Turkey travel tips

I.am.Sam said:
things are dirt cheap there ....dont take too much luggage
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This post was a year ago. How cheap did you experience it? My brother was there around that time and the TRY and ZAR were basically 1 to 1, where in 2019 it was 2.40 to 1 ZAR.

Conversely, inflation caused everything to actually be more expensive. Quite a bit more.
 
Bliksis said:
This post was a year ago. How cheap did you experience it? My brother was there around that time and the TRY and ZAR were basically 1 to 1, where in 2019 it was 2.40 to 1 ZAR.

Conversely, inflation caused everything to actually be more expensive. Quite a bit more.
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This I can agree with. Paying R100 for w cappuccino is painful
 
I checked a few days ago and the places I stayed at last year is basically double in Rand terms this year. Crazy.
 
Read through this interesting thread, thanks Snyper (even though you didn't end up going).

Planning a trip with my wife at the end of March. Return tickets are coming to around R26k return from JHB. Thinking of doing around 10 days, split between Istanbul - Cappadocia - Istanbul, as March may be a bit on the chillier side to consider any beach vibes.

Lots of research to do still, but keen to hear if anyone's done a trip recently. Read and watched a few things that say that prices have risen quite a bit because of their inflation issues.
 
Hazy_Living@79 said:
Read through this interesting thread, thanks Snyper (even though you didn't end up going).

Planning a trip with my wife at the end of March. Return tickets are coming to around R26k return from JHB. Thinking of doing around 10 days, split between Istanbul - Cappadocia - Istanbul, as March may be a bit on the chillier side to consider any beach vibes.

Lots of research to do still, but keen to hear if anyone's done a trip recently. Read and watched a few things that say that prices have risen quite a bit because of their inflation issues.
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I'd imagine that price is high because of Easter. If that's your time, that's your time, but try from mid April for a better price. Example, we just booked for last two weeks in June for Cape Town - Instanbul - Dalaman and got for just under R17k each.
 
Spizz said:
I'd imagine that price is high because of Easter. If that's your time, that's your time, but try from mid April for a better price. Example, we just booked for last two weeks in June for Cape Town - Instanbul - Dalaman and got for just under R17k each.
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That's roughly the same?

JHB - IST return - R26k
IST - Nevsehir return - R2.5k

That's for 2 people.
 
Hazy_Living@79 said:
Read through this interesting thread, thanks Snyper (even though you didn't end up going).

Planning a trip with my wife at the end of March. Return tickets are coming to around R26k return from JHB. Thinking of doing around 10 days, split between Istanbul - Cappadocia - Istanbul, as March may be a bit on the chillier side to consider any beach vibes.

Lots of research to do still, but keen to hear if anyone's done a trip recently. Read and watched a few things that say that prices have risen quite a bit because of their inflation issues.
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I took a trip to Turkey in Sept/Oct 2022 and it was lovely. My husband enjoyed it even more than me since he is into history.

Do you have any specific questions?

We did Istanbul - Cappadocia - Antalya - Istanbul.

Each place has its special charm, but the one thing that stands out above all else for me was the hot air balloon flight over Cappadocia. It was absolute magic! We took the dawn flight. When you arrive, they start to fire up all the balloons. The flames against the dark sky are so beautiful. Once you enter the basket and the balloon takes off, that is when the magic hits you .... wherever you look around you, there are balloons EVERYWHERE; the sky is filled with them.

Once in the air, what struck me is how incredibly quiet it is up there.

Here are some of my pics. Enjoy your trip!

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Spizz said:
Wow, then that's an awesome price. I thought that was each.
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Yup, not too bad. Total is around $1300 for two for the long flight. Haven't started planning the Istanbul part as I'm waiting on the wife to confirm her leave dates, but I thought of splitting it between staying a few nights on both the Asian side and the European side.

Candystore said:
I took a trip to Turkey in Sept/Oct 2022 and it was lovely. My husband enjoyed it even more than me since he is into history.

Do you have any specific questions?

We did Istanbul - Cappadocia - Antalya - Istanbul.

Each place has its special charm, but the one thing that stands out above all else for me was the hot air balloon flight over Cappadocia. It was absolute magic! We took the dawn flight. When you arrive, they start to fire up all the balloons. The flames against the dark sky are so beautiful. Once you enter the basket and the balloon takes off, that is when the magic hits you .... wherever you look around you, there are balloons EVERYWHERE; the sky is filled with them.

Once in the air, what struck me is how incredibly quiet it is up there.

Here are some of my pics. Enjoy your trip!

View attachment 1648185
View attachment 1648187
View attachment 1648189
View attachment 1648191
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The hot air balloon rides are definitely on our to-do list. Did you do your booking before hand or when you arrived? I see there's a couple different options ranging from around $60 to $150 pp, but all of them seem to have the same flight time of 60 minutes.

Quite keen for a hike in the area, and the cave hotels seem pretty cool as well.

I'm thinking that 1 night but 2 full days should be long enough in Cappadocia.
 
Hazy_Living@79 said:
Yup, not too bad. Total is around $1300 for two for the long flight. Haven't started planning the Istanbul part as I'm waiting on the wife to confirm her leave dates, but I thought of splitting it between staying a few nights on both the Asian side and the European side.


