I already posted a separate review of the Faros Sirkeci hotel. ToO make this Trip Report fully comprehensive, I'll include the text here as well:

A moderate-priced hotel equidistant between the top sites in Sultanahmet and the Galata Bridge hub (Ferries at Eminonu, Sirkeci Station, Spice Bazaar,etc etc)

When we wanted a small, reasonably priced, immaculately clean and very friendly hotel near the top sites, the Faros Hotel Sirkeci was recommended by a friend.

We booked online direct with the hotel and stayed 5 nights, so we got a free, private airport pick-up and drop-off – a smart Mercedes van and one of Istanbul’s few careful drivers.

Arrival and check in were smooth; this was our introduction to the very committed and helpful hotel staff, who booked restaurants (and cancelled them, when it poured rain), arranged airport transfers, etc.

We paid 90 euros per night, which included breakfast, the transfers and, I believe, all taxes. Many hotels in the vicinity charge 50% more.

Our 5th floor room was quite small, yet we found space to store everything. We appreciated the spare modern décor – white walls, bed linen and curtains, blond wood floors and furniture.

Great view of Gulhane Park from the double French doors. There was everything from a sewing kit to a mini-safe for valuables. I would have liked an extra chair, though.

The bathroom had a lot of pale marble and a super glass-walled shower: both hand-held shower and rainforest shower.

Breakfasts in the main floor restaurant were ample and the youthful staff were very cheerful. We ate dinner there one night, too. The menu was far more inventive than I expected from a small hotel restaurant.

We walked almost everywhere from this location: Topkapi, the Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern and Aya Sofia are 10-15 minutes away.

There is a tram stop 2 minutes from the hotel; the tram passed under our windows but with the French doors closed, we heard nothing at all.

Sirkeci district, especially Hudavendigar Caddesi where the hotel is located, is not an atmospheric location. But its convenience outweighed any negatives. Anyway, the warmth of the people were the essential ingredient in making this hotel one of our fonder Istanbul memories.

And here is my Tripadvisor review of the Baga Boutique Hotel in Akyaka:

We needed a stop off between Ephesus and our weekend destination, Gocek near Fethiye. Akyaka is a convenient stop -- just off a major highway and near other centres, yet completely sheltered in a lovely and dramatic setting.

Hotel is just outside town & easy to find. Off-season, the place was nearly empty. Recent renovations have created elegant accommodation within a small but beautifully manicured garden. The balcony of our sea-facing room looked down on a natural pond, smallish pool, flower beds and a large dock area with bar and handsome iron tables for relaxing. There's a large swimming raft connected to the dock by a gangway. In season, it must be gorgeous. The seaviews from this cove are breathtaking.

Entry, corridors (with sitting area) stairs and the room itself were spotless -- looked brand new, in fact. Our standard room was small (pretty standard in Turkey) and lacked seating. Beautiful big bathroom, though.

The hotel manager could not have been nicer or more accommodating. I was fearful that the village restaurants would be sub-standard but he reserved a table for us at nearby Orfoz, a rustic and very Turkish riverside restaurant. It was one of our most memorable meals.

Breakfast next day was served in an open pavilion overlooking the water. It was exquisitely presented on white china: Boiled eggs. Sliced cucumber & tomato, wedges of cheese. Four square dishes, lined up before us: apricots/walnuts/ raisins; black & brown olives in oil; crumbled feta cheese drizzled w/ olive oil; ropes of cheese curd. A basket of breads & sesame pretzels + butter & honey.

We left feeling utterly pampered and wishing we'd changed our plans so we could stay longer.

By the way, we spent our time next day along the Datca peninsula. the Akyaka-Marmaris drive is stunning in itself but the next hour west of Marmaris -- on superb mountain roads, with few cars -- was heart-stoppingly beautiful.

At points, we could look back across the fjord to where we knew Akyaka lay hidden in the haze -- and we reminisced longingly about the Baga Boutique Hotel!

Your pictures are fabulous. I love me some food porn. Can't wait to read more. Thanks for sharing!

OK I WILL do my Top 10 next.

But first I need to get to the gym and work off some of the kilos I amassed on this trip -- if you check out my album, you'll see how we splurged on the calories in Turkey.

Thanks jmct. As I mentioned just above (before I saw your post) I can't believe how much we ate.

Fortunately, it's a VERY healthy cuisine -- as long as you stay away from the baklava and the lokum, AKA Turkish delight.

Ted: great report,great pictures!!!! waiting for more as DW and I are great fans of Turkey.

First thing I noticed was the variety of bright fruits and veg in the dishes. My favorite kind of cooking (and eating). Looking forward to the details.

Just love to read your trip reports as you do them so well. Those photos are great.

I will always be grateful for your sharing Osteria del Pegno....my favorite when visiting that fabulous city.

Thanks tedgale again for the report and wonderful pix.
Now what you said about hotel Bella got me thinking.......
I have only one day to see Ephesus, the following day I have a flight to catch at Izmir airport at noon, I don't think I should be too far from that airport. We will have the rental car. Should I spend that night at Kusadasi?
Did you like your car rental company? May I ask which one? Any problems?

Thanks Carol.

Mohan: We drove from Kusadasi to Izmir airport. It took 55 minutes.

We did NOT follow the route through Selcuk. Instead of turning off for Selcuk about 10 km outside of Kusadasi, we continued toward Ahmetbeyli and Menderes. That road brought us right to the airport. It is more picturesque, IMO. Also 17 km shorter.

We booked through AutoEurope and got a rental with Europcar. They were entirely satisfactory. We had one small issue: They speak English in the office but the man in the parking lot who handed over the car could speak only Turkish and German.

We got our instructions on operating the car entirely in German.

There is a gas station right at the entrance to the airport, so you can fill up when returning the car.

Izmir airport is very new and was not very busy the 2 times we were there.

TRIP DETAILS:

This was a first trip for us and we knew we wanted to see the standard things. In Istanbul: the Blue Mosque, the Aya Sofia and the Topkapi Palace, In our one week on and around the Aegean Coast: Ephesus and Pamukkale.

All of the above fully met our expectations. Accordingly, I'm not going to spend much time extolling or describing them. Other posters and the writers of guide books have done it more effectively than I could hope to.

So here is a Top Ten from which those standard items are excluded -- not because they weren't great but because I couldn't keep my list down to 10 if they were included!

In Istanbul:
1. Basilica Cistern: I was sceptical and I was wrong. It is magical: eerie, romantic, impressive. Far larger than I had expected.

There is a crowd and the entrance but the further you proceed, the more the crowd is dispersed. At this point, the powerful atmosphere of the place reasserts itself. It is cool, dark, echoing and, above all, wet (be prepared to be dripped on -- it is unavoidable. It feels as though you are exploring a newly opened Pharaonic tomb.

As feats of engineering, the cistern and the aqueducts that once fed it (we saw the remains of them near the Suleimaniye mosque) are truly impressive.

Water is, of course, an emblem of Istanbul. The city owes its importance to its control of the passage between the Black Sea and the Aegean. You are seldom out of sight of water anywhere in Istanbul.

Water is also a key commodity for making life bearable in this hot and dusty climate: garden pools; public baths and hammams; "fountains" at every mosque for ritual washing before prayers.

(If you want a public toilet, go to a mosque; they alerady had the plumbing so the restrooms were an obvious add-on)

The main difference between Byzantine and Ottoman approaches to water was that the Ottomans insisted the water be flowing. Hence their abandonment of the Byzantine cistern. It might not have been preserved in its present excellent state, had they kept it and used it.

