BeniciaChris

We have been both places and both are wonderful-but I agree with some of the abouve comments an not trying 2 countries in 9 days.
If you decide on Greece-the Plaka area is wonderful-you can walk anywhere-take a side trip to Delphi and maybe a few days in Santorini.
If you go to Turkey one can spend a week in Istanbul-we were there 5 nights. Then decide do you want to go to Cappadocia or Ephesis.
You loose so much travel time going to too many places.
We have been to Greece twice and Turkey once. Would go back to both. We were on Paros for their Greek Othodox Easter celebration and had a wonderful celebration at our timeshare with lamp on a spit-my husband helped turn-lots of dishes and Greeek dancing with some children. Enjoy-May is a great time-Chris

joannyc

I'd probably recommnd Santorini and Hydra. I liked Hydra better than Paros, although to be fair, I didn't get to see very much of Paros. No cars on Hydra, they use donkeys! Cute!!!

We took the hydrofoil to Hydra and Paros from Athens.

otherchelebi

For exotic locations, i do not think you can beat cappadocia.

Or,

For natural beauty, mountains, lush forests, waterfalls, lakes, you should try the Eastern Black sea region of Turkey. Fly to Trabzon, rent car and stay in Rize and Camili village (Tema Foundation guest house) You will see Sumela Monastery driving from Trabzon to rize, climb up valleys to Ayder and Camlihemsin and Uzun gol, maybe stay at a bungalow at one of these high pastures, possibly see some local fetes.

Going to Camili, you will pass through tea plantations, rushing rivers with old and quaint bridges, borcka Kara Gol (black lke) which is a fairyland locale. At camili village you will be at the Georgian border, visit a beautiful waterfall after a nice hike, eat at a village house, visit a wooden mosque built totally without nails, and buy some of the best honey you can find anywhere.

i guess it all boils down to the same advice many others gave you, pick either Greece or Turkey.

If you pick Turkey, with your interests i would not go to Ephesus but will try one of the aras i advised.

otherchelebi

And here's the link to our blog from three years ago :

www.eserahmetcelebilerblackseatrip1.blogspot.com

also 2, 3, and 4

sumbul

thanks otherchelebi- your info on turkey is great. Do you have similar information for greece.

We have decided to just go to greece this time based on everyones advice.

otherchelebi

I am rather opinionated, i'm afraid without having much information on Greece. I do not like places inundated with tourists. however, May is a good time for visiting the greek islands. If it was later into summer, i would have said,'do not go'.

The further South you are, the warmer will the seas be. Santorini is expensive. there is more to see and do on Rhodes. Crete would be terrific, but i have not been there.

A kind of 'away from tourism, nature, mountains, monasteries' trip would be Northern Greece. However, with your limited duration and the time of your visit, i would pick any or combination of the three islands i mentioned plus not more than two days in Athens.

WTnow

I misread this the first time & thought you were looking for history/ruins. Oops.

Exotic locations!

I have to agree with otherchelebi, that you can not beat Cappadocia in that area.

Also Santorini is unique, stunningly gorgeous and peaceful. It does not have to be expensive at all & you can avoid the cruise ship crowds ( but I agree to avoid Greece entirely in July and August when the crowds are unbearable.)

It is cheap to rent a car for a day or two to explore the island to see it's vineyards, harbors, exotic beaches etc.

http://www.soultravelers3.com/2007/0...s-and-vie.html

You could easily spend all 9 days in Santorini. We stayed a month, adored it and this video gives a sense of the magic there:

http://www.soultravelers3.com/2009/0...eece.html#more

We stay there for very cheaply & also enjoyed this place that Brotherlylove had suggested:

http://www.soultravelers3.com/2007/0...-on-earth.html

Since you like beautiful places & nature, I wonder if you might find a way to do both Santorini & Cappadocia? Both are outstanding & unique. Although, frankly, I'd rather spend all 9 days at just one.

