My Husband and I are in our early 40s. I never have taken a tour but am wondering if it is good for Turkey? I saw some posts about GCT -- but when I searched on Google for their website -- it said "45 years leading in Senior Travel". We are not quite there yet . Any suggestions, please post.

GCT is usually for "older" travelers. But that's not to say that other tour operators don't have travelers ranging from 40 to 80+. Time of year might dictate the age of participants. During the summer when kids are out of school and off to camp, younger parents might take a tour. While in late spring or fall, you find those who aren't tied to school schedules are the ones traveling and older.

I would suggest you contact:

Isram Travel, located in NYC
Pacha Tours, also located in NYC

They have very good tours to Turkey, but I know that Isram does have mini-paks where you can combine different cities for a few days with hotel, some meals and tours, including guide and driver - then continue onto your next destination.

Example: Istanbul - 4nt/3days w/hotel, meals, tours, etc.
then - Izmir - 3nts/2days w/hotel, meals, tours
then - Antalya - 3nts/2days
then - Cappadocca
then - Ankara

you can mix and match and transit between each mini-pak would be by air. But realize, most flights transit via IST, so often you have to return to IST to get to say, Ankara. You'd have to speak to Isram directly for details.

You might also want to contact Overseas Adventure Travel - who have a very interesting Turkey itinerary. Their groups are no more than 16 people and the ages can be younger, but again no guarantee.

Another alternative would be to do a search on this board for "Turkey, tour operators" (or anything re Turkey) - and find a recommedation for an in-country Turkish tour operator who can put together an itinerary for you - and it'll also probably be less expensive, but that's not a guarantee.

We had done an Isram tour some years back (our only group tour because Turkey is such a large country with so much history we felt it was to our benefit). The trip was outstanding, but 6 of us were the youngest (late 40s/early 50s). That's not to say that the couple in their 80s didn't climb every hill, or get thru the caves in Cappadoccia - so it can be a very agile group of seniors. And most were lots of fun to be with.

Hope some of this information is helpful.

Rick Steves also has Turkey tours.
http://tours.ricksteves.com/catalog/...134&id=674

I went on a 2 week Insight tour with my mother ...was well organized and hotels were central..a good local guide..age 22-72 most in their late 40's early 50s...from all over..NZ, Australia, canada US< Singapore...When i was looking, i grabbed a huge stack of info from about 7 companies and ploted hotels, costs (watch out..some tours "extra" are included in the base price of other tours), and matched my must sees with the offerings of the various tours..suggest you do the same..there is a small tour co Adventures Abroad which i think is out of Vancouver which has smaller tourss (but NOT luxury)..have fun but really there is a lot of "homework" to do to find the tour which will best fit your needs and budget.

A couple of local tour operators in Turkey you might look at are Argeus Travel, www.argeus.com.tr/ and Insight Travel, www.insighttravelturkey.com/ which is different than the U.S. based Insight Tour company.

Try Adventures-Abroad. It is a group I travel with and they have some great itineries to Turkey.
www.adventures-abroad.com
They keep their tours to a max of 19 people, all ages.

Try Cappadocia Tours (www.cappadociatours.com ) Suleyman Cakir has put together an outstanding team...

Travel independent and ask assistance of local agencies....

If you never taken one until now why to take a tour now ?
Have a great time in Turkey

I'll be taking a tour to Turkey with Overseas Adventure Travel. Has anyone else taken this particular trip, with this compnay?

Thought of travelling independently and taking local day tours? We bussed all over Turkey by overnight trips using Nevtur Coachlines. It reduced accomm costs, but that wasn't our reason - we did it so as not to waste good day time sitting on a bus. It's not too tiring if you have good accomm for several nights in between. Locally we used day tours. From Urgup for example, Gazi Tours and Cappadocia Tours run excellent day tours to Goreme, Zelve, Avanos, Uchisar, and the underground cities of Derinkuyu and Kamakli.

Dear cmt:
I too am taking a trip to Turkey with OAT. When are you going? We are going Sep 23 - Oct 10. Maybe I will see you there.