TOP TEN CONTINUED:

2. Princes' Island cruise: Our friends Jane and Burak live on Büyükada, the largest of the nine islands in the Sea of Marmara reached by ferry from the mainland. Burak was off sailing and Jane invited us for drinks and food on a Sunday afernoon.

(The islands are reached by ferry, from a station just across from the Kabitas stop on the main tram line. Kabitas is the last stop on the line, so you can't miss your stop.

There is a fast catamaran operated by the main ferry service. There is also a less glamorous boat (it takes about the same time -- perhaps 90 minutes to Büyükada, the 2nd and last stop on the route) operated by a rival firm. It tends to be less crowded than the catamaran, which is hugely popular and tends to be packed on Sundays. Tickets are about 5 TL each way.

The islands are a respite from the heat and the bustle of downtown Istanbul. Cars are prohibited, apart from a handful of emergency vehicles, and all traffic moves on foot or in a "Phaeton" -- the Turks use this Greek word -- pulled by two small, high-stepping horses.

This is what Bermuda must have felt like, before the lifting of the car ban in 1946.

Büyükada is the most cosmopolitan of the islands, with a considerable ex-pat and artistic community. Jane and Burak first lived on one of the smaller islands but she, as a western woman, found it too homogeneous -- and to some degree hostile to her North American ways. It has a famous old resort hotel and is a popular destination for Middle Eastern tourists, who come to stay in the summer. It is full of 19th C wooden cottages covered with riotous gingerbread decoration.

The main street by the harbour is touristy, full of bars and restaurants. However, you can quickly find peace just a few blocks from the centre.

For me, however, the main appeal of the outing was the boat ride itself. We were two of just a handful of westerners on the quite-full boat. This was our first opportunity to observe -- at close quarters and over a sustained time -- average Istanbullus. The atmosphere was festive, with many families and groups of young people.

A couple of images remain with me: 1. The father who (over my protests) ordered his young son to his feet, so I could sit down. For the remainder of the trip, he perched his son on his knee. Imagine that in Canada! 2. A group of ragamuffin teens or pre-teens -- skinny, bad teeth, pallid skin. One boy stretched out on the bench seat with his head in his friend's lap, while the friend cradled the boy's head with his forearm. Imagine THAT in Canada!

As the boat steamed away from the dock at Kabitas, I had a moment of revelation. The further we moved out into the open water, the broader the panorama of the city became. It is endless and it makes Manhattan look rather pastoral.

Seven or eight miles out of the city's core, you still have a solid wall of 20-30 storey apartments, one behind the other. Interspersed with them are smaller buildings -- nothing under six storeys, it seems. If they have green space, it is not visible from the water.

The official population of Istanbul is just under 14 million. The trip to the Princes' Islands -- far more than overflight in a plane -- makes this amazing fact fully and strikingly apparent.

3. The "other" mosques: Inviting as the Blue Mosque is, your chances of ever having it to yourself -- or of sharing it with only a handful of the devout -- must be zero. But there are plenty of places that are not over-run by fellow travelers.

Here are four easily visited mosques, each one different and each one special in its own way:

Rustem Pasha Mosque/Rüstempaşa Camii: It's small, hidden away inside the Spice Market precinct. A maelstrom of commercial activity surges around it but it is a haven of calm.

Wikipedia reports that the mosque was built between 1561 and 1563 "on a high terrace over a complex of vaulted shops, whose rents were intended to financially support the mosque complex. Narrow, twisting interior flights of steps in the corners give access to a spacious courtyard. The mosque has a double porch with five domed bays, from which projects a deep and low roof supported by a row of columns."

The Iznik tile-work inside the mosque and on its facade is justly famous.

Most intriguing to me was a patch of random tiles on one side of the facade. Had a doorway or window been blocked up? Had the wall itself been damaged, then repaired? What could have caused anyone to mar this otherwise pristine and perfectly symmetrical decoration with this patchwork of different sizes, pattens and hues?

Süleymaniye Mosque/Süleymaniye Camii: The second largest mosque in the city, completed in 1561. We walked from our Sirkeci hotel, along a hilly route that took us past innumerable fabric shops, into a gritty hillside district.

The entire mosque complex has recently been the object of a painstaking restoration. The main buildings and the grounds and gardens are pristine. From the terrace beside the mosque there is a breath-taking view over the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus.

My favourite part -- in this as in so many other large mosques -- was the forecourt, with its loggias, elaborately decorated minarets and it central fountain building. The mosque's interior was too vast, too perfect and too plain for my liking.)

The main buildings and their grounds (including the cemetery of fantastical gravestones, which you can glimpse but not visit) are vast in themselves. But as you wander the manicured lawns surrounding them, you realize the actual complex is much, much larger.

A smart restaurant with garden courtyard occupies one part. But there are outbuildings and dependencies -- unused or at least unrestored -- spreading out in all directions.

In most mosques we visited, males predominated. In and around this mosque, there were throngs of women, many of them very conservatively dressed, including full niqabs. This might have been a special occasion. We had no way to determine whether they were local (parts of surrounding Fatih are ultra-conservative) or perhaps were visitors from the conservative states of the Middle East (there are many each year, I'm told).

Little Aya Sofia Mosque/ Küçuk Ayasofya Camii, formerly the Church of SS Sergius and Bacchus: Down below the Hippodrome and next to the main railroad track is one of Sultanahmet's neglected treasures.

As perfect as the grand mosques of the early Ottoman period are, I prefer the higgledy-piggledy imperfection of Byzantine churches that have been knocked about and overhauled over the centuries, to achieve a new use today.

Built by Justinian in the 6th C AD, the church contained Byzantine carving fully the equal of the Aya Sofia, for which it may have been the model. Some of the carvings appear to have been defaced in later centuries (Muslim tradition prohibits the use of images in mosques -- the carvings may have been faces or figures).

Around the mosque is a grass-choked graveyard of fanciful gravestones (a series of rescued turban fragments is displayed on one of the surrounding brick walls. There were few tourists on the day we visited and the overall effect, in this quietest corner of town, was of a precious little object forgotten on some grassy bank.

Kalender Hane Mosque/ Kalenderhane Camii: A chance discovery, when we went looking for the (disappointing) remnants of the old aqueduct, near the Suleymaniye Mosque. Built on the site of Roman baths, whose vaults stand today as column-strewn ruins, it has been both a church and a mosque.

Apparently, this building represents one of the few examples still extant of a Byzantine church with domed Greek cross plan. Recent restoration has uncovered some Byzantine wall paintings that the Ottomans had later plastered over. We were alone in the mosque and there was little sign of recent use. The quiet and the relative neglect of this 1500 year old structure contributed strongly to its appealing atmosphere.

Honourable mention, BTW, to the New Mosque/ Yeni Camii (1597) -- a bustling centre of devotion in the midst of equally bustling Eminönü.

I should mention that I regret missing a couple of key pieces of religious architecture on this trip.

One, the Chora Church, was definitely on my radar. But it was far and the weather at that time was not great (rainy and windy -- the next week a tornado struck the city!). We had planned to see it before an early dinner at Asitane, a highly regarded Ottoman restaurant nearby.

We decided to save it and Asitane for another time and to stick closer to home. The hotel oblilgingly called to cancel our dinner booking.

