hellokittie

Hi, I am considering a trip to Turkey in early June for 7-10 days.
Will it be too hot then?

I am a middle aged woman with unpredictable knee issues; I will travel with my spry 21 yo daughter.
I am deinitely not renting a car and do not want to spend more than 4 hours in a day traveling on a bus or train. I am fine with intercountry flights and ferries and would take an overnight train if necessary. I would like to avoid an organized tour but I would certainly take day trips.

I want to visit Istanbul and Cappadocio at a minimum....a beach resort or bosphorus cruise would be great.

I am just begining to plan this trip and I am looking for help designing a basic travel plan. Thanks so very much.

yorkshire

7 or 10 days will make a big difference. With 7, I would stay in Istanbul. With 10, split your time between Cappadocia and Istanbul--no car needed. Fly into Kayseri or Nevesehir, arrange a transfer with your hotel. (I liked Kelebek pension in Goreme). Find a good guide for Cappadocia because of your knee problem.
I don't think early June will be too hot.

hellokittie

Any hotel recommendations for Istanbul? Many thanks.

yorkshire

Please add your budget info, etc. and you'll get tons--lots of Istanbul fans here. I stayed in the budget Hotel Peninsula, which was fine for me but you may be interested in more luxe accommodation.

mr_go

hellokittie: We just returned from a 10-day stay in Istanbul/Cappadocia. We had an excellent time, and you can read our trip report here:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...cappadocia.cfm

We definitely did more walking around & hiking than you are likely to do, but I hope you find it useful anyway.

Our pictures can be found here:

http://onelittleworld.zenfolio.com/f192159874

gpotvin

We really liked the Kelebek in Goreme. Quaint rooms,great food and pleasant helpful staff are hallmarks of this special place. They had reasonably priced excursions and our guide, Ali Cini, was well versed in the area. I think it was about $25-30/day, which included lunch.

We flew from Istanbul to Nevsehir. Used Argeus Travel (www.argeus.com.tr) to set it up and the airfare was very reasonable. We flew to Izmir, back to Istanbul, to Nevsehir and back to Istanbul and rented a car for two days for about $650.

In Istanbul we stayed at the Megara Hotel. The location below the Blue Mosque was wonderful as there were lots of food choices in the area and it was central to all of the sites in the old city. They have a more upscale sister hotel closer to Aya Sophia. Prices were $70-90 US/night in November 2008.
http://www.megarahotel.com/

Woyzeck

You will love your trip to Turkey - it's great that you are doing some research around here in advance.

How hot is too hot for you? I don't think early June will be too uncomfortable, but that can often be a question of personal tolerance.

A lot of the travel infrastructure in Turkey is actually via bus, rather than train. With your time frame, I feel that you could do Istanbul and Cappadocia. However, if you are limiting your travel time to 4 hrs, you might have difficulty adding in a stay in a resort town.

A Bosphorus cruise may be just your speed - a good way to relax if the knees get shaky. An alternative may be a day trip via ferry from Istanbul to Büyükada, an island in the Sea of Marmara.