Where should I go when I leave Istanbul?
 

So I'm finally getting to Turkey in September! While it feels like I've been planning this trip for years, I really have done no research. We're only going for about 8 days (once you take away the travel time) which doesn't seem long enough for three stops. I'm thinking four days in Istanbul and then... what? At first I thought the Aegean coast, but we just did a big ruins trip and I don't want beaches. SO now I'm rethinking about flying to Cappadocia, since that's something that would be totally new. But will we be bored with 3-4 days in Cappadocia? If we rent a car, can we daytrip somewhere? Also, if we do this we would have to fly back to Istanbul the last night and stay at a hotel near the airport because our flight leaves at noon. Is this at all worth it? or should I stick to the coast? Help!

You will not be bored! We spent 3 days in Cappadocia and wish we could have spent more. It is indeed other-wordly, a truely magical place, but you must plan to do some walking to get to many of the sites. As Cappodocia is a rather large area you will definitely need a car to get to all the sites. With a noon flight you will not need a hotel near the airport. Check with Turkish Airlines - they might have a morning flight from Kayseri to Istanbul. Enjoy your stay in Turkey!

Hi Charlie --

Thanks for responding! Where did you stay in Cappadocia? I'm thinking Urgup, but I just e-mailed Esbelli Evi hotel and they are booked already! They sent me the name of Kayada Hotel. Ever heard of it?

oops -- meant Kayadam hotel!

amy-- We stayed at the Esbelli Evi - too bad it is fully booked and I have no knowledge of the Kayadam Hotel. If you stay in Urgup try the Somine Restaurant - best food we had while in Turkey. We were there on our anniversary and I toasted my wife with a glass of good Turkish wine with "I love you" in English, German, French, Spanish, Greek, and Polish. Not knowing the Turkish, I glanced quizically at the young waitress, who giggled and obliged. I now know how to say "I love you" in Turkish and was also rewarded with a free dessert. Also try the Greek House restaurant in Mustafa Pasa for lunch - a truly Ottoman experience. I know you will have a wonderful time!

Hi Amy - seems to be a few of us Fodorites going to Turkey in Sept. We might need to start a thread to see if any of us are going to overlap times and towns. When will you be there? Hubby and I will be there Sept 10 through 25.

Yes, September will be a busy time in Turkey for Fodorites. We'll be there the last two weeks of the month!

Well, now I know who booked all the rooms at Esbelli Evi! Hubby and I will be there the 10th through the 18th. Too funny! We'll be in Cappadocia the 14-18. Actually, if we find enough fodorites there during that time, we may want to try to organize a group tour since they're cheaper... something to think about!

OK, as for hotels, Yunak is more than we wanted to spend. Anyone heard of Urgup Evi? My Frommer's book says that if Esbelli Evi is booked to stay here... I'm not sure how much I trust them though.

Thanks for the restaurant recs!

We'll be in Turkey from Sept 3 to 21 - can't wait!

Amy! We will be in Cappadocia Sept 14-17! (And yes, we ARE staying at Esbelli Evi, sorry for taking your room!) I would love to discuss getting together for a tour. I have heard of Argeus in Cappadocia for good tours, I know there are more, lets look into them, or perhaps a private guide. Anyone else???

BTW Amy, are you coming to Cappadocia from Istanbul? We arrive Istanbul very late the 10th and have ressies at Empress Zoe. I really think we ought to start a September Turkey thread to see where we might have overlaps. Plus, if we get to internet cafes while there, we can pass along handy tips to those coming after us!

Turkish trail run comfortable sleeping cars with good restaurant cars attached. So I suggest to overnight trips, to Konya and to Ankara. Konya has the tomb and shrine of the founder of the whirling dervishes (a great order of Sufi mystics), a pleasant city centre with several houses for coffee and cake, a sultan’s garden a bus ride up a hill where you go for lunch and the view, and a small but good museum of classical sculpture. You get a strong taste of Moslem devotion, and much of the time you are cool, indoors. Just by the shrine is a hotel, well accustomed to tourists, which I made my base for my day, breakfast to dinner.

