Turkey

I would think you'd be fine. It's a big, beautiful and interesting country, I went there on the RS Villages tour 2 years ago.

A few weeks ago, the Turks in Istanbul were rioting since the goverment wanted to build a shopping mall where the city park is. Is this over now??

We're in the fourth week of five in Istanbul. It's safe. Cars are buses are stopped two blocks short of Taxim Square, making a bit of a traffic problem for drivers, but not for tourists (although you have to walk the final two blocks). There are five riot police vehicles parked at the square and about 20 police visible, but off to one side only. When coming down Istiklal (the main street on the north side) yesterday there were about 30 police standing 100 feet away from a small protest group taking signatures on a table, but they were just letting them do their thing. When something happens, it's at night on Taxim (usually); one night we were coming down Istiklal and two buses of police were on their way to Taxim. The papers this morning described the riot police going to it at Taxim and Istiklal late yesterday afternoon (we were there an hour before and all was quiet). So....stay away from Taxim and the top of Istiklal street and you won't notice anything. The city is jammed after sunset in Sultanamet, Eyup, along the parks on the Golden Horn, and other gathering places. Families are all having picnics on crowded lawns, restaurants and streets are jammed, and everyone is having a good time. We are living in Fener, a poor district two bus stops north of Eminouou, and the children are playing in the streets past midnight. So, come and have a great time.

Thank you so much Dennis for all the great information! Not sure today about new information coming out about US embassy closures all across Northern Africa and "other Muslim countries" and Israel. Always something to keep me off balance so will probably delay Turkey for next trip!!!! So disappointed!!

I'm going in October. I booked an RS tour (my first) a couple of days ago. From all I've heard and read, Turkey's quite safe as long as you're not near the Syrian border, which is not a tourist area. Wait a year and it might not be. I received 2 notices from the State Dept that "certain" embassies and Consulates were to be closed on Sunday, Aug. 4. I have heard nothing else in Israel about that. What's odd is that in most places, the U.S. offices are closed every Sunday anyway.

From what I understand, most of the countries on that list have a Friday-Saturday weekend, and Sunday is the first business day of the week. Looks like Turkey observes a Saturday-Sunday weekend, and the embassy will be closed regardless.

Turkey is not one of the countries included in the one-day embassy closures. It's a safe country to travel in for Americans and other Westerners. So, if the thought of missing Turkey is disappointing to you, the answer is clear- go and enjoy.

Agree with Will. The cities and countries on the government list are places most people wouldn't think to visit. We are a couple in our late 60s and we were in Turkey for 4 weeks in 2011. We're going again on Sept 10 for another 4 weeks with a break of 6 days in the middle to visit Rhodes. We'll spend 5 days in Istanbul at the end of our trip and we're not thinking of changing our plans.