(As you may by now have concluded, we did not even visit the New Town, apart from our tram ride to Kabatas. Thus, some interesting Karaköy restaurants have also gone unsampled. We tried for but could not get a table at hip Lokanta Maya. It remains, like its neighbour Karaköy Lokantasi, on my "Next time" list.)

The other is the Zeyrek Mosque, a treasure in a poor part of Fatih, currently endangered by neglect. I learned of its existence only after we left Istanbul.

During the 12th century, the Byzantine Empress Irene and Emperor John II Kommenos commissioned the Pantocrator, a three-church monastic complex, to serve as the dynastic mausoleum for themselves and later Byzantine emperors. After the conquest, it was converted to a Medresse (Koranic school) and then a mosque.

I am thoroughly enjoying your report and the richness of the descriptions you provide of your observations and experiences. Thanks so much!

Special thanks for your mention of your visit to Princes' Island (I've been going back and forth about whether to try to make that part of my trip) and the descriptions of the "other" mosques, all of which had been on my list excerpt Kalenderhane Camii, which is there now.

Keep the details coming! And again, thanks!

Wonderful report about where most of us never travel to.
MY cheese man is from Turkey and goes home once a year.

Thanks cigale. Kja, I was recalling one other little episode from our return trip on the ferry.

The water had become quite choppy -- it can get rough out there -- and most of the people who had been sitting on the open upper deck had now crowded into the enclosed main cabin.

Vendors were picking their way down the aisles with the familiar tulip-glasses of tea for sale -- how they balance trays in a rolling boat mystifies me.

A squat, bald, older fellow suddenly started declaiming to the crowd in a loud voice. I thought it was some woeful pitch for money, such as you get on the subway in NYC. But no, he was selling collapsible canes or walking-sticks. He demonstrated all their features with broad comic gestures and appealed regularly for our applause, which he got in spades.

Everyone was laughing along with the peformance and it seemed momentarily to unite us. After a final demonstration of the cane's utility -- he showed how the handle could be used as a back-scratcher -- he circulated through the cabin.

Sales were surprisingly brisk. He sold canes to a number to people who did not look as though they'd have any need of his product.

My final view of him was on the quay. All business now, he had shouldered a heavy tote bag and was bustling away, head down like a bull, toward home or some fresh commercial opportunity.

4. Getting away from it all: I never found Istanbul overwhelming. We never visited Taksim Square or the crowded pavements of the Istiklal Caddesi shopping precinct. The Spice Market was a bit mad but still enjoyable.

Nonetheless, one hears horror stories, especially about road traffic. A friend said it took an hour by taxi to reach their restaurant one evening -- a journey of only 2-3 miles.

Other friends have reported spending hours within the city on a stalled freeway. In such conditions, tempers flare and tragedy ensues: These friends assured me that shootings and stabbings are a regular consequence of road-rage.

Though our pave was sedate and we restricted ourselves to a limited area, I certainly relished finding some quiet corners now and then:

Sultanahmet beyond the Blue Mosque and below Sultanahmet Square: Our path on Sunday to the Little Aya Sofia took us down, down, down a long curving roadway into a jumble of sleepy, working-class streets. On our descent we had recurrent glimpses of the Sea of Marmara, a sparkling sapphire expanse that stretched as far as the eye could see. Across the train tracks and on the far side of the boulevard to the airport, men were washing their vans and taxis in the waterfront park.

Here were wooden houses, many cats, few cars; there was no noise apart from the main roads. Other than the trickle of visitors to the mosque, there must be few tourists down here. Yet we were only a few minutes' climb from the hordes in Sultanahmet Square.

Bosphorus cruise: From nearby Eminönü, we took the shorter cruise -- about 2 hours -- offered by the main ferry service IDO (İstanbul Deniz Otobüsleri). We'd been advised to avoid private operators; anyway, it was fine. Inexpensive, too.

Where the Princes' Island trip gives you a sense of Istanbul's immensity, this one -- up past the 2nd Bosphorus bridge and then back, without stopping -- show you a green and affluent world.

Showy office towers sprout above the handsome old buildings along the shore -- Dolmabahce Palace, a number of grand mosques, the opposed 15th C stone strongholds on the European and Asian sides, some beautiful waterside villas.

On the quays, older men angle for fish. There are large cafes or restaurants and a marina with impressive yachts. Work, stress and striving seem far away, though you are never out of sight of traffic and the bustle of the city.

Our companions on this cruise were all visitors to the city, from what I could judge. Certainly a better-fed, older and more placid group than the people on the Islands ferry. We soaked up the sun when it intermittently showed itself. We snapped innumerable photos, which we later deleted, of scenes that should have composed into impressive pictures but somehow did not.

Relaxing -- and an effortless way to see large swaths of the city that I could have seen from land only with a punishing level of effort.

Gulhane Park/Gülhane Parkı: My guide book, dated 2006, spoke of the decrepit state of these former gardens of the Topkapi.

This proved to be just one more indicator of how much Istanbul has changed -- how much cleaner and more inviting to visitors it has become in recent years. The park has had a major overhaul to restore it to an earlier state. The funfair and the zoo have been removed, the concrete buildings demolished. Plans are afoot to convert the former royal stables into a cultural centre.

Tulips are everywhere in Turkish design and mid-April is tulip season in Istanbul. Everywhere along the shady curving avenues of this glorious wooded hillside, there were beds of tulips. Every shape and colour and all newly flowering. We had got our moment just right.

We were biding our time before the inevitable 30 minute line-up for entrance to the Topkapi. The noonday crowds were light even on the main paths. Higher up, under the crenellated walls of the Palace, there were only a few dawdlers. Even the terraces of the open air cafe overlooking the water were sparsely peopled. A perfect place to regenerate before the long, long climb past the Archaeological Museum to the Palace and its throngs.

By the way, if anyone is looking for a super-quiet corner of Sultanahmet to sleep, dine or relax in, here is a Wiki entry for a pretty cobblestoned street that we were delighted to visit:

'Soğukçeşme Sokağı (literally: Street of the Cold Fountain) is a small street with historic houses in the Sultanahmet neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey, sandwiched in between the Hagia Sophia and Topkapı Palace. The car-free zone street is named after the fountain situated at its end towards Gülhane Park.

'The wooden, two or three-storey Ottoman houses consisting of four to ten rooms date to the 19th to 20th century, and have been restored with the initiative of Çelik Gülersoy in 1985-1986.

'Called "Ayasofya Konakları" (Hagia Sophia Mansions), nine of the houses are run as a hotel chain by the Touring and Automobile Club of Turkey (TTOK). The houses are named after the flower shrubs next to them as "Yaseminli Ev" (Jasmine House), "Mor Salkımlı Ev" (Wisteria sinensis House)"Hanımeli Ev" (Honeysuckle House) etc. The buildings are decorated in the 19th century style with furniture including such items as beds and consoles, silk curtains, velvet armchairs and gilded mirrors. Most notable guest of the hostel was Queen Sofía of Spain, who stayed in the spring of 2000 for four nights.

'On one end of the street towards Gülhane Park is a Byzantine cistern, which houses the "Sarnıç Restaurant" today.'

Our friend Jane praised this restaurant, though its very western menu discouraged me.

I also noted two very pretty, high-end cafes with shaded garden terraces. One offered omelettes, salads and other light fare. It could be a lovely place for lunch.

Enjoying your traveler's tales very much.

