Turkey: not an easy trip to plan :-(
 

I'm hoping someone can help me. I've been having a difficult time planning our 2 week Turkey trip this July. I'm starting to wish we hadn't chosen Turkey for our summer vacation this year!

For one thing, the hotels are very expensive! We usually travel in the U.S. and reserve one double room for, at most, $100. In Turkey, our family of 5, is looking at having to reserve two rooms for at least double that amount! A lot of hotels/apartments, will allow a max of 4 people in the room. With just 1 additional person, they are saying we'll have to reserve a second room. I'm even starting to contemplate faking that we're 4 and seeing how that works. (My girls ARE twins, lol). Anyway, I've raised our budget to $150 a night for Istanbul--- but even that doesn't seem reasonable. Anyone have any ideas? We'd like to be in a good location and just get a clean room.

The second frustrating thing is getting our itinerary down! We know a few people who have been to Turkey (acquantances) and they don't seem to be helpful at all. When I run down our itinerary with them, they just say "It's all good." or, "You can't go wrong". How is that helpful??

Here's what I have so far:

July 4-July 9- Istanbul

July 9-July 13 - Base ourselves in Selcuk and visit Ephesus and other ruins in the area. Is 3 full days good here? (Driving time is about 10 hours from Istanbul. Flying would be too expensive for our family of 5. Besides flying, is there any other fast/inexpensive way to get to Selcuk? For example, are there any ferries that go from Istanbul to Izmir? Then we can rent a car in Izmir?)

Here's where it gets confusing, July 13-? We'd like to visit the Lycian ruins, Oludeniz, do the 12 island tour but we're not sure which city to base ourselves in? Some say that Bodrum is a must and others say Kas or Kalkan? Also, how many days?

Before heading back to Istanbul, we want to spend maybe 2 days in Antalya. Would this be stretching it too much? These last days would be mostly resting by the beach/pool and enjoying the scenery. Any hotel recommendations here?

On Friday, July 17th I'd like us to start driving back north to Istanbul. How far is Antalya from Istanbul? I read online it is about 11 hours but that doesn't make sense since Istanbul to Selcuk is suppose to be 10 hours???

I also just read that gas is about $10 a gallon in Turkey and that all the car are manual. Is this true???? We don't know how to drive a manual and that's absurd for gas! (here in the States, we're complaining about $2 a gallon gas!)

Any help you all can provide me would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hi momplaygroup. I've had lots of help from several sites, particularly here, at Turkey Travel Planner and Trip Adviser. Trip Adviser's forum seems to be the most active for Turkey and TTP has a wealth of information about everything Turkish. Fodorites are always very helpful. I don't want to mislead you though as we'll be visiting in May and so I can't comment based on experience yet.

Originally we planned to stay in a hotel in Sultanahmet (Istanbul) but changed our minds and decided to rent a lovely one BR apartment (pera!place) in Beyoglu. The owners, a Turkish/English couple, have since bought a second 2 BR apartment (Galata) and until they have completed the renovations in July they are offering it at a discounted rate. They have been wonderful to deal with. You may want to take a look at the web site ... www.istanbulapartment.co.uk. There are many other apartment rentals available as well. In any case Istanbul seems to be more expensive than other areas of the country.

We'll also be spending time in the Antalya area, specifically Cirali which is about an hour and a half from the city of Antalya. We'll be staying at the highly rated, family owned Canada Hotel on a half board basis. It is also very reasonably priced.... www.canadahotel.net. Apparently they are quite near a great beach, have a lovely pool, fabulous food and the Lycian ruins are close by. They also have cottages on site. Kas is about 2 hours away along one of the most scenic highways in the country and is easily accessed by bus. Kalkan is a little further along the same highway.

Bus transportation in Turkey is said to be very comfortable and inexpensive. We will be using bus transport from Urgup to Antalya and then to Cirali. You may want to consider that as an option instead of renting a car. Because of time we've decided to fly from Antalya back to Istanbul. The flights were also inexpensive. From everything I've read and heard Turkey is more than worth the effort. Keep planning!

Good luck! Hope this helps.

You might want to look at my trip report from last year. Click on my name to find it. You are going in the summer, so that heat might be a problem. Your hotel costs will be higher than ours because we did not insist on AC. On the other hand, the lire has gone down considerably against the dollar, so food costs should be lower than last spring. This might not be true in Istanbul where the restaurateurs might keep the dollar/euro value in mind when posting their prices in lire.

Just a warning... those drive times, assume they will take longer. I did a tour in Turkey several years ago and the driving there is an "adventure" to say the least. We had one day where an accident held us up for SEVERAL hours. Unless things have changed you are dealing with a lot of two lane roads and with drivers who view traffic rules and more like "advisories"

I suggest you find a friend and learn how to drive a manual transmission. Have you PRICED the automatics? MUCH MUCH higher, plus there have been lots of reports over the years that when folks show up at the rental car agency with thier automatic transmission reservation they get a manual anyway because that's all the place has.

Have you vacationed in Europe before? The gas price comment leads me to think that maybe you haven't. Gas has ALWAYS been much higher there. If not, maybe someplace "easier" then Turkey might be a start. Seriously, I routinely drive around Europe and would think twice (and then a few more times) on driving around Turkey. I LOVED my trip to Turkey, but it's logistically a harder place then some other European destinations and might not be a good "First" trip? If you want ruins, Greece or Italy might be easier.

