Best of Turkey - 13 Days Tour?

I took (and loved!) this tour in May/June, 2022. Below are the notes I wrote up about the hours on the bus.

You can read my entire post here, in which I answer a lot of common questions about the tour. Please be aware that some things have changed, such as exchange rates and ATM fees, and there is no longer a requirement for US citizens to obtain a visa.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/so-you-re-going-on-the-best-of-turkey-or-best-of-istanbul-tour

Those Bus Days Seem Really Long - How Were They?

I can't remember a day when I was "tired of being on the bus." Even when it's listed as a lot of hours, it's always punctuated with rest stops, lunch breaks, and often sightseeing stops.

As an example, looking at Day 8..... per the tour itinerary, it's a 6 hour bus day. Per our guide's daily itinerary, we were to leave at 10:30 for Antalya and arrive at 5:30, so the entire program for that day was 7 hours. And along the way we stopped for lunch, at least one break, and to sightsee at Aspendos. So it never could have been that stated 6 hours on the bus, unless we got stuck in bad traffic or something.

Based on my photos and our guide's itinerary, here's how that day actually went:
9am Konya city walk and market visit
10:20 - 1:15 Driving (~3 hrs, with a 15 or 20 minute rest stop along the way)
1:15 - 2:30 Lunch stop
2:30 - 3:45 Driving (1hr 15min)
3:45 - 4:45 Visit Aspendos
4:45 - 5:30 Last bit of the drive to Antalya (45 min)

So although it was listed as a 6 hour bus day, in our case it was about 5 hours sitting on the bus, and the travel day was broken up by breaks, lunch and sightseeing.

I was enjoying the scenery and the periodic guide commentary, and writing entries to my trip report. So I didn't sleep. Quite a few people sat in the back of the bus and snoozed between stops.

I took this tour last fall and it was terrific! That said, Turkey is a very large country so, if you want to see the destinations included in this tour, there is no way around a lot of bus time. The longer bus days were broken up with many stops - rest stops, lunch stops, sightseeing stops (I think there are actually rules about breaks for the driver, so you certainly would not drive six hours straight.) The guide was amazing and gave talks on the bus about Turkish culture, society, and history.

There was one person in our group who had taken the trip previously and liked it so much, she was taking it again!

Thank you so much. Very helpful feedback!

CWsocial: How did the Pamukkale and Hierarpolis segment work out? Were you able to see the ruins in its entirety?

Matthew M, we had time to get our feet wet in the upper pools before hiking up to the Hierapolis theater. We did not swim in the Cleopatra Pool. And we did not go uphill beyond the theater, as described in this article:

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/turkey/aegean-coast/pamukkale/attractions/hierapolis/a/poi-sig/1084063/360866

ETA: as mentioned in a different post, after a quick orientation, we were set free to spend our time as we wished. We entered the heritage site at 2:15pm and my photo as we were leaving is around 5pm. Between orientation and meeting up at the end, we probably had 2.5 hours on our own.

I took this tour last September (2023). The time on the bus is not continuous. Stops occur often - roughly two hours - facilitating breaks for the driver, the passengers, and the intermingled activities (snacks, lunch, sites, etc.).

In addition to the stops, my tour guide used a lot of the bus time to give us an overview of our next sight/experience and tell us about the history of Turkey, personal details of life, and answered a lot of questions of general interest.

This is a great tour. I can't imagine not enjoying it.

PS - on my 3 tours, I found that the itinerary often exaggerates the bus time, I guess to allow for the unforeseen, e.g. traffic, road work.

The above answers have covered most of it, but I will note on my particular tour we had a major road closure that added an hour to an already long bus day to Konya. That construction is long done but just pointing out that anything can happen. Bus drivers are required to make stops at a specific interval, so on that particular long ride we had to make an extra comfort stop so he could stay legal. Our itinerary also changed a bit from the printed version to see sights at less busy/hot times for example. Regardless, you get a break every 2-2.5 hours.

Of my 5 RS tours, this one did have the most bus time, but there is simply no way to get around it if you want to see a lot of the country (other than flying, which is not the current RS way). I used the bus time to journal, nap, and decompress. Rest stops were always interesting too - I tried (non-druggy) opium seeds on yogurt with honey, found some great souvenirs, and stocked up on evil eyes.