We stayed at the AyaSofya Konalari on our visit, and it is a fine location.

Before I move on to my other 6 recommendations ("Top Ten") it would be timely to post this link to photos of Istanbul, which illustrate some of the places and events I mention above:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3561998325068.2153117.1126123095&type=1&l=7a3974f2f8

Lovely and evocative trip report. I'm very much looking forward to your next installment.

Quick question as well. Do you remember how long it took you to walk to the Süleymaniye Mosque?

PegS: From our hotel, which was beside the Gulhane tram stop in Sirkeci, it was about 20-25 minutes.

It is a pretty direct route. It is quite hilly toward the end.

I am a fast walker. Others might need more time.

As part of a larger itinerary, it could be combined with the Rustem Pasa mosque, which is not far off the path.

It was about 10 minutes from there to Kalender Hane mosque, which was described above.

Thanks Tedgale! I haven't thought of the Rustem Pasa mosque, so adding it to my bag of ideas.

MY TOP TEN, RESUMED:

5. Pamukkale, Hierapolis and environs:
My spouse was keen on seeing Pamukkale. From the guidebooks and what I’d read online I thought it might be Disney-esque or worse: a geological freak of nature, crowded with tour buses, trippers and touts. The guides mentioned ancient ruins at Hierapolis but made no special connection between the two – as though many visitors came for the pools but did not venture further into a hinterland.

This delusion persisted on our arrival in the town at the end of a long day of driving from Gocek. I was feeling a bit dispirited by the tatty appearance of the place and especially the touts who darted out into traffic to offer us a hotel or recruit us to a restaurant for dinner. Above us, I could see a steady line of tripper-ants, who inched their way down a steep pass in the admittedly impressive white stone cliff.

The next morning, after our breakfast in the all-white Ayapam Hotel (it and its nearest neighbour were a blindingly pale, as if in honour of the cliffs themselves) we drove to the south gate, parked (5 TL) and paid our admissions (20 TL).

My first intimation that this place was somehow special was the entrance pavilion: a futuristic canopy on steel or aluminum struts that left open the view to a distant panorama of snow-girt mountains.

I’d read that the place had been cleaned up a lot lately, with the demolition of some crummy hotels around the site, a reduction in the diversion of the natural springs (which had emptied the pools) and the cleaning of the cliffs and pools themselves. I had not been prepared for the extensive and exceptionally stylish “ré-aménagement” of the grounds.

In the vicinity of the pools, they have built undulating stone terraces that mimic the shapes of the pools themselves. Behind these, on the land side, are gardens with pergolas and benches. Stone-edged channels of steaming water feed the pools. Even in the main archaeological site, they are building broad stone walkways, to replace the dusty paths.

Next to the museum (housed in ancient baths) is the swimming pool complex, where you can have lunch or a drink on a shady terrace and watch the swimmers in the thermal baths. This is a modern swimming pool that brilliantly incorporates fallen 2000 year old columns and other architectural bits, on which kids clamber and their parents lounge.

The pools and cliffs have been scrubbed clean; they are like molten white nougat. The water, which faintly steams, is the icy-blue colour of AquaVelva (does anyone else remember the ubiquitous post-shave “skin bracer” of our youth?) The effect is decidedly otherworldly.

The second big surprise was the extent and the grandeur of the ruins of the Hellenistic city of Hierapolis and its intimate connection to the pools and cliffs. There even are burial crypts built on and partially sunk into the white travertine plateau.

I hiked up to the large theatre, currently under restoration. When you have to hike through bracken to the top, you start to appreciate the scale of the place. Another high point was the necropolis beyond the former city gate, which we had largely to ourselves. Crowds were very thin everywhere, early that morning, and thinnest of all in that distant corner of the site. In fact, there were times when we were alone with the wreckage of these monumental tombs. When I wandered off the main path into the grasslands, it was as though I were the first person to discover this lost city.

We would have stayed longer – to have lunch, perhaps to swim, to visit the sculpture museum housed in the former bath complex – but after 3 -4 hours with no shade, the sun was burning through my 60 SPF sun screen. We had to get on the road anyway, if we were to see Afrodisias that afternoon and reach Kusadasi by evening.

We spurned the main road in favour of a short-cut that took us through Babadağ and over the mountains before bringing us out in the next valley a few miles from Afrodisias. It looked like a quick if twisty route – on the map. The road to Babadağ was fast and good, climbing through heavily eroded clay hills very like the Crete Senesi in Tuscany. After we left the town, however, we were on a small mountain road where, on certain cliffsides, spring runoff had caused largeish sections to subside. It was slow and painful going, though the scenery was spectacular. Our descent, once we reached the summit, was much faster – though we somehow lost the main road in the final minutes and reached the highway via an ochre-coloured cart-track.

Initially I found low-lying Afrodisias a bit of a let-down after the airiness and grandeur of Hierapolis. Two things redeemed it: The monumental gatehouse (Tetrapylon) of the Sanctuary of Aphrodite; and the brilliant and lavish museum, to which they have removed the best sculptures of the site. Afrodisias was rich in marble quarries and attracted skilled craftsmen, so the decorative arts flourished: One monumental frieze of life-sized figures must be well over 100 feet long.

If only I had been able to read your terrific TR before I
went to Turkey - such a marked difference between a tourist
and a traveller. Unfortunately, I fall into the former
catagory so I am most appreciative of your in-depth vignettes
of this amazing country.

We were in Turkey during Ramazan which skewed our view of the
people and sites - esp. in Istanbul and Izmir. My 'trip'
through the Spice Market around 4 on a Friday afternoon in
Ramazan is seared on my memory. I was literally carried away
by the frenetic crowds...never happens like that at the
Granville Market!

At Pamakkale the columns that web the bottom of the pool were
obscured by the huge crowd of partying Russians. Quite the
sight after wandering through the weighted silence of
Hieropolis.

Here is an album of photos taken at Pamukkale and Hierapolis and later that same day, at Afrodisias.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3592329723334.2153562.1126123095&type=1&l=f2794195a4

The final hours of that day -- the 3 hour drive along a major highway, through Aydin to Kusadasi, was less memorable and rated no photos. (Worst was being directed off the main highway at the entry to Aydin - with no direction as to how or where to get back on the highway. We improvised madly...)

immimi: You write like a traveler, even if you claim to be a tourist!!

I was surprised to see signage in Russian in some of the major tourist spots along the Aegean. Yes, the Russians are everywhere. Just like in Tuscany, where -- in the Prada and Gucci outlet stores especially -- Russian mafioso types swarm.

Thanks again. I was leaning toward doing the Priene, Didyma, etc. day tour instead of Pamukkale maintly because I really pictured just the pools. Knowing that Hierapolis is in the same places may changes things.

PegS: There is no "right" answer. I do note that unlike Priene and Didyma, which are entirely bereft of facilities and amenities (other than a rather nice public toilet at Priene), the Pamukkale site has:

the pool (pricey)
lovely cafe terraces overlooking it
some shops
a large museum (separate admission, largely empty in consequence)
other amenities in the town itself

You mention "a day trip": Where are you based during this period?

I continue to enjoy your wonderful descriptions. I hadn't thought of Aqua Velva for countless decades - LOL! Thanks so much!

Tedgale, we'd be based in Selcuk. We're only going to be there two full days, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to spend our non-Ephesus day. Our top priority are ruins, hence the PMD tour over Pamukkale. But, if Hierapolis is sufficiently impressive given its surroundings it might be an interesting contrast to Ephesus.