The bad news with the Greek Islands & short time is getting to different islands. Crete is known for it's nature, but I wouldn't say it is spectacular (in the way Santorini & Cappadocia is). (We went more for the history, Knossos,but loved charming Chania).

Now, Delphi has spectacular nature, so possibly something to consider. You can forget the ruins & just enjoy the spectacular nature & views. If you fly in or out of Athens, go directly there? Crowded Athens should have little interest to one who is not interested in ruins/history & wants nature.

Naxos and Paros are doable by ferry from Santorini too (sometimes they get canceled & sometimes everyone gets sea sick on them) but certainly not spectacular nature.

julies

Otherchelbi--

You sound as though we have common interests and aproaches to traveling. We vistied western Turkey 3 years ago in May--Cappadocia, the southern coast & Istanbul. If we had it to do over again, we'd eliminate the coastal areas because our visits inland from the coast to rural villages and markets were by far more interesting than seeing more developed seashore that one can see anywhere in the world. We also loved Cappadocia and Istanbul and would visit both again.

This is so fortuitious that I came back to this post again. WE are contemplating a return trip to Turkey heading east along the Black Seas coast. I've read your blog, but now I hae lots of questions. It looks as though you hired guides and drivers. Correct? Our last trip was completely do-it-yourself with a rented car. Would you have been comfortable doing this is this area? How long did you have for the trip? We were contemplating picking up a car in Istanbul and driving east along the coast through Safranbola and such places until we arrived in the Trabzon area. Then, we could visit the areas you mention. How did you work out all the logistics of your trip? Other than places like Vietnam (foreigners can't even rent cars and wouldn't want to even if they could)and Nicaragua and Peru (it was just as cheap to hire a driver as a rental) we've always been comfortable just driving ourselves. Thanks much.

rjb4041

WTnow,
Enjoyed the video at Santorini and rest of your blogs.
We are planning a two week trip (including travel from US) to Greece and Turkey in late September this year. Our interests are similar to Sumbul's. We are trying to figure out how much time should we allow in Greece.
We fly into Athens and plan to spend two nights, to get over jet lag and tour the highlights in Athens. As you suggest, Delphi has history as well as natural beauty. How much time should we set aside for side trips from Athens to Delphi and similar places in Peloponnese?
We plan to spend 3 nights in Santorini and 3 nights in Istanbul. Is that good? That leaves 4 nights out of 12 for Peloponnese.
Thanks for your help.

otherchelebi

Hi julies,

thanks for the note of confidence.

We did not have a guide with us, except for the half day, in the beginning of the trip when we crossed to Georgia at sarp border gate and needed one to quickly take us to batumi and bring us back. My wife's friend Emine was with us, but she really had no idea where we were going and why.

We had our own AWD Subaru Forester, thank God. Otherwise, we could easily have had major problems of getting stuck in semi-flooded dirt roads with very little traffic (unfortunately this did happen to us, and with the Forester on Gurle mountain, near Gemlik, where we were stuck for three hours or so) However, we did meet people who managed the same roads with the little Renault Clios which they had rented.

We have had three trips to the area. The first one covered just the coast from trabzon to Rize with sumela, Ayder, Camlihemsin valleys and pastures for only three days.

The second one also started from Trabzon where we flew and my driver brought the car with his family because he lived in the area. (alas, cannot afford a driver any more) That is the trip on the blog (did you look at all four sections?)

The third trip was last April. we took off from istanbul to Mengen to Devrek to bartin and Amasra, with o/n at Inkumu near Bartin. next day, we drove to Ulus, visited market and lovely library and to Pinarbasi where we stayed at very quaint Pasa Konagi two nights and visited nearby canyons, waterfalls. We then drove to Sinop on th coart through Azdavay, Agli, Kure, Inebolu. o/n at Sinop. drove up to boyabat, Tosya, Ilgaz. o/n at Ilgaz mountain resort where it snowed six inches that night. Drove back to istanbul on sixth day. Would have liked at least two more days, one for Kastamonu and another for a second day in Sinop.

