BootsnAll Travel Community

By the way, you're worrying way too much about this stuff. And I completely understand - I did the same thing. I was fretting over the otogars, the overnight buses, the weather, the hotels. But then when I got to Turkey, everything just sort of magically fell into place. It really did! Don't worry - Turkey is very very accommodating as are its people - and everything will sort of work itself together while you're there.

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By the way, you're worrying way too much about this stuff. And I completely understand - I did the same thing.

I second this statement. I was also nervous about Turkey but found it easier, more accomodating, friendlier, and interesting than anywhere in Europe & E Europe. Of course that is just my take on it - but I think you will be surprised and feel much better once you get there. I hate making those "my favorite country is..." statements because they are all so unique, but I will say that my fondest memories are of Turkey.

I can't wait to hear about your upcoming adventure into Turkey WT! I wish you the best!

Awww, you guys are sweet. Yeah, I know I am a worry wart and somehow I do not really feel fully prepared, but hopefully everything will come together.

Hmm, maybe we will look into driving from Olympos to Goreme.

The hard part of booking ahead is I do not know exactly when I will be at each place. I am trying to have a several good places in each stop.

HOW soon should I book ahead in Istanbul? I really will not know for sure when I will arrive until a few days before. Won't there be something decent at that time?

We are right on the water here and is never cold enough for sweater even in the middle of a very windy night now,but I will squish some in for us as better to be safe than sorry.


Moving into the unknown is always a little nerve wracking, but mostly we are very excited. Thankfully I am MUCH less nervous about Turkey than I was about Morocco and we survived that fine and had a great time ( our favorite place so far ..but it was harsh at times too).

What can I say? I am a scaredy cat adventurer and truthfully I am often amazed at what a gimpy old chicken like me has managed to do. LOL!! I have so many ( sometimes irrational) phobias that dh joked that I would worry about a skyscraper falling on me in the Sahara.

I think we can handle Turkey pretty easily..we will see!!

Thanks so much again!!

We have upped our schedule ( in order to take a slow ferry to Crete as I just learned people often get sick on the fast ferries)...so off early in the AM.


Mardee,
Could you leave me all your possible hotel choices here when you get a chance. ( Or anyone else who wants to leave good choices).

I trust your choice and I have run out of research time. I want several choices in case any of them might be booked up when we want to go as we will be pushing or into high season then.


Thanks again!!

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Hmm, maybe we will look into driving from Olympos to Goreme.

It's an option, but I wouldn't recommend it. In the choice between many hours in a car and many hours on a Turkish bus, the bus will win everytime. Suffice it to say, you may need to transfer a couple of times, but the bus people will make it work for whatever time works best for you.

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HOW soon should I book ahead in Istanbul? I really will not know for sure when I will arrive until a few days before. Won't there be something decent at that time?

I don't think you'll have any trouble. We visited Istanbul mid-July, and all I did was call one day ahead. (Had no internet in our last stop in Greece, and it was of indeterminate length - actually would have stayed longer if it would have taken less than a full day to fetch more money). I called two places, but only because of price...no one gave me any trouble about availability.

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We are right on the water here and is never cold enough for sweater even in the middle of a very windy night now,but I will squish some in for us as better to be safe than sorry.

Definitely the best move. Most of our Turkey leg was in June, and both on the water and in the interior (Goreme and Egirdir), we had to bundle up at night.

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We have upped our schedule ( in order to take a slow ferry to Crete as I just learned people often get sick on the fast ferries)...so off early in the AM.

Again, odd. I found we had more sickness problems on the slow ferries.

WT, sorry I'm just now getting back with you but I've been swamped at work this week. Here are some places I've either stayed in or heard good things about (like from this board). I'll give you websites if I know them, but I don't have much time now to search.

ISTABUL: Hanedan Hotel (http://www.hanedanhotel.com - this is where I stayed. It was a great location, since it was on a side street and there was very little or no noise at night. Generous sized rooms, too - they also have a "family" room that is quite large called the Ottoman Room), Apricot Hotel (http://www.apricothotel.com), Hotel Sebnam (http://www.sebnemhotel.net), Yunus Emre Hotel (http://www.yunusemrehotel.com). I also talked to some people while I was there who stayed at the Side Pension and enjoyed it very much.

