Greece and/or Turkey trips with OAT or Grand Circle
 

Has anyone taken any of the OAT or Grand Circle trips/cruise tours in the Croatia, Greece, Turkey area? If so, which one and was it a good experience? And what time of year is the best weather? Thanks so much.

I took a GCT tour of Turkey in Sept./Oct. of 2004 and loved it! The weather was great -- much warmer than I expected & only misty rain one day at the end of the tour. I didn't want to do the gulet cruise & preferred the itinerary of the GCT tour compared to the OAT tour. Of course, the group size is smaller with OAT & I have done tours with them, also. I have done 3 GCT tours and 2 with OAT and the guides have been very good.

I just returned yesterday from a GCT Turkey tour and it was a wonderful experience. GCT groups are usually 38 but for some reason our group was 21 which meant there was lots of room on the bus. The weather was great in October, and there was one day with a little rain. The last few days of the trip were in November, and a couple of days were windy and rainy which was perfect for spending time at the Grand Bazaar. The day we left Istabul there was wind and snow in the morning. September and October seems to be an ideal time to go to Turkey.

I chose the GCT land tour over the OAT tour that included time on a gulet because I do not enjoy small ships. I do know people that have enjoyed the OAT gulet experience. However, I met some people that had just finished the Oct-Nov trip, and they had not enjoyed the rainy part of the trip on the gulet.

Another option would be Hellenic Cruises. A well travelled friend of mine just returned from a Black Sea Elderhostel on Hellenic and thought it wonderful.

Make that Swan Hellenic Cruises.

Susan33, my wife and I will be going with GCT to Turkey in June. We're wondering if we should take the 3 night extension in Istanbul at the end of the trip ? As you know, the main trip spends 4 nights there. Any advice will be appreciated.

I went on an OAT tour to Turkey in mid and late October 2004. (I didn't consider the Grand Circle tour, because I didn't want to go on a large-group bus tour, with relatively inactive people, and stay in large hotels. I have enjoyed small group walking/cultural tours with other companies in the past.) The tour was very good and exceeded my expectations. I thought that, considering the quality of the hotels and the amount of transportation included, it was an excellent value for the price. The guide was very good, and the itinerary was well thought out, varied, and interesting. Some of the optional extras, e.g., balloon ride in Cappadocia, were excellent and economy-priced. The overnight stay with a family in a little fishing and farming village was unusual and memorable. I was lucky with the weather. Except for a little cool drizzly weather in Istanbul, I enjoyed great weather during the trip. It was warm, dry and sunny all during the gulet trip (almost uncomfortably hot on one of the hikes involving some steep trails in bright sun), and the water was just right temperature for swimming (I do not like cold wate). I enjoyed the gulet cruise, and I think it would've more been difficult to visit some of the archeological sites if we'd been traveling by land vehicle. The only thing I didn't like about the gulet cruise was the exhaust from the boat's motor, but it didn't bother other people, and I know I'm extra sensitive to things like cigarette smoke, bus exhaust, indiustrail pollution, etc., so it's not surprising that the boat motor exhaust bothered me.
Negatives:
Once I had paid for the tour, customer service was horrible. I had z knee injury shortly after paying for the trip (and this was less than two months before the trip) and until just a few days before the trip, it looked like I would have to cancel. Hold times to reach a customer service agent on the phone exceeded 45 minutes. I found that the people who handled customer service for people who'd already booked a tour (the ones in sales were much nicer and more knowledgeable) knew next to nothing and were not helpful, for example wouldn't even get the detailed itinerary wiith the description of the hikes and send it to me (or read parts to me) so I could decided whether I could manage this trip despite my injury. The other negative for me--but I realize this is the luck of the draw--is that I found several of the fellow tour members indcredibly irritating and ignorant. While I realize that the kind of people you end up with on a tour is mainly luck of the draw, I mention this because two of the most annoying and ignorant happened to be people who were frequent OAT travelers and loved OAT. This was the tour that taught me never again to try to save money by getting matched with a stranger as a roommate. I'd done this three times before on other tours with other companies, and it was always pleasant. But this woman cured me of ever trying to save money that way again.

Hi Martin--We did add the post trip in Istabul. Even with the beginning days of the trip in Istanbul, we felt we needed more time to investigate Istanbul. In fact, if we are near Turkey again, we plan to spend several more days in Istanbul as we feel we missed many things.

This GCT tour is not inactive as there is a lot of walking over uneven ground and stairs to climb.

The one thing I regret is not spending time reviewing history and religion before the trip.

Susan33: Thanks for the info about Istanbul and Grand Circle. Your advice has caused us to add the three-day post trip extension and we hope to see many of the sights recommended in our readings. We love to get to know new places by walking so your comments about the activity level of the trip is welcome. Thanks again and any additional advice would be much appreciated.