Ankara is of course the capital, an attractive modern city on hills, with a large museum of all the past Anatolian cultures, not just the Greek and Roman, and without Islam, which gets a look-in with the winding hillside lanes of the old town in the Citadel.

You can book your journeys at the Sirkeci station in the old city, just below the Topkapi Saray. You want to be sure that you take the trains that have sleepers (smaller, and with their own wash basins) not couchettes (washbasin along the corridor). I am afraid my detail is two years old, but little will have changed. You start with a ferry from Europe (Karakoy) to Asia (Haydarpasa). This runs several times an hour, takes 15 minutes, and gives you a grand view of the old city, as the sun sets behind the great mosques. As your boat makes to tie up at Haydarpasa you should enjoy the view of the station, a combination of Turkish and German imperial taste, at the gateway to the Baghdad Railway. If your feet are tired you might leave Karakoy early, to have time enough to dine slowly in the good station buffet, with some wine to help you sleep (the restaurant car has beer but no wine). In 2003 the Meram Express left at 1920 and reached Konya after a restaurant car breakfast and omlette at 0821. Times back were Konya 1750, Haydarpasa 0630, but if the train is late you have the comfort of a fuller night, and perhaps breakfast on the train as you trundle through the Asian suburbs of Istanbul, while businessmen beside you tap their fingers. In case the train is late you should take an upper berth, and ask your conductor to wake you just 30 minutes before Haydarpasa. That way you actually want the train late, to let you sleep till 0730 or so.

The Ankara Express ran from Haydarpasa 2230 to Ankara 0800 and from Ankara 2230 to Haydarpasa 0800.

You should talk at Sirkeci about how to book the sleepers back to Haydarpasa. Two years ago trains with sleepers, couchettes, and restaurant cars ran daily from Ankara at 1808 to Sivas at 0700 and Cetinkaya at 0901, and daily except Tuesday and Thursday from Sivas at 1905 or 2005 to Ankara at 0730 or 0658. Trains are poor between Ankara and Konya, so you may need a bus.

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Sorry that I forgot to say that Sivas and Cetinkaya are good bases for touring in Cappadocia. Also, that there are a detailed and able survey of rail travel, country by country at http://www.seat61.com/, and a note on getting the best from sleepers and couchettes at http://www.geocities.com/rexbickers/...ghttrains.htm/.

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Geees ! We will be busy in cappadocia this september ;-) Nice to hear great enthusiasm from you guys.
Esbelli might be fully book, yes September is high season in Cappadocia.
Since Esbelli is the one of the first Cave Hotel of the region and run by a Gentleman named Suha and they look after their guests in a good manner and reputation no wonder they are full. Urgup house close by is a good guest house too. All the hotel at that area are Ok. Yunak is also good one with more modern amenities etc. I assure you that you wont be bored after 3 days. 1stanbul and Cappadocia combination is one of your best choice. You might connect your noon flight from Kayseri.
Consider a hot air balloon ride when in Cappadocia. Would be nice to meet fodorities at Somine restaurant one night while chatting with local wine being consumed !!! if locals are allowed.

Have a great time in Cappadocia.

Murat

Hey Ben -- thanks for the info.

HappyCheesehead, I think we're taking the same trip. We are getting to Istanbul the morning of the 10th (and the Empress Zoe looks lovely), but we're staying at the charmless and utterly unTurkish Intercontinental. We have hotel points that we need to start using :) I'm hoping Esbelli Evi will have a cancellation. They are booked only one of the nights (the 15th) of our stay so I'm still trying to figure the whole thing out.

The tour I keep seeing mentioned is Cappadocia Tours, which was started by a guy that everyone keeps raving about -- saw his name in several other threads. I will dig it up.

Amy, you are starting to freak me out - and I only mean this in a "what a coincidence" way. In addition to the Empress Zoe ressie we have, I ALSO have InterContinental rooms reserved on points . Hubby travels for business quite often, and he has about a half a million points with Holiday Inn right now. I thought we might want to stay in Sultanhamet instead, but am holding the Intercontinental room in case I change my mind.

