Quick trip - Istanbul and Ephesus
 

I am trying to plan a quick 4-5 day trip to Turkey for mid-March.

I want to spend a few days in Istanbul and hit the highlights. My younger son and I were there last year, and this is mainly for my husband and older son. We will hit the Grand Bazaar (#1 on my list), the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and then the 2 modern malls (to stock up on stuff we can't get). Maybe a Bosphorus cruise or other tour if we have time. I'm thinking 3 days.

Then, I really want my husband to see Ephesus. But I'm not sure how to get there from Istanbul. Is Izmir the closest airport? Is it easier to fly or to go with a tour? Can anyone recommend a nice ($150 a night range) hotel near Ephesus?

I don't want this to be a rushed trip. ANy help/advice would be appreciated!

You can fly to Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport then rena a car drive to Selcuk for your Ephesus and other ruins' visit then drive to Kusadasi and stay in KISMET hotel which is the best one.

http://www.kismet.com.tr/

Have a nice trip in Turkey

Sinan Akdeniz

You can also fly daily to visit Ephesus and back to your hotel in istanbul.

Happy travelling,
Murat

I'm just curious. What can't you get, at the (Grand Bazaar) or where ever you're from, that you can only get at one of 2 malls in Istanbul? What are you stocking up on? Maybe its information you need to share with the rest of us!

zwho -
We live in Azerbaijan - and there are a lot of things that are hard to get here - things for day-to-day life like electronics, sports equipment, even clothes. Sometimes something as simple as valves for a ball-pump can be hard to find. So our trip shopping usually consists of a combination of "tourist" stuff and "needed" stuff.

Besides - the malls have Burger Kings....and my kids are really excited about that (it doesn't take much to excite us these days!).

How wonderful Brcxx3....
I would get excited with a burger king at this moment too :-))

I also do shopping on my business trips abroad for things I miss here or things very expensive for us here in Turkey....

Apart from that there are few addictions : Lady Grey tea from England, Smirnoff from Freeshop, Mustard and Cheese from Holland....

Happy travelling;
Murat

I love Fodors. Can you believe we can talk to each other? You're in Azerbaijan, I'm in Kansas! What a wonderful web site. When we were in Turkey we arranged a tour and hotel thru Gate1travel.com. They picked us up at the Izmir airport, took us to our hotel and picked us up the next morning for Ephesus and the surroundings. I would not stay in Izmir again, only because compared to everywhere else we went, it was just like a boring city anywhere. Nothing wrong with that, they probably even have good malls. I just wanted more of an exotic flavor. The whole thing, airport transfer, hotel and guide and car were very reasonable.

zwho - Isn't modern technology super! We're all over the world - but still communicating with each other in somewhat quick fashion!

Thanks for the info on Gate1travel. I will look into it. At this point, I have scratched Ephesus from our trip and we are just going to do 3-1/2 days in Istanbul. A real quick trip. BUt I am hoping to do a fuller trip next October - with us flying in and renting a car and then driving around for a week or so.

In the meantime...I'm just adding to my list of stuff to get at the Grand Bazaar - LOVE that place!!!!