Turkey Travel Guide

We got back home a little after midnight Sunday morning, so I just wanted to shoot you a quick email to let you know how everything went.  

To sum it all up, the trip was awesome.  Everyone was waiting for us at the airports, and the transfers to and from the hotels were perfect.  The guide in Cappadocia was great as was the hotel.  The hot air balloon ride was amazing and we were so happy it was able to be moved back a day since we didnt get to Kale Konak until very late.  

There was a little confusion at Enterprise with the GPS while renting the car in Izmir, but everything worked out.  Our agent called us right before we got to the hotel is Kusadasi to let us know they were having electrical issues and moving the guests to different hotels.  The replacement hotel was awesome, right on the sea with a balcony and a great view.  The guide that took us to Ephesus was great as well, and despite the heat we had a great day of tours.  

Driving to Aphrodisias and Pamukkale was easy enough and both sites were beautiful.  Except for the hornets in Aphrodisias.  Yes, big hornets.  While walking through the main gate, not the entrance gate but one of the first ruins you get to (I forget the exact name) both my girlfriend and I were stung on the ankles by huge hornets.  We got away from them and were able to finish touring despite the pain, but we saw hornets in other areas of the site.  I'm not sure if you have heard of this before, but it may be worth mentioning to other people to watch out for.  Pamukkale was beautiful and we made it to the airport in Denizli with plenty of time to spare.  

Istanbul was crazy.  Just so many people, it got overwhelming at times.  The driver had some trouble finding the apartment after picking us up from the airport, but we eventually made it.  The guide in Istanbul was......interesting.  He was nice enough, but it felt like we wasted a ton of time on the first day of touring.  We didn't get to the first site until a little after noon that Wednesday, and spent most of the morning walking around neighborhoods and stopping for tea or coffee.  It wasn't bad, but at one point my girlfriend asked if we were actually going to see something that day.  He also didn't think it was a good use of time to go eat lunch at Ciya.  I dont know enough to say whether he was right or wrong, but considering how much time it felt was wasted just walking around, it probably would not have hurt.  Anyway, he was a nice guide (eccentric but nice), but I wanted to give you an honest evaluation of everything.  

The agent was friendly and patient but I found that I had to be alert in checking items in the itinerary and pricing. Follow-up could be better. I told the agent about a restaurant I wanted to go to but this did not materialise. The final itinerary had a mistake in the number of days we were spending in Turkey.

Service was somewhat inconsistent from place to place - the first vehicle we travelled on in Cappadocia had wi-fi, which was excellent, bottles of cold water provided in the car but no car seat for our toddler. The second leg of our journey saw vehicles with car-seats but no wi-fi and no water (save for one driver, who suddenly thought of getting us two bottles towards the end of the day). The rest of the journey was in cars with car seat and water provided but no wi-fi.

When we were in Kas, Patara, Xanthos and Letoon, we had no guide and the driver could barely speak English. We were pointed ruins but the driver could not tell us anything other than "Lycian", "Roman", "necro" and "basilica".  One of the meals on the way from Kas to Gocek was rather disappointing - we were brought to an eatery next to a petrol station without a high chair. As I was alone with my children then, I spent that meal struggling with my toddler.

There were good parts, though - where we had guides, they were fantastic. They knew their country and its history but we found out that was because all licensed guides in Turkey had to undergo a rigorous process to get their licence. Special mention of our guides in Kayseri and Istanbul who kindly helped out with our kids. Our guide in Kayseri had umbrellas waiting for us at the exit of Pammukkale, when we were caught in the rain. Our guide in Istanbul took pains to engage our two older kids and was patient when the toddler was difficult.

Our drivers were all very kindly and nice to us.

The agent's local representative rose to the occasion, providing a local phone with his phone number on the contact list upon our arrival in Turkey and arranging last-minute transport and changing the date of a domestic airticket for my husband from Dalaman Airport to Istanbul when something urgent came up. He graciously waved the fee for the car ride from Kas to Dalaman Airport and did not charge for these last minute services.

This was my second Zicasso trip, the first being to Peru in 2024, so I had full confidence in their travel company and was delighted by the level of care and attention to detail throughout the trip. 

I essentially had three trips while in Turkey. I arrived a day early to attend a six-day cooking school that was independently arranged. The travel company smoothly organized my airport pickup and first-night hotel. After the cooking school, I was again booked in the original hotel (old town, close to major sites, clean, nice), and my daughter joined me for a week-long tour of Istanbul, Cappadocia, and Ephesus. 

The guides in each region were knowledgeable, though we could have made do with fewer facts (height in meters of the Blue Mosque, area in square meters of Hagia Sophia, number of sheep in the country) and had more free time to explore on our own. We loved the major Istanbul sites, the Bosphorus cruise, and lunch on the Asia side. We were delighted with our cave hotel in Cappadocia and the hot-air balloon ride on my daughter's birthday. We loved strolling through Ephesus. 

All the internal flights were arranged, booked, and checked in by the agent, so all we had to do was show up on time. The vans that transported us were clean and nice, with good drivers. After my daughter left, I was booked for three nights on a gulet, with stops on the Mediterranean. It was a nice way to slow down and finish the busy trip. 

The highlight of my travels was dinner at my agent's home with his lovely family. He even arranged for me to find some earrings like those of his mother, which I had admired, and then drove me to the airport. Above and beyond!