The hot air balloon rides are definitely on our to-do list. Did you do your booking before hand or when you arrived? I see there's a couple different options ranging from around $60 to $150 pp, but all of them seem to have the same flight time of 60 minutes.

Quite keen for a hike in the area, and the cave hotels seem pretty cool as well.

I'm thinking that 1 night but 2 full days should be long enough in Cappadocia.
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We booked through our AirBnB and only after we arrived.

In the town of Goreme where we stayed, most of the accommodation was in caves. It is an entire city carved into/from caves. Truly awesome.
 
Went for 3 weeks last July, mostly to check out all the ancient cities in the south west.

Check the menu prices before ordering food because apparently some places try and scam you with higher prices when the bill comes and try and blame it on inflation, saying the price on the menu is old. If you plan to exchanging a lot of cash then don't do it all on day one as you will keep getting a better rate every day as inflation goes up.

Don't use Kapadokya Balloons. They got a great Tripadvisor rating but they defo had the b-team running the show the morning we went. Wasn't too happy so won't recommend them. There are dozens of other companies anyway. We stayed in Goreme as well but decided not to stay in a cave hotel as many reviews said it gets quite dusty inside. Ended up choosing a hotel with a nice roof to view the balloons the other 2 mornings and then it was too windy/rainy both mornings so no balloons - keep an eye out for the weather. Use viator or getyourguide to book a shuttle to/from the airport. Nice hiking in the area.

We were advised not to do those long 4hr Bosphorus cruise tours as it's too long and gets boring. Rather do the cheap 90min day cruise. We didn't book in advance.

Booking.com is blocked in Turkey so you need a vpn if you want to use it there.
 
Bill Clitnon said:
Went for 3 weeks last July, mostly to check out all the ancient cities in the south west.

Check the menu prices before ordering food because apparently some places try and scam you with higher prices when the bill comes and try and blame it on inflation, saying the price on the menu is old. If you plan to exchanging a lot of cash then don't do it all on day one as you will keep getting a better rate every day as inflation goes up.

Don't use Kapadokya Balloons. They got a great Tripadvisor rating but they defo had the b-team running the show the morning we went. Wasn't too happy so won't recommend them. There are dozens of other companies anyway. We stayed in Goreme as well but decided not to stay in a cave hotel as many reviews said it gets quite dusty inside. Ended up choosing a hotel with a nice roof to view the balloons the other 2 mornings and then it was too windy/rainy both mornings so no balloons - keep an eye out for the weather. Use viator or getyourguide to book a shuttle to/from the airport. Nice hiking in the area.

We were advised not to do those long 4hr Bosphorus cruise tours as it's too long and gets boring. Rather do the cheap 90min day cruise. We didn't book in advance.

Booking.com is blocked in Turkey so you need a vpn if you want to use it there.
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Interesting. We went in the balloons in 2019, and it was basically bucket list item ticked. It was fantastic.

Ok, i see now you mention a specific company.
 
DapperDanMan said:
But why?

(You didn't get bored with it after a few minutes?)
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It was only an hour long.

It's a magical landscape. Quite unusual and not what you'd see here. He also steered the balloon through the fairy chimneys, so I guess we had a good pilot who made the trip great.

It's very quiet up there, he goed up almost 1km, so a kind of relaxing vibe. The sunrise is also spectacular, as is the balloons as they light up as the pilot opens the flames

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Bill Clitnon said:
Went for 3 weeks last July, mostly to check out all the ancient cities in the south west.

Check the menu prices before ordering food because apparently some places try and scam you with higher prices when the bill comes and try and blame it on inflation, saying the price on the menu is old. If you plan to exchanging a lot of cash then don't do it all on day one as you will keep getting a better rate every day as inflation goes up.

Don't use Kapadokya Balloons. They got a great Tripadvisor rating but they defo had the b-team running the show the morning we went. Wasn't too happy so won't recommend them. There are dozens of other companies anyway. We stayed in Goreme as well but decided not to stay in a cave hotel as many reviews said it gets quite dusty inside. Ended up choosing a hotel with a nice roof to view the balloons the other 2 mornings and then it was too windy/rainy both mornings so no balloons - keep an eye out for the weather. Use viator or getyourguide to book a shuttle to/from the airport. Nice hiking in the area.

We were advised not to do those long 4hr Bosphorus cruise tours as it's too long and gets boring. Rather do the cheap 90min day cruise. We didn't book in advance.

Booking.com is blocked in Turkey so you need a vpn if you want to use it there.
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We did the dinner cruise with drinks included and it definitely was not boring, we sat at a table with a great bunch of people from all over the world and we all got along like a house on fire.

The scenery is beautiful, the local dancers got everyone in a party mood and people were dancing on the main deck.
 
Tickets are booked. Wife and I are going end of March for 11 days.

So far all that's confirmed is flying in and out of Istanbul, and we're set on seeing the hot air balloons in Cappadocia.

Toying with the idea of adding in a 3rd city instead of spending about 8 days in Istanbul, but not sure yet.
 
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