We wanted to go to Greece this fall but all the Rick Steves' tours were full so we booked a trip in the spring of 2025 with Road Scholar to the Greek Islands. Two nights in Athens and then the rest of the tour on a small boat with a total of 49 passengers to the islands. Has anyone taken this tour or any other Road Scholar tours? If so, how do they compare to Rick Steves' tours? Since we will not be going on a Rick Steves' tour to Greece this fall I was thinking of a Rick Steves' tour of Turkey. I was wondering if anyone has taken the Turkey Tour. There are two tours to Turkey, one is a short trip to only Istanbul and a second, longer trip of the entire country. Would September or October be a good time to go? Does anyone have any advice?
Thank you, Bill
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8145 posts
September or October would be a very good time to go to Turkey tour, and you should consider the long trip. There's just so much to see in this country.
Istanbul is 14 million people, and it's one of those places where a travel guide is needed. It would be difficult to visit there without one. I saw the name of a great guide in the Turkey section of this guide the other day.
We visited Turkey for one day in order to see Ephesus. Just stay out of any carpet store side trips unless you're a potential buyer.
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
8383 posts
I think September and October are good times to go. I hope so since I am headed there this fall! I have taken 5 Rick Steves Tours and really enjoyed them all. You can't go wrong if you choose one of his tours.
That said, I am experimenting this Fall with a different type of tour. I am taking a 13 day Gate 1 tour of Turkey immediately followed by a 7 night cruise from Istanbul to Athens on the Azamara Cruise line. It just happened to work out that the prices of the tour/cruise combined to be just about the same as the RS tour as the single supplements were waived on both and I received enough onboard credit to pay for all excursions. I will have to report back on how my tour/cruise compared with my RS experiences. I am not expecting the same experience, but I still think it will be a good experience.
Posted by
OP
15 posts
Thank you for the suggestions
Posted by
near San Francisco
4624 posts
I took both the RS Best of Istanbul and Best of Turkey tours, back to back, and loved the combination!
You'll find lots of insights into both tours in my trip report from 2022:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/3-weeks-to-fall-in-love-with-turkey
I was particularly glad to have the additional time in Istanbul as there is just so much to see!
Posted by
Carmichaels PA
18 posts
Hi,
I’ve taken the best of Turkey tour in September 2019- it was fantastic- still hot but we got to swim in the Adriatic and it’s a fast paced and wonderful tour- some of my fellow travelers said that it was life changing and I have to agree.
I also took the Istanbul tour in 2022. Also wonderful and I loved going to Istanbul again. It’s an amazing place.
For both tours I had Yaren Turkalue (This is not the correct spelling of her last name) as my guide. She’s a historian and an archeologist and a excellent tour guide- warm, knowledgeable, friendly and fun.
Hope that you go- it’s an astounding tour.
Cheryl
Posted by
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
36 posts
Hi,
I’ve also done the RS tour of Turkey — in September 2022 — and really enjoyed it. Yaren was our guide too and she was fantastic. We arrived in Istanbul a few days ahead and enjoyed a food tour and seeing some sights not included with RS. It was hotter than we expected but the bus was comfortable and, when outside, there was usually shade to be found. Writing this makes me want to go back!
Happy travels, Mary Lou
Posted by
CA
2076 posts
We loved this tour which we did at the end of September ending around October 12 or so. It was hot until our last two days where it rained resulting in cooler weather. We’ve taken five RS tours and Turkey was our first.
Posted by
Orinda
10 posts
We took the one week RS Istanbul tour in October 2023; it was fantastic! Weather was wonderful, low 70's the entire time. The hotel, Azade Premier Hotel, was well located, very spacious, quite comfortable, and had a lovely breakfast spread with a fantastic view of the Blue Mosque and the Bosphorus. Our RS guide was Mine Karahan, and I highly recommend her. She was dynamic, well-organized, very informative and very willing to answer any questions that we had. The sights in Istanbul were absolutely amazing, bucket-list items, and there is so much to see there! We stayed two extra nights--could have stayed longer to see more--and then flew to Izmir, stayed in Kusadasi (lovely seaside town) at the Llayda Avantgarde Hotel (very modern, beautiful ocean view) for 3 nights. We booked a private one day tour of Ephesus and surrounds with tour guide Volkan Akalin, also highly recommended and very informative. Istanbul is a fantastic city, with so much history, so many years before the parts of Western Europe that we had previously traveled to; you will not regret visiting Istanbul!
Posted by
ohio
104 posts
I took the longer tour a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it. Turkey is beautiful, the people are great and the food is amazing. I would highly recommend that you take this one so that you can see more of this country besides Istanbul.. After the tour we took a ferry to Samos, an island not too far away, and spent 4 days just relaxing and unwinding from the tour. It was lovely.