We'll just miss each other!

I think you'll love the OAT tour. I have several friends who did it and loved it. That had been my plan until I decided to do it independendly, partially because I wanted to take more time and do it slower.

Patrick: Do you think I might be able to e-mail some fo these friends of your with questions about the tour? I was on the phone for an hour and 20 minutes yesterday with OAT, most of the time on hold multiple times, trying unsuccessfully to get some basic info about some of the optional hikes. I had a knee injury 2 1/2 weeks ago, and while I've recovering really well, I'm not sure whether I will be able to do all the things I'd intended to do on the trip in just 4 weeks. Since I did get cancellation insurance (shopped for it on the internet as an afterthought), I could cancel, and would like to decide one way or the other two weeks before departure.

cmt, I just made a couple of calls. The only couple who did it are out of town until the first of October. I called to get their email and found that out. I called another couple who informed me that they didn't do that tour -- had to cancel due to illness, but they have done two OAT tours in Asia and loved them. So I'm afraid I'm not much help right now.

I'm surprised that you're having so many problems getting answers from OAT. When I had planned to go, they were great about talking with me on the phone.

Just go with Insight.

OAT was fine when I was deciding to take the tour. But now that they have my money and I'm all booked, they're not much help.

All their customer service reps answer questions about all their tours, so no one is an expert on a particular tour. They cannot describe the specific hikes. Supposedly such info is in the materials that will be sent 2 weeks before departure, and which has been sent before all the other departures, so I don't know why they can't simply fax it to me early or even read it to me.

I don't have much experience with this type of tour. With the exception of two other tiny group non-hiking tours, the tours I've taken have been a walking/hiking tours, with smaller companies, and usually some of the office staff have actually been on a few of the tours. Anyway, I was satisfied that I had enough info when I booked the tour with OAT. It looked like a very good itinerary, not something I could do on my own (I don't like to rent a car) and the ativity level looked quite easy compared to hiking tours (I've taken hiking tours rated "easy to moderate," which were challenging enough for me, becuase they wre really "hiking" all day long, not just strolling), though they label the tour "moderate to strenuous" (but that's in relation to bus tours, I think, and it didn't sound at all strenuous from what I read). However, with this knee problem, everything has changed. Two weeks ago I couldn't even walk for 4 days. Now I'm doing really well with physical therapy, but at this point certainly not up for hiking, since I'm supposed to keep exercising, but avoid doing anything too long or doing anything strenuous. I may or may not be ready for hiking in just 4 weeks. I don't want to do the tour if I can't go on all the optional hikes, because there are no alternative activities, and anyway, the hikes are to sites not otherwise accessible by vehicle that I will never see if I don't walk to them.

Patrick: Thanks for trying to chack. I'm pretty sure from the various recommendations that it iS a good company. I decided on this tour very quickly, almost on impulse (I ahad just had to cancel plans for an entirley different type of trip to France becaue my friend found out she couldn't go). If it weren't for ths stupid knee, I wouldn't have any doubts about going. But I jsut want to be able to do everything I choose to do.

We have friends who did Eqypt and Trukey (2 separate trips) with OAT. Loved it. Active but in their 60's.
It is ancient history, but we did Turkey (2 couples in their 50's) 10 years ago with Club Voyages. They specialized in Turkey travel, yacht charters. Googling Club Voyages didn't get me to them today, but googling Pat Goskel (owner) did. Same info listed as 10 yrs ago-phone-908-291-8228
Fax : 908-291-4277
E-mail : [email protected] (does compuserve still exist?)
contact : Pat Goksel
We also did Galapagos in 1991 with Inca Floats- http://www.inca1.com/(they have also done Turkey for years)
We loved both trips. Turkey one was semi independent: we had all tours & hotels, boats, etc. set up, but not tour group. Galapagos was group.

Whoops, just realized that this thread began in June. Wonder if they are still interested in our input. They probably didn't go this summer, October is great.