AP6380

I am having a very difficult time deciding. I hopefully will have 2 weeks to spend in one of these places before going to Italy to visit family. That is also a consideration- I will have to fly into Lamezia Terme, Italy for that portion.

The trip will be in mid-June and we would rent a car. I love to mix up visiting ancient sites/siteseeing and having equal time relaxing on beaches.

I really want to try and make this as much of a budget vacation as possible. I would be with my father & we would share rooms, I would not want to spend more than 100 Euros per night on the hotels. We are flying from the NY area.

Any thoughts/ideas to get me focused? I have been reading on both places and am just torn.

cmt

Both are great choices. But assuming you will do both some time within the decade, I'd suggest doing Turkey NOW, since it is hard to predict what Turkey will be like several years from now. Right now, it is safe, very welcoming, and cheap.

artlover

I've been to both and would take Spain in a heartbeat.

zwho

Both are places anyone will have a wonderful time, but Turkey was just so exotic, and the people (as a whole were so incredibly nice). I agree with the 1st response. Turkeys really special and the ruins are world class, as is the shopping, food and sites. I love Spain, but Turkey took my breath away!

twoflower

I agree with the Turkey supporters. So different, and such friendly outgoing people. Include Cappadocia, and don't stay in touristy Goreme - go native in Urgup and pick up tours to Goreme, Deryinkuyu underground city etc. Gazi Tours are good, so is Cappadocia Tours.

seren

I also recommend Turkey. All tourists think that the best time to got to Turkey is summer time. But they are dead wrong, in winter there are lots of places to go that you can't go under dead hot sun in summer. Especially, I reccommend pamukkale (donnot forget to visit afrodisias), cappadocia (donnot forget the underground cities) and the lake district.

In addition, turkey is safer than the other european countries if you will be travelling alone. And if you can knock at a door in an anatolian village to ask something, they insist you to stay for dinner. Interesting isn't it?

Intrepid1

Another vote for Turkey and I've been to both...see it NOW while you can, while it is still reasonably priced, before the hordes leave Spain and Italy and go there.

It would have been more helpful if you had told us WHY you are having such a "difficult time deciding" but i trust it wasn't because Turkey doesn't currently enjoy "favored nation status" amongst some of the claques on this board.

AP6380

The difficulty may be convincing my father to go. Spain is mainstream, Turkey is not. I think in the end he will go wherever I persuade him to, hopefully!

And yes, there is a wee little voice in my head (no I'm not crazy) that is a bit concerned with terrorism- but I know it's unreasonable as I work a few blocks from World Trade! And as we all know, sadly, Spain isn't "safe" from terrorists either. Nowhere is.

Thanks for all the input so far.

SidB

There are areas of Turkey where I wouldn't allow my wife to travel alone. I don't feel the same about Spain. I have always found the Spanish people are friendly. cosmopolitan, and welcoming. Terrorism is an irrelevance here. You're as safe in Europe as you are in the US.

cmt

You're not planning to go to eastern Turkey, are you? I would be a lot less confident about safety there, where there are a lot of internal problems. But if you are going to the most popular areas in western and central Turkey--Istanbul, Ephesus, the Mediterranean coast, and Cappadocia and other parts of western or central Anatolia, I think Turkey's probably no less safe than anyplace else.

If there's terrorism, it's not likely to target you as an American. Anyway, terrorism is terrorism, and we're not safe from it at home or in western Europe, and when it happens, it doesn't matter whether you are in the hated category or not. A very few years ago there was a bad terrorist attack targeting a synagogue in Istanbul. The Istanbul was right next to a mosque, and lots of religious Moslems got killed too, so it looks like the terrorists didn't love anybody, but just hated enough not to care who got killed.

I thought security at Istanbul airport for the outgoing flight was the satrictest I've ever experienced anywhere. Every single piece of check-through or carry-on luggage was open and inspected to some degree, and every single passenger was at the very least wanded. It was all done very seriously, but not unpleasantly.

