Which RS tour to piggyback onto the RS best of turkey tour?

I think I might start looking at this dilemma by choosing my top priority tour and the dates that I think I want. Then, use the search feature on the Tours website and search by starting dates for something that is either before or after that tour. If you know that there are 5-6 possible tours that work with those dates then you have narrowed down the possibilities and can think through your number 1 choice.

A word of caution. Some people that have done back to back tours say that they realized too late that they needed to mix things up a little. For example, if the first tour was city heavy, then they wanted the second tour to have some less populous areas on it. Another reported that she just couldn't look into one more church and wished she had realized the need for something different from the first tour as a contrast.

I'm headed out for my first back to back tours in September. I'll have see if following my own advice was a good idea or not. :)

Excellent advice from Carol. I recall getting somewhat bored when I did a Rhine cruise and a Danube cruise back to back. The Bavarian hamlets all started to run together after a while. Turkey, however, is amazingly diverse, and each day a whole new world opened up for me. You could probably pair Turkey with just about anything and not worry about getting bored.

Hopefully, CWSocial, who did the Istanbul and Best of Turkey tours back to back recently, will chime in soon. She posted a great trip report.

Greece might be another possibility to pair with the Best of Turkey.

I thoroughly enjoyed doing back to back Best of Istanbul and Best of Turkey tours! Originally I was booked on the Best of Turkey tour and we were planning additional pre-tour days in Istanbul. By the time we plotted those out, it wasn't much of a stretch to sign up for both tours.

Not every Best of Turkey tour had a preceding Best of Istanbul tour.... ours didn't. As soon as a combination opened, we switched.

Some reasons that the back to back tours were right for me:

• I like to spend a good amount of time getting to know big cities
• our tours stayed in different hotels, one in the New District, the other in Old Town, which gave us a new locale to wander and an entirely different feel
• to the above points, the Istanbul tour gave us the "city" activities (museums, blockbuster Mosques, etc.) while the Turkey tour showed us the cultural variety of Turkey and lots of outdoor activities (clambering around ancient sites, optional boat and balloon rides) and a good mix of big cities, smaller towns and seaside resorts
• we felt it was good value to spend more time in Turkey, after having paid for our flights and Visas.

There was some duplication between the tours while in Istanbul:

• we loved the Bosphorus cruise and certainly loved doing it twice!
• even when we repeated activities like the Topkapi Palace, we learned different things from our two different and both excellent tour guides
• we could have opted out of any duplicates but decided that seeing places like the Hagia Sophia a second time was a welcome chance.

In a way, the days in Istanbul on the Best of Turkey tour were like a 2nd (briefer) visit to Istanbul!

I've never been on a RS tour, but we flew from Munich to Istanbul in 2012 and that worked well for us-so maybe the RS Munich, Salzburg, Vienna tour?

I think CWsocial did a smart thing by doing the two tours sequentially. I would suggest taking the Best of Turkey tour preceded by the Istanbul City tour. There isn’t nearly enough time spent in Istanbul on the best of tour and there is so much to see, do and experience in this wonderful city. I have taken the terrific City tour but not the Best of. Hope to do that soon. I did take the (sadly) no longer offered Villages Turkey tour and that was awesome. I was sorry to see it go. Whatever you decide will be just right for you!

I just checked the 2023 schedules. Every 2023 Best of Istanbul tour has a Best of Turkey tour within days before and/or after it except the November 19 Best of Istanbul tour.

Not every Best of Turkey tour has a Best of Istanbul tour immediately before or after.

ETA: checking the schedule again, my last statement may not be true. Most Turkey tours may have an Istanbul tour either a few days before or after.

I agree with Andi's comment about order, doing the Istanbul city tour then the Turkey tour. We flew into Istanbul and home from Izmir, so we never flew back to Istanbul.

Even with both tours, we still padded our schedule by arriving in Istanbul a couple of days early for insurance against flight delays, to get over jet lag, and to have more independent time. We also stayed an extra day and night in Kuşadası at the end of the Turkey tour.

We still found plenty of things to do on our own and had to pick and choose. Like any big city, there's always more to do.

