I thought Turkey was an inexpensive place to visit, but now I hear it's expensive--what's the deal?
 

I'm curious since Turkey has always been on our want to visit someday list. It had been my understanding that this is an inexpensive place to visit (once you pay for the airfare to get there from the US). In fact, I think I remember hearing that a decent (not fancy) hotel in Istanbul is around $40 a night. However, I recently read an article that talked about bargain places vs, non-bargain places to visit this year. The article said don't go to Turkey because it is now expensive. What happened? I know the dollar is weak, but is it weak enough to make Turkey an expesive destination? If you know or if you've visited there recently I'd like to know your impressions.

We were there about 15 months ago and it was cheap then.

Whoever wrote that article knows nothing. Turkey is not expensive. At least it wasn't 5 months ago.

This post would be a lot more informative if you, and those who so far have responded to you, didn't have to use the very UN-defined term: expensive.

What's expensive for you could be considered quite cheap by me. As a GENERAL comment I would hazard a guess that Turkey probably isn't nearly as "expensive" as some other countries but that may depend on what you're talking about: hotels? food? tours? museums?

Unless you start talking in concrete currency amounts and compare prices the only way you are going to know for sure if what you have read or heard is true is to go there. And by all means DO SO because, depending on your interests, i think you'd find many parts of that country unforgettable.

Okay. In my original post I mentioned decent hotel rooms for $40 in Istanbul. For us our three major costs when travelling are room, food, and transportation. In Europe we typically stay in small fmily-run hotels (2* or rarely 3*) or pensions or inns. Compared to the rest of Europe that $40 in a major city would be cheap. Am I accurate about this price structure? How about areas along the coast or in Cappadocia? What would our type of lodging cost there? What is the price of a meal in a small non-fancy restaurant? That's what I want to know so I can determine if Turkey is expensive. We are independent travellers who arrange things for ourselves and manage to get around just fine. We are not into luxury or pampering ourselves and do not consider those things necessities on vacations.

Jules, we payed 40 dollars for a room in Istanbul's old part. A ****hotel, on its way down to *** (in my opinion). It was just fine. And that was last December.

I forgot: the room had a little balcony, and a great wiev of both Hagia Sofia and the Blue mosque. And that (plus a decent breakfast) with 40 dollars. I don't complain.

A clean hotel room with bath in Sultanamet for 40$ is a good price, and during off-season, probably not so hard to come by.
One can do as well or better if booking in person, rather than over the net. Negotiating the price of a room is common.
As for food, you need to shop around. Just like any large city you can pay a fortune or you can pay pennies. As a rule, food in Sultanamet (tourist areas) will always cost more.

And when last there in November 2003, Turkey was still "cheap"

I was there 3 weeks ago and it was relatively cheap, dining was good value. Wine and beer prices OK. Now Greece...that was expensive !!

..in istambul a huge price spread..I was staying at a typical "white bread " chain type hotel at 250/nite..friends stayed at a clean central *** for 50. and a son of a family friend in a hotel which on asian side (most were guests were turkish laborers) 5/nite..and we were all visiting at the same time!

Not meaning to highjack this thread, but,Marko, your post about Greece being expensive piqued my interest. Could you write a bit more about that? Wonder if that's in prep for Olympics or a permanent condition? We were there in both '97 and '98, and found food, especially, to be very reasonable.

COmparatively Greece for food was about 50% more expensive to comparable prices in Turkey. That great international unit of value the can of local Beer in the bar fridge was only about 30% dearer than Turkey. Taxi's hard to tell but they appeared to be dearer in Greece. Postcards and postage cheaper in Turkey. Bag of seed for pidgeons at Syntagma double that of the Hippodrome.

Ok, I get you now; I was comparing Greece to rest of western Europe, not Turkey.

The closer one gets to Athens and/or the islands, the higher the prices. Same with Istanbul. But the farther one gets from population centers and tourist sites, prices become less. This has always been the case, Olympics or no Olympics.