Travel to Turkey in Late Dec. 2012

Go. Dress in layers. Expect some snow and the fact you'll not be able to see every place on your list in a week.

Ditto Claudia. I went with my mother in October 2011. We zipped around by plane (internal flights in Turkey are cheap and easy), but still "only" saw Istanbul (4 nights each in the beginning and end), Selcuk (1 night), Ankara (1 night), and Bursa (2 nights) in an 12 night trip. Bursa is skippable; if I had the trip to do again, I'd spend two nights each in Ankara and Selcuk, and cut a night from Istanbul to accomodate this. For Istanbul, we first stayed in Sarnic Hotel recommend by RS. They messed up our reservation, and we didn't like it for other reasons, although the location is good. Our second stay was in the Peradays - wonderful place, although the location near Taksim is not as convenient as the location near Sultanahmet. We loved Istanbul! For Selcuk, we stayed at the Hotel Canberra. It was modest, but very welcoming. Dinner on the roof was a highlight (maybe not in December). We loved the vibe of Selcuk, and wish we had an extra day and night here. For Ankara, we stayed at the Hotel Tunali. This is a business hotel in a nice area. A Turkish woman we met on the plane said this was one of the few nice walking streets in Ankara; it was a nice place to stroll and see modern Turkey. Again, we rushed around Ankara to see the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations and the Ataturk Mausoleum in our short time, and wish we had allotted more time. Be aware that when we went, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations was under renovation, dampening the experience (but still charging full price). Since this was the main reason we detoured to Ankara, we were not happy. continued..

We didn't get to Pamukkale or Cappadocia for lack of time (even on our zip-around schedule, we knew we had to cut something). Be aware that if you want, you can see lots of places in the western half of Turkey as day trips from Istanbul - by plane. You can do this yourself, or else there are travel agencies advertising these packages from Sultanahmet. They pick you up at your hotel, take you to the airport, fly you to the sight, guide you around, then reverse the process, all in one day. It's not what I would want to do for most places, but my mother was very intrigued by the ease of this. I'd certainly consider it for Pamukkale, and possibly for Ephesus, but not for Cappadocia. For internal flights, we used Atlas Jet, Anadolu Jet, and Bora Jet. All were fine; they even give you a free choice of sandwich or cake, as well as a free beverage, even though the flights were an hour or less. If you have a choice, go with Atlas Jet; they include a free shuttle bus from the airport to the cities of interest, which was particularly useful for Izmir Airport to Selcuk. For booking your own internal flights, use http://bulucak.com/Default.aspx. Right now, I can't get the English option to work, but it did when I was booking flights. For LOTS more info about Turkey, use http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/index.html. We found it invaluable, particularly for the places outside Istanbul that Rick doesn't cover. My only other thoughts? GO! We discovered that when we told people we were going to Turkey, those who hadn't been were often leery, but those who had, unanimously, loved it. Now, so do we. So dress warmly, bring and umbrella, and enjoy! EDIT: corrected to reflect Ed's comment -dyslexia strikes again!

'you can see lots of places in the eastern half of Turkey as day trips from Istanbul ' Van?

Thanks all... It has been very helpfull
Charlotte

I meant lots of places in western Turkey were sold as daytrips from Istanbul (post now edited to correct this error). It's one thing to see Ephesus as a (literally) flying daytrip, but I was startled to see Cappadocia sold this way! Why, it's as silly as seeing Paris as a daytrip from London. Oh, wait...