I would not want to have missed either -- which does not help, does it?

If I had to make a recommendation, it would hinge largely on your tolerance for driving.

The Priene - Miletus - Didyma circuit is very manageable in a day. In fact, you might even squeeze in a visit to the Lake Bafa area (though there is a huge road expansion project underway at present alongside the lake -- sthg to bear in mind)

When we visited Pamukkale/ Hierapolis, I was very glad that we had planned an overnight stop, arriving in town the evening before our visit. That meant that we could reach the site around 9 AM, well before the tour buses arrive from Kusadasi and perhaps from other cruise-ship ports as well.

The road from Selcuk via Aydin is a large one but it is also busier than other roads; I might have found it a long day if we had had to drive out and back in 1 day.

Having issued that caveat, I'd say the overall experience of Pamukkale rivals the experience of Ephesus and certainly competes closely with the Priene-Miletus-Didyma trio.

I'm going to be writing shortly about those 3 and will post an album of photos of those sites that may help in your decision.

My rank-ordering of them -- a purely personal reaction to the 3 -- would be 1. Miletus 2. Priene 3. Didyma (spectacular but the furthest of the 3 and surrounded by crummy suburbs)

One other option you might consider, if your goal is to maximize the amount of history you see: An early start at Ephesus and in the afternoon, drive (1 hour) to Priene and then to Miletus, omitting remote Didyma (which after all is just one building). This assumes Miletus is open until 6 PM. You might manage 1.5 hrs at each of the 2 places and 3.5 hrs at Ephesus. You'd get home around 7-730 PM.

Here's a great write-up on Miletus, BTW:

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/miletus

And here is a very helpful entry from Turkey Trip Planner on visiting the three sites:

http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/Aegean/Ephesus/prien_milet_didim/

I agree that PMD would be a much easier day trip than Pamukkale/Hierapolis (which must be at least a 2hr 30min drive each way).
Ideally, for doing Pamukkale from Selçuk, staying the night there and including Aphrodisias (and maybe Nysa as well) would be the best way of doing it, in my opinion.

Croesus: I agree.

Here is item number 7 in my Top Ten:

7. The Datça Peninsula:
The Datça Peninsula, so Wikipedia informs me, is an 80 km-long, narrow peninsula in southwest Turkey separating the Gulf of Gökova to the north from the Gulf of Hisarönü to the south.

“The eastern half of the peninsula is bare, mountainous and scarcely inhabited. In the middle of the peninsula, centred around the town of Datça, is the peninsula's largest area of good land… The western part is also mountainous, rising in places over 1,000 metres, but has towards its western end on the south side a considerable extent of well-watered land… supporting a group of villages known collectively as Betçe (the five villages).”

My guide book had also described this as an picturesque if desolate region. When I needed to find some way to fill in our day between our departure from Akyaka and our arrival at the Hotel Efe in Göcek, near Fethiye, this seemed a reasonable option.

It proved to be a very happy improvisation.

At Akyaka, we filled up with gas – I imagined we were heading into Death Valley – and headed for Marmaris. Not for the first time, I was impressed by the money Turkey has invested in roads and their supporting infrastructure. Much of the road was four lane – this, in a relatively empty part of the coast – and the rest was rapidly being expanded to four lanes.

The mountain scenery, on our relatively short trip to Marmaris, bordered on the spectacular.

I knew Marmaris was heavily developed. It is mostly of recent construction and, as an example of city planning, it has little to distinguish it. But a seaside town always has something jolly about it and the wide boulevards with their good signage made it easy to navigate our way quickly out of town.

Even within the city limits, we started to climb. And climb. Before we finally lost sight of the town, we had a vista of the entire bay with its sheltering islands and the blue, blue sea. We quickly shook the town traffic and soon were virtually alone – it was a Friday morning and off-season – on the road.

I had the impression that west of this resort town, we would be traveling on something close to dirt roads. After all, the road doesn’t really “go” anywhere except the smallish town of Datça and there are not many resorts along the way.

That was naïve of me. This is a superb two-lane highway, where the only impdediment to making good time was my constant pleas to the driver to pull over, so I could take photos or just stare at the view.

At some points, the peninsula is so narrow that you can see the sea both to the north-lying Gulf of Gökova and to the south-lying Gulf of Hisarönü. I understand that at the narrowest point, small boats are actually portaged between the two.

Much of the landscape is barren rock – deep brown and sometimes pockmarked, as though it were porous or easily eroded. Yet even here some tenacious flowers survive: blood-red poppies and a tall pink plant like hollyhocks. The winds have twisted and stunted the pines that cover the hillsides.

I hoped for some side roads, that would let us get down to one of the tiny coves I could see below us. But really, there aren’t any – because for large stretches, there is simply no settlement at all. Where the road dips to a beach or cove, there is some small-scale development – but nothing on the scale of the mega-resorts that deface much of the Aegean coast.

The flat, more settled land toward Datça was not especially interesting and even the one village praised as picturesque (Reşadiye) was nothing special. We went no further than the outskirts of Datça, in part due to time constraints. I wondered if the landscape beyond, which apparently terminates in a dramatic cape, would have justified going further.

The road back to Marmaris was a whole new experience, as the unfolding landscape looks entirely different when your route is reversed.

The combination of sun, dramatic rock landscapes, sea vistas to left and right, solitude, the open road and the delight of the unexpected made this one of our best days in the whole trip.

I definitely want to come back and explore, perhaps find somewhere in the region (maybe in Marmaris) to stay for a night or two. With more research, one might uncover the secret places that eluded us casual and ill-prepared motorists.

There are Greek ruins, apparently, but I saw no signs for them. I’d also like to know more about the sights and amenities of the other, more-peopled spit of land that springs off southwest of Marmaris – more developed and more touristy, perhaps.

Ted, I wish you had deigned to check my recent trip report on Datca :

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/october-datca-trip-fumbling-family-fights-the-bees.cfm?8

and our photographs of the area on Webshots :

http://travel.webshots.com/album/581065900DKBkml

http://travel.webshots.com/album/581709255VYKnBH


A suggestion to those nature lovers who are interested in visiting Priene and Miletus, is to extend their trip about an hour or so in total and go to Doganbey village, Dilek Lagoon and have lunch at Karina restaurant. (We actually have a trip report on that trip as well but do not remember if we finished it on Fodors)

However, my trip reports are not as informative as Ted's and more like fiction written under the influence.

I have to say that Ted has done all responders to his pre-travel posts proud by making very good use of his time in Turkey and deserves a blue ribbon.

Great report Ted! Brings back alot of memories of my 2007 trip to Turkey.

Other: Thanks for the kind words. I would certainly have checked out your report if I had known we were going to visit the peninsula. It was really a last-minute improvisation, to fill a day for which we had nothing planned.

There's a story behind that -- not suitable for a Fodor's forum, however. Let's just say "If you want something done right, do it yourself".

Oh Ted, what a tease! Now I totally want to know why you needed to find a last-minute relacement.

Thanks again for the advice. And I am most certainly continuing to enjoy your lovely descriptions. Looking forward to the next installment.

Ted: delighted to see your name on a trip report. You invariably do an excellent job and provide valuable advice, and this is no exception. I'm on board for the entire ride! Many thanks from a fan!

Thanks, all.