I appreciate your comments and the travel writeup was very good. I have been to vienna, zalsburg, munich and greece so dont really want to go back there just yet. I can certainly see that a few extra nights in istanbul are warranted but I guess my thinking on all this is why not just do the bulgaria trip first cause its close to istanbul, fly to istanbul for four extra nights before the best of turkey tour starts and see things we wont see on our own, then do the Best of Turkey tour. That way we see an extra country we have never been to (Bulgaria which sounds lovely), still end up getting a total of 6 nights in Istanbul, and the per night cost of the bulgaria tour is cheaper than the Istanbul city tour.

I’m glad you have determined what seems best for you.

I certainly agree that it is an excellent, almost necessary, idea to spend at least a few more days in Istanbul before the RS Turkey Tour, as the tour spends very little time in Istanbul, and that time is pretty rushed. Istanbul is a very large world capital,, with many diverse and interesting sites, museums, markets and neighborhoods. You could do that either on your own, or by starting with the week-long RS Istanbul Tour.
But, on a lengthy trip to Europe, you might well want to visit more than just Turkey. In that case, I would also suggest you choose according to your particular desires, and a schedule that meshes well, not necessarily the easiest travel connections. And try to schedule at least a day or two between the tours.
I have actually been in the situation you may be facing, not just once, but twice.
In 2016, I signed up for the RS Bulgaria Tour (which was an absolutely WONDERFUL tour, by the way), to be followed by 3 nights on my own in Istanbul, then the RS Turkey Tour, and 2 final nights in Istanbul at the end. But you may remember that was the year of the attempted coup in Turkey, when the airport was closed and communications cut off for a day or two. RS Tours reluctantly cancelled their remaining Turkey Tours that year and for 2017. I had little notice about that, and I must say that the RS HQ staff bent over backward to assist me, so I could substitute the RS Adriatic Tour, and still enjoy my non-refundable travel and nights in Istanbul. Worked out great!
So, in 2018, I again scheduled the RS Turkey Tour, again with 3 extra nights in Istanbul beforehand. At the end of that tour, I flew Izmir-Istanbul-Barcelona, then traveled among several cities and towns of Spain, including the RS Basque Tour in the middle. Another great pre-pandemic travel season!

The Best of Bulgaria tour has enticed me as well .... I'm signed up for next year! And I've thought of dropping back in on Istanbul afterwards, though I'm leaning now towards Warsaw or Budapest.

I think you're on the way to an excellent plan!

Greece is close to Turkey; several Greek islands are right off of Turkey’s coast. After being on a tour , wouldn’t you like to be on your own for awhile?

My wife and I did back to back Best of Turkey tour followed by the Best of Bulgaria tour this past May. We spent 5 nights before the Turkey tour began because we had heard that Istanbul deserved more than a couple of days that the Best of Turkey spends in Istanbul. We were glad we could spend 4 extra full days on our own visiting and exploring Istanbul sites that the Rick Steves tour does not see. Our Best of Turkey tour began on May 7th and ended May 19th in Kusadasi. We took the Rick Steves bus up to Izmir and spent an extra night there before flying to Sofia on May 20th. The flight from Izmir through Istanbul to Sofia took just about 2 1/2 hours with a 1 hour 30 minute plane change in Istanbul. Getting to the Rick Steves hotel from Sofia airport was a breeze and there were few people on the metro during the middle of the day when we arrived in Sofia. We were on our own in Sofia for 2 days before the Best of Bulgaria tour began on May 22nd. The time was spent doing laundry and exploring Sofia before the tour began. Sofia seemed to us to be much more relaxed and quieter than Istanbul. It also helps that Sofia has a population of just over 1.24 million people compared to over 15 million people in Istanbul. The Best of Bulgaria tour was fascinating and in our opinion was a good compliment to the Turkey tour. Overall, we think it is a good benefit to spend extra time in Istanbul before the Turkey tour begins. The connection between Izmir and Sofia is easy and can be done in just about 4 hours.

Our first RS tour was Best of Greece in September 2022 and then we noticed Best of Turkey available with an extra day between. Perfect for us. So much of Greece and Turkey history intertwined it was interesting to compare. Definitely saved a lot on flights and convinced us we WILL do more RS tours.