GOREME: Pashahan Hotel (http://www.pashahan.com). Very friendly and helpful staff, large rooms with lots of Turkish rugs and wall hangings. Kose Pension (http://www.kosepension.com) - Neil stayed here and recommended it. He said they have very good dinners that are a good value. Local Cave House (http://www.localcavehouse.com) - recommended by Static. I met the owner and he showed me some pictures of the place and it seemed very nice. They do have a pool, too. I also met a couple while I was there who stayed at the Elif Star and enjoyed it very much. Another place I've heard recs about is the Kelebek Hotel.

FETHIYE: I don't think you're spending the night here, but I stayed at the Villa Daffodil, which I recommend (http://www.villadaffodil.com).

SELCUK: I stayed at the Hotel Akay, which I enjoyed (http://www.hotelakay.com). I sprung for the deluxe room, but the basic is a pretty decent room, too). They also have a pool. Other good choices are Jimmy's Place, which I've heard good things about (http://www.artemisguesthouse.com). To be honest, Selcuk was okay, but nothing special in my opinion. I went there to see Ephesus, and that was pretty much it. I think if I did it again, I would only have spent one night there and headed for someplace more interesting.

Thanks so much Mardee! I am in Rhodes now ( REALLY glad we stopped at Crete and Rhodes on the way) and copied that to take with my small file).

Glad you included Fethiye because we might stay the night. NOt sure how it will go but we take off early in the morning and should arrive in Turkey in just one hour.

I went to the hospital here because I was not feeling well ( chest pain of all things..yikes) but the EKG looked good so we will go as I am feeling better now. It has been really hot here.


We have found the very large ferries to be MUCH better with stability ( thus no sea sickness) and have heard horrible things about the fast ones ( like Cats to Satorini) altho some people have no problem with them. If there is no wind they are fine I guess, but if you run into wind and bad seas, my Greek friends tell me that the bigger the ferry is the better.

Also the fast ones are quite crowded usually and one can not go up on deck as they are very small and packed. I hear that just adds to the seasickness if it is a bumpy voyage as fresh air and seeing the horizon is suppose to help.

So far we have been very lucky with no rough seas ( altho I hear that August can be a very rough month on the seas here because of some wind). We only took one fast ferry and it had problems, but I did not like it at all compared to all the giant ones that we have been taking. They only go twice as fast as speed does not matter to us.

I have heard waaay to many stories of people where 60% of the people on the fast ferry were puking in rough seas in august and such and just did not want to chance it. The Greeks who live here said the bigger the better..plus it was cheaper, so we go that route if we possibly can. An upchucking mom and young kiddo for a few hours ...is not a pretty picture...and one I prefer to avoid if at all possible.


My daughter is VERY excited about going into Turkey and the busses, gulag and cave houses. I hope all goes well and will keep you posted!!

Thanks again!!

( Just getting some Santorini stuff up on the blog, so Turkey will most likely go up after we leave unless I am VERY lucky and ambitious.)

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Originally posted by Skyehiker:
I've really had a hard time finding decent airfares to Turkey...I'm sure that's because it's summer, and anything over the Atlantic right now is not going to be cheap...but I'm still looking...and living out my trip vicariously thru these great posts .

We called the BnA number for international flight bookings, and they hooked us up! $850 roundtrip Chicago to Istanbul... online the best we could find was about 1250. The airlines they used were India Air to Frankfurt and Luftansa to Istanbul. Not so bad. We (Tunk and I) are going Sept 1 to the 17th.

I am so excited about our Turkey Trip! We are ironing out our plans now (I love this part). Some things I wouldn't mind getting some expert opinions about are:

1. From Istanbul to Selcuk - should we take the ferry/bus through Yalova/Bursa or ferry/bus through Bandirma (Tunk wants to to see the scenery), or take a flight to get there faster and get there at a decent hour and see the museum (my idea).

2. Where to do our beach time. Is sea Kayaking over the Sunken City something we don't want to miss? I'd like to just go to one place and relax, but I'd also like to see both the sunken city (which has these kayaking tours from Kas) and stay in Ciralis and see all they have too (Chimaera, Ulupinar Cinar Restaurant, Olympos). Is there one that is amazingly better than the other? Should we just try to get both in, which means less relaxation and more travel? From Antalya there's also the Karain Cave (25,000 years of occupation, cool) and Selge/Koprulu Kanyon (the Roman bridge spanning the deep canyon sounds awesome and sounds rugged in the book).