I'm going to have to condense this if I'm ever going to finish it. The last 3 entries in my top 10 will be more concise:

7. Miletus:

We saw a lot of archaelogical sites: Ephesus, Afrodisias and Hierapolis were the most famous but we also saw Priene, Mileetus, Didyma, Xanthos and Letoon. The famous sites certainly justified their reputation but for the sheer delight of discovery, I have to put Miletus near the top of my list.

Like Priene, Miletus was a port that declined after its harbour silted up. It's now miles from the sea. One consequence of the silting up is that you drive from Priene to Miletus on a perfectly flat, open plain -- with a smooth and uncrowded secondary road to bring you there.

You're in the middle of nowhere and then suddenly there's a sign, directing you down a rutted track to a car park

There were a couple of tour buses in the parking lot; the drivers were washing their vehicles, as drivers seem constantly to do in Turkey. (I never found out where the drivers' passengers had gone -- we saw very few people on site.)

Six or more large dogs lazed in the sun. Just ahead of us, a huge ruined amphitheatre loomed above the boxy little ticket office.

Since nothing much was visible apart from the amphitheatre, I imagined the site was quite small. In fact, it is quite large. The site has been left largely in a natural state. There are few explanatory signs, nothing like the evident numbering, cataloguing and organizing of Ephesus. Bits of columns and decorative carvings simply lie where they fell -- or so it appears. The grass grows quite tall around them. A flock of sheep was grazing among the ruins.

I felt like a kid again, gone "exploring" in a landscape once urban, now reverted to wilderness.

It's not surprising the water table is quite high here, in this ex-port. Some of the major buildings are now under a couple of feet of water. The effect is of an ornamental lake, lined with fragmentary but still-grand lines of columns.

I was determined to walk right 'round the lake but soon found myself inching along fallen columns and jumping from one to another to get back from the marsh to something like dry land. With my every advance, another frog leapt from his perch into the water.

I then found there was another stretch of water between the dry land where I stood and where I wanted to be. I had to make my way gingerly through a meadow full of cows (I hoped there'd be no bull) plus one horse roaming free.

Finally I re-connected with my partner somewhere in the vicinity of the public baths, another ruin tucked away out of sight.Soon we were back in the dusty, sun-baked parking lot

In all, we were at Miletus for only an hour or hour and a half -- we still had to reach Didyma, then drive on via Lake Bafa to our booking down the coast in Akyaka. In a day full of discoveries (Priene and Didyma and the scenery around Lake Bafa and the mountainous roads beyond that) this sticks out in memory for its unexpectedness and its "Lost World" feel.

I'm just catching up with your wonderful report. I hope a trip to Turkey is in our future and you are providing many useful details. (And please, make the report as long as you want!)

Here is an album of shots of Ephesus, Priene, Miletus and Didyma. I had so many photos I had to limit my selection rather severely -- there is so much else to be seen in each of these spots:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3595778129542.2153619.1126123095&type=1&l=50890df17f

I like your photos of Miletus - very green and wet compared with August when it's brown and dry.

8. A day trip to Kas:

We had a free day in Gocek before meeting friend Jane and her husband Burak for dinner. We planned to drive to nearby Fethiye, find the Lycian wall-tombs, then wander on toward Kalkan, perhaps stopping in at some of the archaeological sites depicted with 3 dots on my admittedly small and quite inadequate road map.

(We picked up the map in March, at the Turkish tourist office opposite the UN in NYC. It was one of the most pathetically inept and under-equipped national governmental operations I have ever encountered. However, they DID give us a map. Attempts to procure more detailed local road maps in Turkey came to absolutely nothing.)

I'd asked Jane about continuing to Kas, which Fodors posters had praised. She assured me it was much too far for a day trip.

Anticipating small, twisty roads and difficult driving conditions, we set off in the morning with very modest goals.

Imagine my surprise when the "twisty mountain road" I'd been told to expect between Gocek and Fethiye turned out to be more like a 6 lane highway. Well, not actually 6 lanes -- really only 4. But the Turks provide such generous road shoulders and make the individual lanes so wide that 4 lanes feel like 6.

When we reached Fethiye, we made a tactical decision not to explore the town just yet – we both wanted to see the Lycian wall tombs – but to push on to our furthest spot, then stop off on our return. We easily bypassed Fethiye and soon found ourselves pulling away from the coast, through a rich valley bordered by mountains still capped with snow.

Brown signs indicating archaeological sites appeared intermittently along the road. Some announced sites 15 or 20 km away, along small roads – too far to wander, with our deficient map and no GPS. (As I later discovered, the signposting is almost too thorough: multiple signs for various tiny, roundabout roads to a single site, instead of one sign for an obvious best route.)

Knowing nothing about the places indicated, I had no idea what we were missing when, for example, we took a pass on Tios/ Tlos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rutthenut/sets/72157614550824081/

Someone, somewhere had recommended Xanthos and Letoon. We saw the former on the way down to Kas, the other (only 2 or 3 miles distant) on our return. They are, respectively, at the north and south ends of the lustreless town of Kınık. Wikipedia notes the area as:

“…one of the rather rare coastal plains along this part of Mediterranean coast. The main livelihood for the local people is vegetables (mainly tomatoes) produced in the greenhouses surrounding the town—indeed, Kınık is one of the places with the highest concentration of greenhouses in anywhere in Turkey and you will not be able to see an inch of soil not covered by plastics around the town when looking below from a nearby higher hilltop.”

Xanthos is on the hilltop from which you get this strange vantage. It has a fine amphitheatre, celebrated Lycian tombs and a Byzantine basilica whose mosaics are now, alas, covered up for their protection. This was the principal city of the Lycians who, fiercely independent, slew their families and burnt their cities to the ground twice, in order not to fall into the hands of the invading Persians and the army of Alexander the Great.

Letoon was a religious centre, dedicated to Leto and her two children, Artemis and Apollo. Like Miletus, part of it was under water when we visited. Large numbers of turtles basked in the hot sun, on the half-submerged sections of fallen columns. A large amphitheatre built into a hillside is the best preserved part of this rather neglected site. We and the ticket seller were the only people there that day.

From Xanthos we soon reached the coast near Kalkan, a brash and fast-developing resort town perched on a steep site running down to the sea. Very popular with the British, apparently. The main road runs high above the town and we were not delayed. A few minutes later, we were far from the signs of human habitation.

Slowly, a spectacular landscape unfolded before us: rocky hillsides, olive groves, sapphire blue water, shimmering offshore islands and an endless, undulating road – seemingly reserved for us alone. Time and again we stopped to gape; each time I took photos but I deleted most of them later – they simply failed to capture the essence of what we saw.

Rounding one corner, we confronted a deep fissure in the rock wall – an impossibly narrow canyon at the bottom of which was a small stream. Where the canyon opened to the sea, a small natural beach had formed. From the roadside, a four-storey staircase descended to this secluded spot. This was the celebrated Kaputaş Plajı (Kaputas Beach). Here is someone’s great photo set of the beach in summer:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=kaputas+plaji+kas&hl=en&rlz=1T4ADFA_enCA460CA460&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=scKjT7qFJorB6AHGjZS6CQ&ved=0CHsQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=572

Now we dipped down almost to sea level, which gave us an even better view. A few miles further on was Kaş, a sheltered harbour beyond which extends a peninsula dotted with villas and pools. A recently built marina, very posh, adds to the impression of affluence. We parked near the main intersection and wandered down to the small, pretty harbour. There’s nothing special about Kaş: it’s just a small seaside town with a lot of whitewashed buildings, restaurants, terrace bars and a population of idle, ambling visitors from colder climates. But it felt cheerful, friendly and given over to relaxation and the pursuit of very innocent pleasures. A real estate agent who came out to speak to us (married to an Australian, his English was excellent) said Kaş is far more cosmopolitan than Kalkan and draws its visitors from all over Europe, including Russia.

