appletea

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are in the initial phases of planning our first trip to Turkey for 13 days in April/May? After reading otherchelebi's comment about no trouble finding lodging and the weather being beautiful in late April/early May, maybe we will go 2 weeks earlier than planned? Any pros or cons of first 2 weeks of May vs. 2nd? Will it be a lot warmer?

We are in our early 30's, love art, ruins, architecture and food. We prefer to travel at a leisurely place staying in a few places .

We would like to visit Istanbul, the ruins Ephesus, Pammukale, and Cappodocia. I am not sure about the Turkish Coast? We spent 2 weeks in the amalfi coast in 2008 and had an amazing trip and since ellencmog said it reminds her of california where we live. . . Any comments about the Turkish Coast? Kekova does look pretty amazing.

Logistics wise - is there a preferred order? We would like to stay in Istanbul at the end. Is it logistically better or cheaper to do Cappodocia first or Ephesus?

Cities to book hotels:
cappodocia - 3 days - would like to follow ellencmog's itinerary with the guides
selcuk - 3-4 days - for ephesus, maybe aphrodisias, sirince "(Selcuk area is worth 4 nights if you plan to visit Aphrodisias, Heliopolis, Prienne, Didyma, Miletus, and Herakleia, and maybe even Sardis, in addition to ephesus, VM's retreat5, museum, basilica, mosque and Sirince village (incidentally, its a good idea to stay in Sirince)" from otherchelebi's post intrigues me)
istanbul - 4-5 days in Sultanahmet?
somewhere along the coast or anywhere else?? antalya? kas?

Flights:
Istanbul to Neveshir Cappodocia
Cappodocia to Izmir
?? back to Istanbul

Rental Car -
for izmir for selcuk
If we plan those flights, which cities do we need this for? Cappodocia, Selcuk?

Random question: Are there cats or dogs roaming around near the hotels? We are allergic and found in in Seville and Granada in Spain, we were slightly allergic to our rooms since there were some cats roaming around.

Thank you all in advance for your opinions and advice.

cheers,
~apple

Michael

You might want to read my trip report, which covers quite a bit of what you are planning. Just click on my name to find it.

otherchelebi

Re cats and dogs:

you will not find many stray dogs, and those that you see will not usually come close to you.

you will see cats near St. John's and at Ephesus, but not necessarily in any hotels you stay. Again, they are usually not the begging kind, but you may hit a hotel which has a cat lover owner, but this will not be common.

otherchelebi

re itinerary:

If you would like some beach time, end of April both air and sea will be cool.

Also, Istanbul-Cappadocia-Selcuk the standard combination will not allow you any real beach time, excepy for half a day at Kusadasi, where the sea will be too cool and the weather probably windy.

So for some beach in addition to antiquity, the alternative would be the Antalya region where you would probably have two separate overnight locations, i.e. Side and Cirali.

Side is partially built on ancient ruins and is close to Perge and Aspandos, maybe even to Anemurium, and the white wate rafting of Koprulu canyon and Manavgat waterfalls. It has sandy beaches and dolphin watch cruises.

Leaving Side early, you can visit Termessos, over a mile high city with incredible view of the Mediterranean from the antique theatre, with a few hours detour, on the way to Cirali. The coast is incredibly beautiful with high mountains covered with pine forests, coming all the way to the sea, bigger and denser than on the Amalfi coast or the Greek islands.

You can also stop for a quick look at the partially sunken ancient city of Phaeselis, on the way.

Cirali is a small and very local resort in a secluded valley which has very different flora from other Mediterranean valleys. It is also close to Olympus and the ever burning fires of the Chimera. (If you bring marshmallows, you can actually cook them there, to take photos as well)

there are a number of places you can reach from cirali like Kekova.

i do not know where you can find some struggling artists to help by buying a nice inexpensive painting maybe. Possibly in the old town within the ancient port castle in Antalya.

We have bought paintings at Mardin, Turkey; Ashkabat, Turkmenistan; Chang Mai, Thailand; Madrid, Spain; Portofino, Italy; Paris, and so on.

Visit the istanbul Modern Art Museum at Tophane, by the cruise ship port. Check about the exhibition at Sabanci museum at Emirgan on the Bosphorus, and if you like what you find, combine your visit with a truely unique breakfast or lunch at the Musee Changa restaurant.

You can do Ephesus, pamukkale and environs the next time you come this way. At that time you can add Assos, pergamom and Troy as well as Hattusas, Alacahoyuk, catalhoyuk, Sumela Monastery, Ani, Ishak Pasa Palace, etc. to your list also, or save some of those for your third visit.

bon voyage.

appletea

Otherchelebi,
Thanks for the detailed feedback. I think we will pass on the beaches especially since it will be colder. . . we are more interested in the ruins and Pamukkale etc. not sure when we will be going around that way again.