That's too funny! What a coincidence. I think I'm going to book at Urgup Evi and if Esbelli has any cancellations I will reshuffle things around.

Hi Amy:

Are you flying from Istanbul to Kayseri on the 14th? Right now we are planning on taking the 8:35 Turkish Air flight to Kayseri and then renting a car. I am trying to work on the rental now. Have you looked into car rentals at all yet?

Hey Cheesehead, I hope you're still on here. I got swamped at work and just looked at this thread.

I think that's the flight we'll take too (I haven't booked that part though). I think the hotel I have reserved has a free airport pickup, so I'm not sure yet if we'll rent a car. If you do, I highly suggest AutoEurope -- if you can't drive stick, be sure to tell them! there's some thread on here where I asked this group about renting a car in Paris (if you search by my screen name, you'll find it) and got some good suggestions.

ok, here's my current logistical jam: Right now, we are on a Delta direct flight from Istanbul to the states that leaves at noon on Sept. 18 and lands around 4 p.m. I wanted to spend 4 nights in Cappadocia and leave the morning of the 18th, but the only flight that I could take is at 6 a.m. I don't know if I'm up for that kind of morning. Any idea how far the airport is from Urgup? The other option is we could take the next flight at 11 a.m., land at 12:15 and then change our Istanbul flight to a connection through Amsterdam -- an itinerary that would mean two plane changes and ultimately landing at 10 p.m. Or, we could leave Cappadocia the night before, stay at the airport the night of the 17th and fly out on the direct flight.

I am so torn, I don't know what to do. I hate the idea of cutting the vacation short and staying at the airport the last night because we only have 9 days there. And I hate the idea of getting up at the crack of dawn or landing so late.

What would you do?

Hi Amy:

Yes, hubby and I can both drive stick. I have quotes from Auto Europe but was a bit worried because they were not quoting any agencies with airport pick up. I started a thread about it and got spanked by Patrick because I was not making it clear I knew how Auto Europe worked, LOL. I also got quotes from Argeus (using Thrifty and Budget) and they advised they would bring the car to me from Urgup with no additional charge. Auto Europe was quoting a pick up through EuropeCar, but according to them I have to make my own way from the airport to downtown Kayseri, which, also according to Patrick, is not any big deal.

Your situation is a bit of a conundrum. I agree that it would be very hard to trade in a last night in the Cappadocia region for an airport hotel. I assume you are going back to work Monday morning and a 10pm arrival (which will be about, what, 4am body clock time?) would be pretty rough. I would HATE to give up that non-stop. I believe that the Kayseri airport is approximately 60 to 75 minutes from Urgup, approx 55km. Will your hotel take you to the early flight? By the way, I think it is at 5am, not 6 if it is Turkish Air you are going to be flying. Argeus usually runs a shuttle to the airport, but not for that early flight, according to their website. I am sure there must be some sort of transport that can be arranged. I would be just a tad nervous myself counting on a local flight getting me to Istanbul in time for a flight home. I mean, what if for some crazy reason it did not fly that morning??

I guess I personally would choose to fly to Istanbul the night before given your three options, but that’s just me. I wonder, though, if it would make any sense for you to spend two days in Istanbul, go to Cappadocia, then come back for two days? I don’t know, you are then losing parts of two days for travel so there is a downside to that also.

Right now hubby and I are wrestling over our return date, originally scheduled for Thursday the 22nd . We just cannot see both the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts in the 4 days after Cappadocia and we are unwilling to give up either one. I think we are going to bite the bullet and use another 50,000 points (and the 100 dollar change fee) to rule bust our flight to leave September 25. I hate to do it, I mean 50,000 points is a full R/T ticket to Europe in exchange for only three additional days but I just don’t know if we will ever get back, the world is too big a place.

I know the annoyance of rule-busting. We're doing that too. It's so painful.