Some years earlier, we had a day trip to Safranbolu and back but did not find the town exciting. I think it is overrated.

The Eastern black Sea was:
d1 Trabzon-Hopa with Sumela monastery
d2. Hopa, Batumi, Hopa, Borcka, Camili village (Tema Foundation guest house)
d3. Camili and Maral villages, hikes
d4. Borcka black lake, Artvin, Hell stream canyon, Savsat (laset hotel)
d5. Getting lost and not finding Savsat black lake, hikin up to the peak of a 2600 meter mountain on the road to Ardahan (rather simple really, because we could actually drive on hard pasture most of the way) to Kars (Kar's Hotel, which was one of the best boutique hotels we ever saw)
d.6 Drive to Dogu Beyazit, visit Ishak Pasa Palace and see mount Ararat, distribute gifts to children at exceedingly poor villages on the way, back to Kars
d.7 Visit Ani ruins near armenian border, drive to Yusufeli and to Barhal village on the Kasgar mountains. Short hike. storm. uprooted poplar on car, etc. stay at Marsis Pension
d.8 Drive to Ispir, over ovid mountain to Rize to Trabzon, leave car with driver and take late flight back to istanbul.

Had planned to visit Bayburt, Gumushane and Samsun for another three days.

Could have spent time at Rize for Uzun Gol, another night at Savsat, another day at Kars for Sarikamis and another night at Barhal, to really enjoy the trip.

We have also done 4-7 day trips, always with our car (except for Mardin), mostly just the two of us to:

- Nigde, Adana, iskenderun, Antakya, Yayladag, samandag.
- Mardin, Midyat, Hasankeyf (flight plus rental car)
- Aksaray, Konya, Mut, Silifke, Mersin
- Aksaray, Karaman, Manazan, Mut, Ermenek, Anamur, Alanya, Side, Isparta
- Mugla mountains, Datca Peninsula
- Fethiye and environs
- Bafa lake and environs
- Salihli, sardis, Bozdag, Golcuk, Birgi, Gediz, Aizanoi.
- yenisehir, Inegol and environs.
- Mudurnu, Goynuk and environs
- Duzce, akcakoca, and environs.
- Lake abant and Bolu mountain
- Skiing on uludag and Kartalkaya
- Lots of beach and sun trips to the coast between antalya and Kalkan, as well as Fethiye, Bodrum, cesme, Kusadasi, Ayvalik, Foca.
- Philosophy conferences and seminars at Assos some including Troy, gallipoli, and Gokceada.

I have posted some of my articles on Pinarbasi/Pasa Konagi, Iznik/Nicea, Hayit Buku/Datca, and a short presentation of Aizanoi on Fodor on some former threads.

We are planning one or more trips this april and maybe may to some of the parts of the Southwest we missed and to Osmaniye, gaziantep and Urfa.

otherchelebi

Sorry, forgot one more recent trip:

Istanbul to Amasya, through safranbolu.
o/n at Grand pasa in amasya two nights. Visit museum at Alpaslan visit and Amasya sites.
Drive to Alacahoyuk and hattusas (Hittite sites). o/n at Kizilcahamam (not recommended) and back.

julies

otherchelbi--

You must live some place where it is easier for you to access Turkey (can't remember from your blog). We are from the US, so it is a major undertaking and a major expense to get to Turkey. I'm copying all of your info into a document so I can further research it when I get my map out. These sound exactly like the types of trips we like to take on our own (away from the more typical beaten path that most tourists take), and we are fine with the unexpected happening--it just makes the trip more memorable. Thanks again for taking the time to post this.

Thanos

Greece has better food than turkey! I love souvlaki,mousaka and pastitsio.

clausar

Thano,
This is a thread from 2010.... and your post is off topic anyway..