What Am I Missing???

Turkey's cheaper?

Or maybe people who take those tours have already been on the others. Also RS has been talking up Turkey a lot recently on his radio show and podcasts.

Obviously for some people (self included), Turkey has an enormous appeal. It is high on our list and may do it next Fall. We have even looked at a cruise in the Black sea. I think that it is very interest and somewhat critical part of the world and I want to see if first hand. The whole Muslin/Moorish influence in Spain and in those area are a great interest to me. Just personal opinion.

Many people would love to see Turkey, but may feel feel more comfortable taking a tour there then travelling independly,, whileas I think more people feel comfortable travelling independly in western Europe. One thing about travel in Turkey (and Greece) is the different alphabet they use, makes it harder to deal with langauge difference, translate and read signs etc.. the grammar is nothing like enlgish, and well, it is much trickyer, plus outside of main tourist sites forget about anyone speaking english.

As for RS tours, they will book up, just wait.

Turkey does NOT use a different alphabet. If you do not know this, I find it hard to believe you know anything about the grammar or how difficult it is to speak Turkish. Do you know if English is taught or not in the schools? I do not understand people making generalized statements about a country that they basically know nothing about.

Turkey has wonderful, historical sights, beautiful scenery, delicious food, warm and lovely people, and great beaches too. They don't call it the Turkish Riviera for nothing. Since Turkey is striving so hard to get into the EU, perhaps many people are thinking about going there just in case the EU changes its mind and lets them in and then all the prices will be in Euro.

in case the EU changes its mind and lets them in and then all the prices will be in Euro.

Like in the UK, right?

You betcha! At this point in time, I think anything is possible. I hear people making jokes about the US switching to the euro.

Turkey does have its own alphabet. In fact it's called the "Turkish Alphabet".
http://tinyurl.com/3gldah

No more than saying German has its own alphabet. I don't think anyone says that do they?

I guess if that is a country you want to visit, a R/S tour would be the best bet. Just not a place I ever care to visit. Think I will stick with western and eastern Europe. So many places there I still want to visit and experience. Lots of people will be heading to Turkey summer with Rick's tours though.

I think that a lot of people want to see Turkey but are a little scared because its a "muslim country" and would feel more comfortable with a tour.
I have been to Istanbul and had a great time and found the people to be very helpful. Mind, there are scams as with every other country so you have to be careful. If I were interested in a country but was a bit uncertain of what to expect a tour would be my choice.

Ah, Tony, you are indeed missing quite a lot. Turkey is one of the most beautiful countries anywhere, with amazing architecture, stunning scenery, historic ruins, and one of the world's great cuisines. Everyone I know who has visited has come back raving about their experience. We've been there six times and look forward to going in the future again.

It's true the Turkish language can be a challenge for most speakers of Indo-European languages. While it uses the Latin alphabet (albeit with the unique undotted "i") it is an agglutinative language, somewhat like Hungarian or Finnish. There are few cognates with other European languages, so you can't cheat by guessing what a word might be based on what you know in English or French or German or whatever. On the plus side, the sounds are mainly easy to pronounce, and once you know the spelling conventions, all Turkish words are pronounced exactly as they are written.

Luckily, there are plenty of English speakers in touristed areas, so it isn't necessary to speak Turkish to have a wonderful time. (Though speaking some Turkish certainly enhances the experience and can come in handy for communicating with waiters and maids in other places in Europe, too!)

I bought a little book called "Just Enough Turkish" and found it to be not that difficult. I have the same series of books for Spanish and German too! I find French to be difficult though.

It is too bad that people write a country off just because of its major religion. Doesn't seem to put people off of going to Egypt very much though. Christians and Jews have existed peacefully together in Turkey for a very long time. You will probably find more veiled women in Germany than in Turkey.

I must say I found the comment about being able to converse with the maids, etc. in Turkish to be a bit snide. There are Turkish politicians, TV personalities, bankers, etc. in Western Europe, the same as any other minority. Many small businesses here are Turkish owned and relegating them to the drudge jobs of Europe with your comments are unfair and a tad racist.