OK, I'm thinking now of flipping the trip -- of doing Cappadocia first and Istanbul second. This sort of goes against every other tip I've ever done -- sightseeing first, interesting outdoorsy thing second -- but it may be our best bet. I think if we don't do that, then we'll have to stay at an airport hotel the last night. Landing so late the day before you go back to work just kills you.

OK, so let's talk about car rental in cappadocia. Why do you think you need a car and are there adequate ways to get around if you don't have one?

Flipping is not a bad plan as far as use of time goes. I bet you will love your trip no matter what order you do it in! Looks like there is a 5:25 to Kayseri. If you land around 4 pm, will you have enough time to get that flight? I know we are planning on getting our Visa when we arrive. Since you might not want to have to wait in line for it ( assuming there will be one), perhaps you could get it in advance? That way you would just need to collect your baggage and head over to Turkish Air after customs. Maybe Esbelli Evi would have reservation availability for those days!

As far as car rental goes, I think I have looked at this from all angles. As we have already noted, the flights out of Kayseri leave a little to be desired. I could not make the schedules work better than just getting in the car and driving. Since we are heading south and want to drive along the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts it saves time and money to have the car. Hubster is an excellent driver and he likes to drive too (well, Budapest and Prague were the exceptions, LOL,)so I think it works out best for us in the long run. We like to have our freedom. If we rule bust we will pick up Kayseri 9/14 and drop Izmir 9/24. If we don't we will drop Dalaman 9/21. We plan on flying back to IST the night before our 5:50am flight back home. I have the Holiday Inn closest to the airport booked (on points of course!) for the nights of 9/21, 9/22, 9/23 and 9/24, so I am ready no matter what happens.

arrrgghhh... flipping our trip doesn't look like it's going to work, because we land at 10:30 a.m. and we wouldn't be able to catch a flight to Kayseri until 5... too much wasting of a day. So, I am resigned to spending the last night at the airport. Sigh. I think we will catch the 7:45 flight from Kayseri. Or, I'm thinking maybe catch the 11 and have one last day/dinner in Istanbul. The airport Holiday Inn you booked at, was that the Crowne Plaza? Wish they had something with Starwood or Hilton points, but I guess we'll have to shift things around.

Since we're not driving down to the coast, do you think we need a rental car in Urgup to see the sights of Cappadocia?

Hi Amy:

I think that you could do Cappadocia without a car. Argeus (as one example) has 3 different full day trips to various points of interest around the Cappadocia. We looked at the tour descritions and they do look interesting. I also thought they looked kind of pricy at first (75 to 85 per person) but they include admissions and lunch. You can get a private guide (assuming one has a vehicle) for the day for $70 total, but then add on the cost of the car and admissions/lunch and you are about back to the same price. Of course, if you want to go somewhere not on the tour then you are out of luck. I have only looked into Argeus (mainly because I have heard good things about them on this board and in some guideboks) but I would be fairly certain there are other tours and agencies available. Of course, without a car you are restricted to Urgup in the evenings (unless you arrange a taxi or dolmus to go somewhere?) but really, after a long day where would you go besides dinner? It won't stay light so very late in September.

The HI that I have ressies at for the night before is: (this is pulled from their website) The Holiday Inn Istanbul-Atakoy Marina is located on the seafront, overlooking the Marina, close to Istanbul International Airport in a quiet, newly developed tourist centre. The business centre and most major tourist attractions are within easy reach of the hotel.Complimentary shuttle service from and to the airport daily between 07:00 and 23:00 hours. Says it is 8k from the airport ,and 19k to the city, but there is a regularly scheduled shuttle into and back from Istanbul. It does not say this is a Crown Plaza, but the email addy for reservations is a Crown Plaza one, so who knows?

Cappadocia is incredible. The "Fairy Chimneys" are the big draw but, really, the area is just absolutely beautiful. We went on a tour that included the underground city, a pottery factory tour, a caravanasari (spelling?) and some other sights. We did a pretty and fairly easy hike through Pigeon Valley. We stayed at the inexpensive Ufuk (it means "Horizon") Pension. http://www.ufukpension.com.tr/ and booked our tour through them. We also ate at a touristy but fun cave restaurant and show. We now adopt a worldly-wise expression and say, "We see the world differently now that we've danced beneath the disco ball in a cave in Cappadocia". I loved the Open Air museum.

