While enjoying a 2024 Rick Steves’ two-week tour of western Turkiye, we sensed many more sites to be experienced further east. So we booked an extensive tour this year of Mesopotamia and Lycia through SRM Travel.
We thoroughly enjoyed having Murat Tanritanir as our guide through a five-night tour of Mesopotamia and Eastern Turkiye. He is super knowledgeable about the ancient and historical sites we visited: (Gobeklitepe, Karahantepe, monasteries, Harran, Sanliurfa, and Mount Nemrut. He also guided us into many tasty restaurants and fine museums along the way. We enjoyed how he kindly interacted with folks at every stop. Murat also promptly helped us through a medical emergency requiring a brief ER visit. He previously guided for Rick Steves Europe back when they had tours covering Eastern Turkiye.
We also had Ayşegül Unlu, another guide with RSE Turkiye-tour experience. She led us on several beautiful coastal hiking trails suitable for our skills in the Lycian coastal area. She also took time to fully explain the many interesting historical sites, led us into great cafes and restaurants along the way. Our hikes included: a section of the Lycia Way (full of coastal views); beautiful pastures; Delikkemer aqueduct; forest trail from Kayakoy up and over the ridge and down into scenic beaches of Oludeniz. Our tours included: Lycian/Greek/Roman ruins at Patara; Saklikent Gorge; and ruins of ancient Sidyma Ancient Village.
If you enjoyed a RS tour of western Turkiye, consider these additional important places.