Turkey definitely feels quite "foreign," even a huge city like Istanbul. It feel foreign enough to be exciting and fascinating, but not foreign in an upsetting way, at least not to me. I love the foreign feeling, and it's what I crave when I travel. You may be surprised to find some things that remind you of Italy. The only place I've ever been where eggplant is prepared in a greater variety of ways and served more often than in Sicily is Turkey. another little thing that reminded me of Sicily is folk art painted donkey carts. The decoration is not as complex as in sicily, with the scenes from the vespri siciliani, but still, a decorated donkey cart makes me think of Sicily. I think they are more recently in use than the ones in Sicily, so they haven't been turned into a commercial cliche yet. One little "foreign" thing thatis not so pleasant, but I don't think it should ruin the trip, is that almost everywhere except maybe in hotles in Istanbu, you must not flush toilet paper down the toilet. the pipes are too small.

I loved Andalucia when I ws there more than 30 years ago. But I think if you're going to go to both Turkey and andalucia some day, it might be best not to put off Turkey. I hope the government remains reasonably stable and secular, but if it doesn't, it just won't be a place that we can safely visit. Right now, it is. The people are friendly and hospitable (though aggressive vendors are a huge nuisance). Turkey has been hard hit by the decline in tourism, and unlike in other European countries, the US dollar is in great demand (wish I'd known--I'd have brought dollar bills to spend), and prices are low for us, and there may even be huge price cuts in the off season.

lincasanova

turkey and spain are both great, but i agree that now is a time to go.

i wish we had had more time to explore all the suggestions i see here on fodors. we were only in istanbul and immediate surroundings for 5 days. but it was wonderful.

we had excellent food, but I DID get VERY ill the morning of our flight. i was not prepared and had no medicine. so do take along whatever your GP suggests for serious travel ailments.

i would go back in a minute. hotels were VERY negotiable.. even then. ( 6 yrs. ago)

spain, i think, will be going through some touchy times. our ETA terrorists as you have probably read, are on the active again exploding about 10 bombs across the nation last weekend.
no deaths but shook a lot of people up during a huge 5 day festival weekend.

seems they are trying to prove that although the french and spanish secret and national security forces have arrested LOADS of the top organizers, the ones left have capability to still do damage to our society.

also.. when trying to decide between two places that attract me equally, i tend to go for the furthest away one, as i feel it would be harder to get there later.

jgray15

I have been to both and I would probably pick Turkey to go back to before Spain. There is just so much to see and the people were so nice (some guys were a little pushy though). The dollar goes far and it just seems so exotic there. I went two years ago with another girlfriend and felt totally safe...even walking the streets of Istanbul at 3am in the morning! The only thing I wasn't too jazzed about was the food. And I got food poisoning one night at our hotel in Kusadasi, but they were have "mixed bbq" for dinner. Lesson learned.

travelaw

TURKEY!!! I love Spain -- in fact I will be there next week, but Turkey is awesome. I was there two years ago (post 9/11) with my teen daughter and we never felt threatened or unsafe in any way at any time. We received nothing but hospitable and even sympathetic treatment (for 9/11) wherever we went. Once you cover the airfare, the rest of the trip can be very inexpensive. Food is good and cheap -- and you can get extremely resonable hotels with breakfast included. We drove all over -- roads are fine, no problems. The ruins/beaches/architecture/shopping is all wonderful. You won't regret it! Go to Spain later.

AP6380

OK, so I think I am pretty much talked into Turkey- as long as my father goes along with it.

Now I will have to start a new post, how to come up with a 14 night itinerary giving equal weight to relaxing & beaches as to siteseeing. Fly into Kayseri, Cappodocia for 3 nights- Fly to Izmir to begin coastal leg?

cmt

I was there on a tour, so I can't advise about driving. However, the tour itinerary was excellent, and you might like to use it as a model. If you give me an e-mail address, I can e-mail you a draft version of it (draft becaue it was e-mailed to me early at my request, but some of the font didn't come out perfectly via the internet).

AP6380

I'd love to take a look at the itinerary, my e-mail is [email protected]

Although I sometimes find it hard to use guided tours itineraries as models because they can do much more driving in a day than I ever could. I'm sure I can adapt it to my needs though!

cmt

AP: I'm back home and just e-mailed you the itinerary. If you don't receive it let me know.