I wish we had had the time to push on beyond Kaş in the Antalya direction. Travelers from Fethiye and the north drive to Antalya by an interior route, so this coastal road is traveled only by locals and by visitors to a handful of resort towns. In off season, I expect it would have been a stress-free meander. A new-looking road beyond the town certainly looked impressively large. But it was already afternoon. Reluctantly, we retraced our path along the coast, past Kalkan.

After our visit to Letoon, we attempted to find a backroad to Olu Deniz. (I later discovered on Google that there isn’t one) We climbed over a mountain expecting a panorama to open before us, found ourselves nowhere near our goal, climbed another mountain and eventually limped into Fethiye from the east.

Determined to see Olu Deniz, we turned back down the coast, then abandoned our quest at the outskirts when we found it to be hugely developed and very commercial. After the open roads and unspoiled scenery of the day, it was not what we wanted.

We returned to Fethiye and headed straight to the main road – foregoing so much as a glimpse of Lycian wall tombs – then home to peaceful Gocek and my first swim of the trip.

This is a lovely report, Ted. How lucky to be able to drive around more or less as you please. We have an English friend with a house in Kalkan, but Kas sounds more interesting.

Betsy/ taconic: as you may have guessed by now I am a big fan of Turkish roads. They are widening them everywhere and driving is a pleasure in consequence

Oh dear, what an error in opening this report. I already have a travel "wish list" longer than I am ever likely to cover...and now you have made me add to it! The pictures of Pamukkale & Hierapolis are amazing. I'd never heard of Afrodisias, and it looks fascinating. And the spring flowers...and ice pellets are in the forecast here
You certainly paint a wonderful picture, in words as well as photographs.

I continue to enjoy your report - thanks so much!

I think I need to wrap up my Top 10, which may contract into a Top 8 or 9. I want to spend some time talking more generally about the challenges and rewards of traveling in Turkey.

OMG, I just took time to look through your photos - awesome! You have a great eye and have captured some amazing moments. I hadn't realized I could become even more excited about my upcoming trip than I already was.

Do you remember how long you spent at Xanthos?

Ted: sounds great that you'll give us the "risks and rewards" bit on Turkey. It's been on my list for a long time, so am anxious to hear if it is really feasible for a couple of old geezers like us!

Gorgeous photographs!

Ted, thanks for taking the time to pen this terrific TR, am going to save it for our prospective trip next spring Will check out your pix over the weekend.

One question, how hard was it to self-drive? I'm not confident about driving there, hence DH would be solo driver, which is why I'm looking at a semi-guided tour.

My next post will be delayed a bit because I am at our lake house in Canada and have connection only via a smartphone. But I can answer the questions above:

1. An hour at Xanthos is enough.

2. We were a single-driver couple (I have never driven) and it was no problem.

Flights internal to the country are cheap and reliable so there is no need to drive, say, from Istanbul to the Aegean -- we flew. It cost about $35 on a gorgeous new plane. On that particular route (IST-Izmir) Turkish Airlines flies every hour during the daytime hours AND their competitor Atlas has several flights as well.

RE driving: There are just not that many roads in rural Turkey, at least in the areas we visited. In part that is because the topography is so extreme -- lots of mountains. The roads they do have are in top shape and under constant improvement, e.g. cutting away the side of a mountain. (We saw only 1 tunnel).

Contrary to popular myth, the drivers are quite courteous and even a little slower than I'm used to.

The traffic was NEVER heavy -- often we felt we owned the road. Driving through built-up areas was not a problem (we did not venture into any large cities, other than Denizli pop.500,000). We got into town fast and out just as fast. They do not have the same suburban sprawl as we in Canada.

Signage is very good on the large roads, often quite poor on small roads. Major tourist sites are generally marked by a brown sign.

Spanking new gas station/ garages are everywhere. With minimal assistance from a phrase book, we managed to transact our business.

3. Taconic: Age should not be a problem except if you have mobility constraints. Istanbul is hilly, as are most archaeological sites. However there were LOTS of young seniors on accompanied tours and some traveling solo. My partner is 68 and has heart disease, which requires blood-thinning medication that reduces both energy and capacity to climb. We managed OK.

Thanks, Ted. very sound advice. We are lucky, older than you two but in pretty amazing shape, except Jim's fairly deaf even with hearing aids, hasn't stopped him yet. I have had one hip replaced several years ago, and may have to have another, but I would get that done before we go.

Did you have any language problems, when out of the big cities?

I was apprehensive about language. Neighbours lent us an excellent phrase book, brilliantly organized. We barely used it but it greatly aided my confidence. When I tried a phrase in Turkish, though, folks just stared or reverted to pidgin English and that's how we communicated. Hotels and restaurants were okay - always an English speaker. BTW in Istanbul lots of the signs are English.

Ted, I've enjoyed following your story here and on facebook. I will be borrowing heavily from this when I finally make it to Turkey (hmmm, maybe next year?).

Flygirl/ Beth: definitely a place worth visiting. There may be direct flights from JFK if not from Dulles.

Umm, we just had a little flood here, right where the PC is located.

And I just got handed a new contract that requires me to draft a full proposal to federal Cabinet in about a week.

So I'm gonna have to adjourn this for a few days. But I'll be back and will complete the parts I promised to write....

Get your work done! Gives us something to look forward to later in the week. Thanks.

I think I'm finished with my Top Ten. I was going to write about food and about driving inland as my 9th and 10th entries. But I've already posted an album with notes on what we ate and where -- a separate narrative is likely redundant.

Instead, I'll wrap up this report with a few general observations and some traveler's tips.

First, a few myths I'd like to bust:

1. The drivers are NOT crazy. Istanbul drivers are crazy. Elsewhere, they're rather slow and often cautious (or their cars are so old that they can't speed).

As I mentioned above, we found the roads excellent and uncrowded. Spanking new "full-service" gas stations (many with small shops attached) were everywhere. They took cash (though once the attendant could not give small change). I understand intercity public transit is good but we simply could not have seen all we did without the freedom of a car. In that light, I can certainly think of no reason to avoid driving in Turkey.

2. They DO have toilet paper and the toilets DO have seats. Advice to the contrary must be 20 years out of date. I can now safely dispose of the hygiene supplies we pointlessly packed and carted around.

In some places, however, the sewer system cannot handle toilet paper and some alternative means of disposal is required. Hotels leave a lined bin beside the toilet. This is horrid to contemplate, a little less horrid when you're actually there.

3. There is NO service charge on restaurant meals -- at least none that we ever experienced.

I'd read that we should tip 10% on top of the service charge. We tipped 10% on the bill. Overall, I'd say tips in hotels and restaurants were always received with grace and even delight.

(A hotel staffer even tried to return to me the banknote we had left at breakfast -- he thought I had forgotten it at the table).

They earn so much less than we do; the service we experienced was uniformly professional, frequently deferential and always cheerful. If there is one country where you should dig into your pocket to express your satisfaction, this is it.