These are the kinds of dilemmas I like to have! ;-)

The trip from Istanbul to Selcuk is "missable", and, as I am usually wracked with jetlag, I just sleep right through it.

Sure, you could fly or take the train. I'm especially cheap, so I just take the bus. I thought that the market in Bursa was special, as there were few tourists. Plus: the home of Iskander Kebab! (AKA heart attack on a plate)

Yeah, you wanna see the sunken city.

Just make sure that you have enough days in Goreme.

kayaking over the sunken city was awesome! it was quite funny, actually - neither Neil nor I is in particularly great shape, though not terrible, either, after several months of backpacking, but we bickered almost the whole time in the kayak - "you're not paddling!" "I'm tired!" "my arms hurt" " you're not steering!" "I can't do this alone, you know!"

it was frustrating at the time, but we were able to laugh at ourselves. About 2/3 of the way back, we finally found a rhythm and figured out how to steer. We really really wanna do it again. I've been told of some cool sea kayaking with whales along the coast of northern BC that I really want to check out some time.
Kas is also a neat town to spend a day or two. it has a nice market, if you're interested in shopping. I've been told they have a local law against touting which makes it nice to poke around without getting harassed or pushed into buying things. it had a quiet pace to it, touristy, but not touristy like some places.

Every time someone posts about Turkey, I learn something new - those last couple of places you mentioned, I've never even heard of. Dammit, I wanna go back!!

(over the weekend, we met up with a friend of ours who told us briefly of his cycling tour through the Trabzon region - we never did make it there, and we sure wanted to! he certainly didn't discourage us!)

I personally found the western part of Turkey to be less interesting, Istanbul, Ephesus, and Blue Cruise aside. and Pamukkale was neat. but we're not huge on beaches and beach culture, and yachting towns seem to be a dime a dozen. The interior and more eastern coast lines were more interesting, IMHO. And Goreme.

I... am going to Turkey! Leave in a week, return 25 days later. For €100 flight (pretax) and finding someone to sublease my room, how could I not? Thanks for the info to everyone in this and the other current threads. I'm looking forward to it.

As for clothing, everyone always mentions covering up for women, but what about men? Are shorts ok? t-shirts?

Shorts and T shirts are fine for men, just not for visiting Mosques. Turkish men never wear shorts, only tourists do.

Static is right - you won't be able to go into a mosque wearing shorts. However, many of the mosques have large pieces of fabric that they keep handy for tourists. I saw one guy at the Suleymann Camii wear one - he was about 6'3" and it covered him pretty well, although it only reached a little past his knees. Not all mosques have them, however, so to be on the safe side, I'd go with the long pants.

You'll be able to get away with shorts, but, outside of the beach towns that are packed with foreigners, I would think it would be a bit uncomfortable. Locals simply don't wear them, and, although they'll probably be too welcoming to say anything, I would think they may find it a bit disrespectful privately.

Ok, I had a feeling it was that way. Same in Morocco... I always wore long pants because shorts just didn't seem the way to go, despite the heat.

So how bout eastern Turkey? Mt Nemrut looks interesting. What about Ararat? Is it worth seeing? Anything else out there? And everyone seems to concentrate on the south side of the country... how is it on the Black Sea side?

That's where my next visit will be - on my first trip, I wanted to check out all the spots that everyone had been talking about, but I'm definitely going back in a few years and will head for the east.

I met a German couple (living in Sweden) at my hotel in Fethiye, and they are planning on moving to the Black Sea area after he retires in a few years. They said it's just as beautiful there but much less touristed. I want to also visit Harran and Sanli(Urfa) and other places. I'm still not sure, though, if I want to do it on my own. I don't scare easy and usually travel on my own, but that might be a place I would think about going with a group (or at least another person or two).

Not a problem, there are always other solo travelers to hook up with for a few days. On one of my trips to Urfa, a Norwegian woman and a Canadian guy and I pooled resources for a tour of Harran (which is just down the road a few K's)

That's a good idea - I never thought of that. I've traveled around with people I met in other countries, so it would make sense to do it there.