Need Help With Itinerary - Rough 1st Draft
 

A friend and I are planning a trip to Jordan and Turkey. I would appreciate feedback on the itinerary below. We can add a few days if advisable.
Thanks, Les


June 6 - fly Amman to Istanbul (Turkish Air, arrive 09:00), then to Neveshir on Turkish Air 11:15 flight
June 6-9, stay near Cappadocia
June 10 - fly from Kayseri to Antalya; Pegasus Air thru Istanbul 08:00 - 09:25, 12:15 - 13:20
June 10 - 16 - Mediterranean Coast - no set schedule, kick back while head north to Selcuk - bus it or rent car
June 17 - 20 - stay Selcuk or nearby - Ephesus, ruins, etc.
June 21 - fly Izmir to Istanbul on Pegasus Air 11:20 - 12:20
June 22 - 24 - Istanbul
June 25 - fly Istanbul to JFK and home

I am planning my first trip to Turkey also, so I'm no expert, but I am trying to arrange things so I can fly direct. For example, you might fly from Cappadocia to Izmir, then make your way to Antalya and return directly to Istanbul from there. Saves time and money.

Thanks, Fra_Diavolo, will check it out

I looked at Turkish Air and there is no direct flight from Kaseri to Izmir

I think the only airline that flies direct between Kayseri and Izmir is Sun Express with two flights a week. I hope they still do, because Turkish Air via Istanbul is very expensive.

Depending on your preferences, you can shoeten Cappadocia to three days. Rent car to drive down to Mersin, then to Silifke/Tasucu for the night. Not very well known but very interesting sites in the area. Drive to Anamur, a true delight, with discoveries on the way. stay one night at anamur. Next day to Side, Manavgat, possibly Aspendos, Perge and Antalya for the night.
Taking off to Goynuk, tekirova or Cirali for the night. If adventurous getting up early to drive up to termessos first. otherwise just visit Phaeselis, Olympos and the fires of the Chimera. Stay at Kas or kalkan for the sites at Kekova, demre, etc. Then stay one night at Fethiye/Olu Deniz. One night at Heraklia on lake bafa or in Bodrum, The next day visit Prienne and Miletus on the way to selcuk. One and a half or two days in selcuk will be enough for Ephesus, Virgin Mary's retreat, sirince village, St. John's.

Good time for terrific cherries, wild salad greens, local bananas, and you must taste the crisp green plums. Also apricot and some peach and nectarines will be just coming out.

We stayed in Goreme and enjoyed it. A funky little town. We visited the Open Air museum, then drove to Ilhara valley to hike to some of the cave churches, stopped along way to visit an underground 'city' and spent the night in Konya, on our way to Antalya.

We found Antalya to be a bit too 'developed' for our tastes. We did spend two nights there, went to beach, then headed off to kas by car. I would recommend a couple of days in Kas, take a boat tour, walk village. Nice place to spend time, it is a place I would go back to. Driving along coast is quite intersting, winding roads overlooking Med. We tried to drive to Olympos, but gave up since it was taking us too long to reach it off main road. Looking back, would have like to have gone. We also like Marmaris, bit busier place.

I will look into all suggestions...thanks. As for Sun Express, their website shows no flights between Kayseri and Izmir. Turkish Air is approx $650!!!

We hoped to avoid renting a car by using bus transport on the coast, but will rethink the car option.

"As for Sun Express, their website shows no flights between Kayseri and Izmir."

Check again. It does seem to be hard to find out exactly when. Some sites say two, others three flights per week. Worth finding out, though.

http://www.sunexpress.com/xq-tr/tr/index.jsp

This site shows three flights per week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 13:10.

http://www.goreme.com/flight-tickets.php

SunExpress, like many discount carriers don't release their schedules for more than a few months in advance. It makes it difficult to plan.

I took SunExpress from Izmir to Kayseri in October, but wasn't able to find out the actual schedule and book the flight until the end of May. Based on the best information I could get, I assumed they would fly on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So, I worked around a Friday flight. Instead, there were flights on Mon, Wed and Thursday. It wasn't a problem and worked out fine. But it is frustrating. So, my advise is to build in a little flexibility into your itinerary.

BTW, the SunExpress flight left on time, was a nice plane with pleasant staff, didn't charge for checking luggage..and they gave seat assignments. Certainly the price was right and it beat having to change planes in Istanbul.

Thanks for the info. FD, are you going to use Heritage Travel or another agency to make bookings, or are you doing it yourself?

I wondered, Jeff, if the schedules weren't out so far in advance...thanks for clearing this up.

otherchelebi, your descriptions make me hungry! I will look into all the places you mention, but I think that we would prefer not to be "on the go" so much, meaning a different hotel every night. Do you have 2 top choices for a base on the coast? Also, how doable is it to use the bus for daytrips rather than a car?

iamles --

At the moment I was thinking of booking it all myself, but if it gets to be too much of a hassle I'll call an agent. Is Heritage good?

I don't know about Heritage...found it from the link you provided. They are from Cappadocia and might be good for that area.

LOL -- between you and me, it's the blind leading the blind . . .

iamles,

how you want to do the traveling and sleeping depends on yor interests.

If you say that your priorities will be beach plus a nice cozy dinner and drinks at night at a scenic resort or two, with some historic sites and additional scenic sites thrown in, then i recommend an AI at side or one of the Club Meds in kemer plus either Kas or Kalkan. Or, Just Cirali or Kas and one of the three major AIs in Fethiye area, Hillside Beach, Letoonya or Lykia World.
All of these areas and AIs have terrific views, nice beaches, daily boat tours to lovely coves and historic locations. Side is already on an antique city, and daily or half daily tours can be bought for white water raftinf, and the historic sites of Perge and Aspendos. Only Cirali is sort of quiet, laid back and difficult in terms of transportation. all other cities are easily reachable by frequent good quality busses, although you would be losing some time between airport and bus depot, sometimes in the opposite direction to where you want to go.

my original suggestion was for the adventurous spirit who wants to see and live as much of the country as possible, mingling with locals in less touristy areas.

i do not make any value judgements on this issue. I have enjoyed both types of travel exactly as i wrote it in all these areas.

I love Kemer Club Med even at this age and Hillside beach club both of which we must have visited more than five times, but I would also like to redo Silifke, Anamur and environs, staying at cheap hotels (as long as i have my own pillow with me) and chatting up the local residents at cafes, tea houses and roadside restaurants.

If you want to have a base and do short trips to historic sites, it is very difficult without a tour or a car. Historic sites are mostly in areas away from major bus routes, and the small minibus dolmuses may also not visit them directly unless they were next to a village and then rather infrequently. You would be wasting too much time, and then blaming yourself for not having spent it on the beach or on a boat tour.

To my mind, if you like yor freedom, then either car or a good AI Holiday Village when you are on the coast.

Sun Express summer schedule is not open yet. One can now also fly Kayseri to Antalya twice weekly !

Murat