Our RS ends Sat. Morning and we fly back to States Sunday morning. Plan was to take RS tour van to Izmir airport, store luggage and cab into Izmir for maybe 4 hr tour of city. Idea being to get back to airport and catch a 7pm plane to IST stay at Yotel.
Anyone store luggage at Izmir airport, anyone have comments on our idea or suggestions
According to google there are luggage storage services in the domestic terminal, which is where you'll fly out of to go back to Istanbul. I have no experience with them though.
https://adnanmenderesairport.com/en-en/airport-facilities-services/page/baggage-custody-services
BTW, the tour bus transport to the airport will be at a time that works for the most people's flight situation. The guide came through the day before the tour ended and got flight times, etc. In our case, it left the hotel about 8:30. No way to know this ahead of time though - it probably won't be much past 9 though.
FWIW at the end of my recent tour, I had a 4 p.m. international flight from Izmir to Amsterdam. I booked a Welcome Pickups shuttle that left the tour hotel about 11:30 a.m. (it's an hour drive to the airport). That allowed a leisurely morning to have a nice last breakfast (if you're at the Ilayda Avantgarde, the breakfast is fantastic!) and take a nice walk around Kusadasi out to Pigeon Island. After a very, very busy tour it was nice to have a quiet morning.
The Izmir international terminal is very small and I arrived way too early for my flight (rather that than late I suppose). It looks like domestic terminal is a bit larger so you may need to allow yourself more time when you return to go Istanbul. At the international terminal we had to scan luggage before going to check in counter - including taking out your liquids, computers, etc. (you do the same again after you check your luggage and head to gate). Don't know if that's the case for domestic but it threw me to have to scramble and get my liquids into a ziplock bag and chug my water bottle.
And PS if you have the opportunity to do the pre-tour Foodie Tour in Istanbul with SRM travel, do it! Amazing and a definite highlight of the trip for me. Enjoy!
