I'm perplexed. I have read in several books and online that say that hiring a competent guide is the way to go in Turkey. Some say that it's even cheaper than figuring it all out yourself. Well, that's not my experience. I've been talking with two travel agencies (recommended by Lonely Planet guide) and they are knowledgeable and helpful. However, I am getting quotes from $3400 to $4000 for 8 days of travel including Ephesus, western Mediterranean and Cappodocia. There are several domestic flights in there but our hotel needs are simple. I just priced it out if we were to make the reservations ourselves and rent a car for 4 days rather than bus/private transportation and the total is $2,000 less than the lowest price? What gives? Am I looking at this the wrong way?
Posted by
Atlanta
3250 posts
I mentioned to you that we planned our own transportation (with help from hotel staff) and made hotel arrangements but hired a guide/driver for Cappadocia for 2 days. Total cost for the car and driver was $160. The hotel (Esbelli Evi in Urgup) contacted the driver and made the arrangements. He knew exactly where to go and took us to places that we would never have found on our own. It was a trip highlight for us!
Posted by
Pacific NW
116 posts
Go ahead with your plans to travel independently. Trust your research and the way you are looking at this. No need for you to sign onto a pre-packaged expensive tour. Hire the guides or day tours as you go, it's easy. Just adapt the Rick Steves travel skills to places beyond Europe. As noted above, your hotels are a good resource, and each town has reputable travel agencies with guides and inexpensive daily excursions. Guidebooks and websites like tripadvisor.com and turkeytravelplanner.com can help. No problem at all. You will save money, have great fun, and be more free to come and go as you please. On my last Turkish adventure, I left most of my gear at my small hotel in Rhodes (I was flying back to Europe from there) and took the hydrofoil over to Fethiye. I traveled for 2 weeks with just a day pack, making up the journey as I went along. It was exhilarating. Follow your own experience, you are looking at this the right way!
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32212 posts
Darlene,
Have you looked at the tours of Turkey offered here at ETBD. Click the "Tours" tab at the top of the page.
Believe it or not, the Turkey tours are the second most popular of all Rick's tours. After chatting with some of his Guides in January, I can understand why. The Guides are wonderful!
Good luck sorting this out and happy travels!
Posted by
Breckenridge, CO
239 posts
We only hired a guide for one day in Cappadoccia...Istanbul you can do with a guidebook. In Cap. we never would have seen half of what our guide showed us or understood as much. I think I paid US $350 for 2 adults and 2 kids in a private Mercedes minibus with a guide and driver. I used Tripadvisor to find which companies got great reviews and then went from there.
Posted by
new york, NY, USA
3 posts
Hi Darlene --
I used a great travel agency, Anker Travel, in Izmir, to help plan a 3 week trip to Turkey in September 2009. I found that it was cheaper to go through Anker for many things -- hotels, flights in Turkey. And for other things, too difficult to figure out on my own -- ferries from Cesme to Chios, renting a car, etc.
I got excellent service from Anker Travel, and it made my trip so much easier and enjoyable. BTW, I highly recommend renting a car. I got one for a week to explore Ephesus, the Western Mediterranean, ending in Antalya -- easy and wonderful!
Enjoy!
Jerry
Posted by
OP
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
25 posts
Thanks for all the great replies and thoughts. We just returned home after 2 weeks in Turkey. We went on our own in Istanbul with our trusty Rick Steves guidebook. Never really felt the need for a tour guide there. Then we flew to southern Turkey, along the Mediterranean, rented a car and toured on our own with Lonely Planet and Insight as our guidebooks. Again, fine. Then we took the overnight bus from Antalya to Goreme in Cappodocia. We were there four days and we took the tours recommended by our hotel on days 2 and 3. Agree with others on this - seems much better to go with guided services in Cappodocia and so enjoyable!