Which of the two places: Cappodocia or Ephesus and other ruins requires more walking? That might affect which place we go first since my husband's foot is slightly injured.

Michael,
I am getting to your trip report. I just barely learned where Cappodocia and Ephesus are =) There are so many names of cities to stay vs. sites to see vs. airport cities in Turkey, its quite overwhelming, but I'm slowly learning. =) Thanks.

yorkshire

Although you can see a lot in Cappadocia without extensive walking, you will get so much more out of it if you return in the future when you can do a lot of walking. For example, even if you get a guide to drive you around and escort you, you still want to be able to walk up steps, etc. And it would be a shame to miss out on the walking trails, etc. I say return in the future--I certainly want to after my first trip to Turkey.

otherchelebi

Cappadocia is a very big area. Some of the cave dwellings and churches do not require too much walking but some climbing. Others and the underground cities and the canyons do require walking. however, you can get a good feel of the place by driving around and taking the dawn balloon ride. You can also visit some villages and reasonably priced pottery and carpet shops (check prices of carpets, types and designs before you get there, from the web) The locally produced carpet in the area is called 'Yahyali'.

Pamukkale definitely reqires quite a lot of walking for hieropolis and aphrodisias as well.

In fact all major antique cities require walking the larger ground they cover and the more they have been excavated.
Ephesus will need two to three hours of walking, and the problem is there is just the two gates at each end, so you cannot sneak out half way.

The easier antique cities to visit are that i can think of off hand are:

Letoon, Phaeselis, Perge, Aspendos, Side, Patara, Cnidos, Sardis, Assos, Herakleia, Nicea, Didyma, Miletus, Prienne.

Best food will be in Selcuk, Sirince, Cesme areas, in terms of the salads and veggies.

There will be nice green and yellow plums, strawberries and maybe some early cherries, and late oranges, and local bananas in the South.

yorkshire

otherchelebi, your every post makes me want to return even more! I guess even from a car window you will be totally wowed in Cappadocia.

otherchelebi

Thanks Yorkshire. If you are from around York, i have some very nice memories of Nidd Hall and Ripley's Castle and a good meal at a pub close to York. Also, one of the first English books i read was "The flying Yorkshireman".

In any case, here are two presentations prepared by my wife. One of them has some photos from Hasankeyf which partially resembles the cappadocia region. The other one is a bonus (with music) of a recent discovery of ours, inland from Izmir, near Kutahya.

http://travel.webshots.com/album/575...M?vhost=travel

http://travel.webshots.com/video/308...04991763EuRfXG

yorkshire

Na--just a screen name. Thanks again for the wealth of information you provide!

tcreath

Our hotel in Istanbul had a resident cat that lived there and was usually lunged out somewhere in the lobby. I love cats so, for me, this was an added bonus. But if you are allergic, I would double-check with the hotel before you book just to confirm. We saw cats everywhere. None begged, but most were friendly and happily obliged to my request to pet them. I don't really recall seeing too many stray dogs.

Tracy

appletea

Thanks for all of your input yorkshire and otherchelebi. I will discuss with my husband a little more because he is almost fully recovered from his foot injury, and I don't want him to re-injure it on vacation.

Thanks for the note about the cats tcreath. =)

ellen75005

appletea,

I'm just reading this thread for the first time (I'm ellencmog; I recently changed my screen name). Just a couple of comments...

Cappadocia is amazing from any vantage point; on foot, from a car or balloon, but having spent 3 1/2 days there, I can't imagine experiencing it without walking around. We did a lot of walking and climbing. Some of the frescoes in the cave churches are wonderful and the underground cities require walking, of course. Having said that, if this will likely be your only trip to Cappadocia, don't pass it up even if just by car.

There are cats everywhere. Lots in Sultanahmet, lots at Topkapi. I only saw one at Ephesus, but maybe the rest were napping. There were really all over. Like Tracy, I'm a cat lover, so it wasn't a problem.

As otherchelebi said, Ephesus requires three to four hours and once committed, you have no choice but to exit by one of the two gates at either end.

We walked and walked and my husband declared that there are very few level areas in the country!

I'm not sure that I understand your question about rental cars, but we rented a car in Izmir and drove down to Selcuk; a very easy 45-minute drive via good highway. We didn't rent a car in Cappadocia, deciding on organized day tours instead, but driving would have been easy there.

You're in your planning where I was last summer. I had no idea where anything was. Part of the fun for me was the planning, then seeing the places I had read so much about.

You will love it; it's beautiful, and the Turkish people are warm and welcoming.

Ellen