My wife and I would like to travel to Turkey around Christmas. (Dec. 22 to Jan 5). Has anyone stayed in Istanbul during this time? I know Eid-ul-Adha falls on Dec 20th this year and am concerned that this might make it crowded in the larger cities. We are also thinking of locations like: Ephesus or Bodrum and of course, Cappadocia
Can anyone that has traveled around Turkey in late Dec. early Jan. give us some advice?
Posted by
Westminster, MD, 21157
6 posts
Greg--my wife and I spent a week in and around Istanbul in early January 2005 (during Eid-ul-Adha) and had no real problems. The crowds were light at tourist spots (about what I would expect for off-season), it was really easy to get around, and we had no difficulties finding restaurants that could quickly seat us. If anything, crowds are thinner during the festival. The only annoyance we encountered was that there were no public transportation offices open that were able to sell us Akbil passes when we got to Istanbul, so we had to make sure we had some lira coins to buy tokens whenever we used the metro.