We ate lunch near the open air museum at a Pension and restaurant owned by a man named Hikmet. He played a sitar or similar stringed instrument and it was a very cool experience, although the food was somewhat uninspired.

Cappadocia is an absolute gem - well worth the time.

Hi Amy - Still planning on your trip to Turkey in September?

Susan in Toronto and wj1 indicated on other threads a little while back that they were still going.

I am not certain we are still going, but I do have all my reservations in place yet.

Hi Happy --

Yep, we're still going. A friend just got back from two weeks in Istanbul last week and she had an amazing time. I have to get back on planning though -- I can't remember if I made that airport hotel reservation a while ago or not :)

I can't remember, but I'm assuming you're in Wisconsin? Living where I do, it's hard to be scared of traveling to other countries.

Happy -- I forgot to update, we got a room as Esbelli Evi (someone must have cancelled) for Sept. 14-17 so if you still end up going we will be there at the same time. I just realized we are also taking that 8:35 a.m. flight out of Istanbul, so we'll be on your plane. Basically I'm stalking you around Turkey ;)

I'm working on the car rental next week. Nothing like a hectic summer to get in the way of trip planning!

Hi Amy:

Yes, we have cancelled. It was only in part due to security concerns,(I was not terribly worried, just a little bit, but my husband was more so ) and actually the PKK has called for a 30 day cease fire (in place for most of the time that we would be there) and the situation certainly appears to have calmed down for the time being.

We cancelled because we have already spent a week at a luxury resort in Mexico and went to Germany last month, so I was scraping the bottom of my time off barrel. PLUS, we are spending two weeks in France next April and I already have those tix. PLUS, work is just crazy for both of us right now. PLUS, our flight schedules kind of s****d and for our 15 days off (including weekends), we only were going to be actively sight-seeing in Turkey for 9.5 days. PLUS we could not figure out a way to get to Ephesus in the time alloted. So all this stuff came together and we just decided the time was not right for us to go.

I hope you have a WONDERFUL TIME! I will anxiously await some trip reports from the "September in Turkey Fodorites Club" and I expect I will feel a big dissappointment that we made the choice not to go.

Best wishes to you for a safe and fabulous trip!

Oh, Amy - if you are still looking for car rental info, I had great service from Mehmet at Argeus. He quoted a 1.6 cc Ford Focus (manual though) with zero ded CDW for $66 dollars a day. We were planning on dropping in Dalaman, so that included one way fees if any.I can give his email addy when I get home if you need it.

Hi Happy --

That's too bad you won't heading to Turkey this year -- I'll miss you in Cappadocia! I pulled together the last of my logistical details -- thanks for the car rental info, but neither of us ever leaverned to drive a manual. So we're stuck paying through the nose. Oh well. Did you see the New York Times had another article about art in Istabul this Sunday? I felt very proud since 2 of the restaurants I planned to go to were in there :)

Happy travels!

Hi, Amy. I finally found the thread you told me about. I must have missed the most recent NY Times article about Turkey- do you have the link or date?
We are leaving for Istanbul on Sept. 12 and will be there until Sept. 18, when we fly to Izmir. Do you know the dates of the Kurdish group's cease fire? I'd like to tell my family so they won't worry so much! We're staying at the Hotel Arcady
Have a good trip!
Roz

Hi Rshorens:

Hope you have a great trip!

I have been kicking myself since I cancelled. I just love to travel and plan and see new places, but it really was the right choice for us for a variety of reasons.

I copied the following from an article online today in the Turkish Daily News

"The PKK announced a fresh one-month unilateral cease-fire on Aug. 19 but underlined that they would continue to defend themselves in the face of Turkish military operations"

BTW, some idiot blew himself up today near a metro and police station in Bursa - Turkish Daily News called him a suspected bomber and did not give any affiliation for him. Glad he did not hurt innocent people.

Hope you will post a trip report when you get back so I can travel vicariously!