It will leave at about 8:00 pm. When you get back to Istanbul THEN see the major sights such as Topkapi and the Underground Cisterns.

Don't miss the Egyptian Market (and particularly the area behind it) and make sure that you take a commute ferry over to Uskudar and back. They leave from Emininou. Cheap! (Great photo ops, but Istanbul is smoggy and hazy during midday, so early morning is best for snapshots)

Stock up on foodstuffs at a Migros supermarket so that you don't pay tourist prices. Bring home olive oil, hazelnuts, hazelnut spread, honey, jam, olives and spices. (I am very fond of the stainless steel cooking pots and kitchen knives made in Turkey)

Want to be a bit more adventuresome? Get a bus to Urfa (Sanliurfa) and go see the sacred carp and the best market in Turkey. Turks/Kurds/Arabs living together in peace. Also visit the amazing beehive houses of Harran.

Thanks for the details static. I'm glad you've helped me out a lot these past couple months cause many of my plans reflect your breakdown of a trip around turkey! I have a specific question for you. What places other than kadirs are better in olympos and why? I even dancing it up but definately want to have quiet when I'm ready to sleep. I think I've booked kadirs though. ANy details about these places you could offer? Thanks!
Caroline

to 'not the first travis'
I'm planning to do western turkey in just under 4 weeks. I decided this because I've left a number of places with 4 nights stays because I really enjoy getting to know places well. My cousin did the same area in two weeks and thought it was amzing but definately could've stayed in a couple places longer so I've built that into my itinerary. I could post it, all the places I'm staying at were from researching them for comfort and budget (lots of static's tips) but I'm sure it would be much more valuable AFTER I've done the trip around. let me know thouhg,
Caroline

Go to Kadir's to party, to drink to have fun, but walk down the road to any of the other places to sleep.
There are plenty to choose from.

Fantastic info static. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Copied and pasted.

Curious why you recommend exploring outside Istanbul first, then returning. I'm guessing maybe because it allows you to acclimate into the culture more easily? Then returning to the big city which might otherwise be a bit overwhelming right at the start?

Great stuff. Thanks again.

(Also, maybe this should be moved to the Middle East forum, especially now since it's so info-rich?)

quote:

Curious why you recommend exploring outside Istanbul first, then returning. I'm guessing maybe because it allows you to acclimate into the culture more easily? Then returning to the big city which might otherwise be a bit overwhelming right at the start?

Yes. Caveat: I wrote that last night after a couple of beers and more. I will try to clean it up a bit later.

Thanks Static for adding great info. I can vouch for Artemis Guest House in Selcuk, it's clean, cheap, central, and a good breakfast. The kids wouldn't agree with the last part, as they're convinced that olives don't belong on the breakfast plate. Silly kids.

We split Istanbul coming and going. I can understand the sentiment to leave town quick, but we took a couple of days to acclimatize first and it worked for us. (When traveling solo, I like to do it Static's way, i.e. as long as top-quality jetlag is pounding between your eyes, finish the job and get even more distance into your trip.)

We saw the eclipse from Side, on the Mediterranean. Lots of reasonable options there, we ended up staying at the Hotel Gazipasa. Very nice, newly renovated, and 15 euro /person per night with breakfast.

We took a day trip from Selcuk to Sardis, where we saw some of the best-restored ruins of the trip. Sardis was the capital of Lydia, and the scenic road back showed that while we didn't have the time, there's definitely trekking opportunities here and a ton of other places. Go!

I traveled in Turkey for a month last year and was continually surprised by how much there was to see and do. I traveled mostly down the coast from Istanbul, with stops in Bursa, Bodrem, Koycegiz, Olimpus, and Goreme among some others I forgetting at this late hour.

I would say that I didn't find it particullarly cheap on a daily basis...but you can get some great prices of crafts/silks/souveniers.

Also, I'm pretty sure, as a woman I wouldn't really want to travel there alone. It is completely possible of course...but Turkish men are very hands on and chat-agressive. I traveled with a male friend, so I didn't encounter this too much, but was put off on occasion.

There is an absolute wealth of architecture to discover, some of the best ruins in the world, natural wonders dotting the landscape, yummy foods and interesting music. Definitely worth checking out.

Oh yeah...if you look under the Turkey heading on my blog there are tons of photos and stories from my month there.

Oops! I have cleaned up some links, spelling and factual errors.

Thanks all ,I am enjoying this thread on Turkey.I never would have thought of it on my own for taking a kid ,but once I started reading up about families doing RWT and exotic places,it really stood out as a "must do".We will be doing Greece,Crete and Turkey ( mostly Istanbal and western Turkey) for several months next spring.They may not be happy neighbors,but it has the added advantage of being an area where the weather is great at that time and not crowded ( as we will be camping mostly).

Sputniklee,What were the favorite parts for your children?What did they enjoy most? TIA

At first, the kids were just relieved that I wasn't taking them anywhere cold, which seemed to have been a pattern for recent trips. After that, they were pretty keen on the idea of classical antiquities--Ephesus first, but with a bit of education they came to place Istanbul in a little more context as one of the great cities of world history.

A bus trip from Izmir to Side was an unexpected bonus. The bus was like traveling business class on a plane--very comfortable, and a pleasure during the day, as we saw beautiful countryside and mountain passes along the way. My older boy referred to this ride as 'our sightseeing day' (!).

Our trip was timed with a total solar eclipse, which sadly you won't be able to duplicate when you visit (although I can't recommend an eclipse highly enough--it's my second one and I'm not done yet by a long shot). We saw it at Side, which is a super destination all by itself. Very relaxed, great ruins, and the Mediterranean too? Sign me up.

Children were greeted with graciousness wherever we went. Have fun introducing your child to a great place.

Thanks Sputniklee,sounds very cool....making my feet itch...the great pics too