The Best of Turkey Tour is in Western Turkey well away from the travel advisory areas for the US State Dept (reconsider travel for the east and southeast borders of Turkey near Syria and Iraq) However, the State Department also has concerns about arbitrary detentions throughout Turkey.
For recent travelers on the Tour, what was your perceived level of safety? Anything happen of concern?
I think your best bet is to read the most recent reviews. Hopefully they'll allay your fears.
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/greece-turkey/turkey
We were on the Tour in October during the Turkish incursion. There were no safety issues, other than the usual tourist pickpockets. With our guide, we able to discuss the Turkey/Kurds/Syria issues. The local TV has only the government's side (Erogan all day long).
We did this tour in May-June 2018 and at no time did we not feel totally safe.
The carpet dealers hustling us on the streets of Istanbul was our only annoyance and in retrospect even that had great entertainment value.
A great tour we fondly revisit in our minds.
Have a wonderful trip.
We recently traveled to about 13 cities in Western and Eastern Europe, Turkey and Israel. I have to say that Kusadasi was a surprise and total delight. We had been to Athens the day before- the graffiti, protests, traffic congestion, etc. really turned us off. It was like a breath of fresh air when we arrived in Kusadasi. No graffiti, clean, and I never felt unsafe. What a wonderful surprise.