4. No, most people, including young people, do NOT speak English. We perfected our mime skills and helped the locals buff up theirs.

Not known as a man of few words, I found it salutary to have to distil my communications to the very minimum: usually a single noun accompanied by explanatory gestures for the verb. EG: "Gasoline" + holding out a 50 TL note + a bob of the head and a smile.

5. Touts and street vendors are NOT particularly aggressive and it does not take much to shake them off. Abruptness is certainly not needed in most cases.

One clever scam: A young man will offer to sell you a guidebook, which you decline. He then starts a conversation, asks where you are from, professes some knowledge of the place. Since you've declined his product, it seems harmless to chat.

The guidebook was a cover: You are about to be invited into his family's carpet shop.

Posters on other threads have talked about carpet buying and I can't, for the life of me, see why anyone would buy a new carpet. They have no investment value and will never have the mellow tone of older carpets. Then there's the business of shipping.

I have a small collection of semi-antique and antique middle-eastern carpets. Pretty decent ones come up all the time at furniture auctions, here in the remote Gulag of eastern Ontario. They must be more plentiful elsewhere in NA, more plentiful still in Europe.

6. One final myth I'd like to bust:

No, Turks do NOT all smoke, at least not in public. There was a lot more smoking in Amsterdam, esp among the young, when we stopped off there en route back to Canada.

Actually, there was a shocking amount of smoking in Amsterdam.

In Turkey, we saw relatively little -- even outside the city, where people might be presumed to be less westernized and less imbued with urban notions of health and fitness.

We were never bothered by smoke, in short. In some places, prohibitions are clearly sign-posted but a lot of it seems to be self-policing.

A propos of Istanbul vendors:

I was just re-reading some notes and came across this entry, about our brief foray into the maelstrom of the Spice Market:

'Handsome huckster in the Spice Market today called out: I vow to change your life!'

That has to be one of the best opening lines of any sales pitch, ever.

OK, just one more utterly irrelevant footnote.

(After all, isn't that the charm of the vignettes in a trip report -- the brief glimpses they give you of someone else's life in an unfamiliar setting?)

My notes on our second day in Istanbul:

Blue Mosque + Ayia Sofia in the morning. Afternoon: Bosphorus boat cruise + Yeni (New) mosque.

Hoped to see the Rustem Pasa mosque but we hit 5 PM and it was prayer time, hence mosque was closed to us.

Spice market instead: R was looking for oiled, roasted ground pepper (Turkish "Pul biber" AKA Aleppo pepper or Halaby pepper).

He found it, in spades. Vacuum-sealed, no less.

Quote: "Those friggin' sniffer dogs at Canada Customs won't stand a chance."

You just gave me a couple of good laughs and a bucketful of good practical information, during my lunch break on a beautiful Saturday afternoon of training, unfortunately held in a windowless room!,

Thanks for that, and more questions later!

Glad to answer any questions, taconic

Btw smartphone spellcheck keeps altering you to "laconic", which I'm sure you are not

Never been accused of that! Will email you about possible trip to Turkey, maybe tomorrow, now on iPad which is difficult.

Thanks again, great report.

Wonderful trip report and photos, Ted!

An Agriculture Canada sniffer dog hit on my carryon bag one time, after a much delayed overseas flight. At first Ithought someone must have planted drugs on me but the dog was just after my cheese. It was not the forbidden kind so wasn't confiscated.

I have a retired friend - once a very senior federal employee - who is a committed and highly successful smuggler of foie gras and unpasteurized French cheeses. I should find out how she does it. I'd smuggle just to spite the CBSA mallcops, whom I loathe. I once dutifully mentioned I had a banana in my carry on. I got the full luggage search, in consequence.

Inspiration for our next trip. Thanks, tedgale.

Ted,
I am in Istanbul right now and reading your wonderful report during some downtime. Your photos are inspiring and your experiences make me want to come back here before I am even gone. Thank You.

Thanks all. This has been the week from Hell on the work front, with one 12+ hour day and a lots of gerbil-wheel nonsense. I do plan to wrap up this report as soon as I get some free time. BTW did I mention that I am supposed to be retired?

tedgale -- Thanks so much for the entertainig and informative report!

tg - thanks for the highly informative and entertaining report, which I just found.

[oops - just posted the same as Magster, but completely independently. Great minds!]

Thanks, annhig and Master.
Seems everyone is going to Turkey this year. Yesterday spoke to 1 friend who's returned from 3 weeks of hiking on the Lycian Way. Same day another friend contacted me w/ questions for her son's upcoming trip - departure in 6 days....

I am trying to figure out where to stay while visiting Ephesus. Club Caravanserail sounds really nice.

Rooms are not lavish but the building iself is superlative and the location is ideal. About 20-25 minutes from Ephesus. Lovely breakfasts in the courtyard. For charm I'd certainly rate it above the Selcuk hotel options.

You have give me another fantastic idea. After seeing all the usual sites in istanbul, take a day trip to Princess Island. And thanks to Istanbul Eats, I have good recos on where to have lunch.

Yes, Princes Islands are charming.

I just found a great airfare, at least I think to Istanbul from Vancouver, with a stopover of 8 days in Paris on return for $1325 each with KLM. The dates are April 18 to May 19. I know this is off season for Turkey but how would the weather be. I originally was looking at September into October. I'm a major planner and this would be very short notice for me. Any advice would be appreciated.

WhistlerNorth, you would do well to start a new thread to draw responses not only from Ted but from others as well.

April/May will be cool to warm. Lovely weather, gorgeous City, friendly and helpful people,it is like living on another planet.
By the way, we never ever seen anybody getting agro, "stabbing"
or "shooting " because the horrific traffic conditions. Just relax and take it all in, is the motto here . I know, we live here!!!

Enjoy your trip, Istanbul will put a spell on you and you will want to came back again and again!

So much to read and enjoy....thanks for the recom on Prince's Island...will go there!

Thanks for great information. Since you have written that you liked the quite athmosphere in the deserted gardens of old mosques/churces, the I can safely recommend you a novel by Orhan Pamuk named "istanbul". It realy describes the psyche of the city well and have a literary taste. If you came again then, I'm sure you'll see the city in a different way.
PS: I am a native.

Thanks for a wonderful TR.

Niyazi: I have read Istanbul and enjoyed it very much. I also have a copy of Snow but have not yet begun it - I think it may be too depressing!

So glad this report was topped so I found it! A most enjoyable read

Tedgale: I didn't like snow, only the portrayal of the Kars city was interseting to me, but the sequence of events and charecters were out of my apprehension, but maybe tou may like it

Your TR gives great details about the various sites which I appreciate. But I am a little confused on logistics. How did you get from istanbul to your first destination? Where did you pick up & drop off your car? Thanks!

Snow was heavy going, but worth it in the end. I still recall some of the story line and images a couple of years after reading.

Karen: I'll try Snow this summer at Lake C. I'm not in a mood for wintry imagery just yet. But we're off to Rome tomorrow - a fine antidote to Ottawa bleakness.

Yestravel: Lee S alerted me to your question. We flew from Istanbul Ataturk to Izmir and picked up a car at the airport. Turkish Airways has flights almost hourly. Its rival airline, Atlas I think, flies almost as often. Tkts were about $45 or $50. We flew one way on TA, return on Atlas. Both were fine.

From Izmir airport, it was a short drive to little Selcuk, which was our base for 2 nights. Very easy logistics