Also, the hotel rooms in Europe tend to be SMALL. So you will need the two rooms!

The price of fuel is so high in Turkey that for our 9 day rental it just about equaled the price of the rental itself.

It's about $6.20 per US gallon.
A round trip out of Istanbul down the west coast and along to Antalya and back to Istanbul is about 1100 miles, total cost of rental and petrol will be about $600.

hi Momplaygroup
im of no help but i wish you luck in planning and a safe fun trip

i will look forward to your trip report because it is likely that turkey will be our next trip but we will most likely sail the coast rather than stay inland

im really looking forward to it but dismayed that it sounds like an expensive one
bummer because we are just forking out big dollars for our russia/ scandinavia one coming up this year and were hoping for a breather!!!!

Have you thought about taking an organized tour? DH and I are NOT organized tour people and we're experienced travelers, but we decided to take a tour in Turkey last year and we were very pleased with our decision. We used Pacha Tours.

Thanks everyone for your great advice and info! My husband is adamant about renting a car once we leave Istanbul. He's driven in the Middle East before so he knows how to drive like a madman ;-) We found a reasonably priced car rental (hopefully it will be an automatic) but yep the total price with gas will probably be almost $1,000 for the two weeks.

We've also decided to split our vacation between Istanbul, drive down to Selcuk to visit Ephesus, etc (stay probably at the Hotel Bella) and then stay somewhere in the Mediterranean (the Canada Hotel looks like a nice choice!).

NLSpirit--- the Canada Hotel seems like a great place to base ourselves in the Miditerranean. May I ask why you choose the area of Cirali versus somewhere else on the Mediterranean?

Artsbabe--- my husband is 100% against taking organized tours. He's very spontaneous and (since I like planning things ahead of time) he's probably causing half of my anxiety :-)

CarolA--- Turkey is actually my first "Europe" visit, my husband has been to London several times but usually uses their trains. We already have our airline tickets so can't change now. We were debating between Turkey and Spain and chose Turkey thinking it would be less expensive. I guess it is but everything is relative. Last year we went to California and that trip seems like such a CHEAP vacation compared to Turkey! (and we spent most our time in 4-5 star hotels!)

Thanks again everyone! I will check out those websites too.

Hi momplaygroup. It sounds as if you've made some decisions and I'm sure the rest will come together too ... it will be a wonderful vacation for your family. Ours is pretty close at hand ... can't wait!

We're experienced independent travelers and have traveled many parts of Europe several times in a rent-a-car. We like a leisurely pace when traveling having done the '10 countries in 2 weeks' bit independently in the 70's.

Initially we thought perhaps we would like Fethiye or Bodrum as a base until we read that these areas are very touristy which is not our travel style. We did look seriously at Kas or Kalkin and ended up deciding to stay in Cirali. It's unspoiled and situated in a protected natural area accessible to many interesting sites. However we're hoping to paraglide too so may rent a car and drive to Kas for the day to take this in. Cirali is along the Lycian way and the beach is supposed to be lovely. We also intend to take a day trip on a gulet and perhaps spend a day sea kayaking ... all available in Cirali. We'll decide all this when we get there.

The Canada Hotel gets rave reviews (I have yet to hear a negative comment) and the owners, a Canadian/Turkish couple are, from all accounts, very hospitable. (Check out the forums on Trip Advisor as well as the hotel reviews there for comments on the hotel.) Oh yes ... apparently Saban's cooking is amazing ... another reason for choosing the 1/2 board option! (He's a chef.)

momplaygroup. Enjoy the rest of your planning. I hope this is helpful. Good luck.

There's lots to see on the Lycian coast between Fethiye and Cirali. If you've got enough time I recommend 2 nights at Kayakoy (near Fethiye), 1 night Kaş and 2 nights Cirali.

We flew on Pegasus airlines from IST to Izmir (about 40 minutes from Selcuk) in February for around $40 per person each way. I assume the airfare would be higher in the summer, but you may want to research this airline if you haven't already. The planes were modern and clean.

I found the hotels to be very reasonable, but again we were there in February. I'm sure the prices are higher in the summer because it's peak season.

You will have a wonderful trip! Turkey seemed daunting for me to plan at first, but eventually everything fell into place and all of the effort was worth it because it was an amazing trip and Turkey is an amazing country.

Good luck and happy planning!
Tracy

Hi there

Your itinerary does not mention Cappadocia. This is an unmissable!!! you need to include this region at some point.
we have been to Turkey last month, and it was really the best part of our trip.
We are a couple of budget conscious over 50's and enjoy low impact travel, but this time we decided to take help from a local travel agent...and we were rewarded with an excellent holiday. We were deligted with Ann's - www.boutiqueturkey.com - ability to match our travel experiences in Turkey with our love of nature, people, food and interesting neighbourhoods. We were totally enthralled with the level of accomodation , personalised itinerary, smooth connections and excellent value.
Don't regret to have chosen Turkey for your holidays. You will be impressed by the variety of the country, and the kindness of the people. I think this is an excellent choice for a family.
Enjoy

Jamie