Turkey in Depth Reviews

It was with apprehension that I booked my sweetheart & I on a small group tour as we our preference is solo/freelance or private tours. However, the Turkey Explored tour exceeded our expectations for several reasons. The local tour operator is Sobek Travel, based in Istanbul. The 1st reason was the exceptional tour guide, Alkan Sisli, due to his passion, ...read more organisational skills and attentiveness. A big call here, but we rate Alkan as one of the very best guides over 20 plus years of travelling. Furthermore, Atilla, who was our driver for most of the trip, was professional at all times and never driving in a way that felt that we were at risk while at the same time getting us to each destination within excitations.

The 2nd reason was the itinerary which ensured the best places were covered including places that most tourist don't visit. The 3rd reason was the group; 2 wonderful couples (1 from Britain and 1 from Canada) made the trip extra special. Accommodation exceeded our expectations. Too many highlights to list! The only area to note would be the last night farewell dinner, which was very expensive relative to the small portions served; suggest let the group know the day before and ask the group for their yea/nay beforehand. To close off, now that we have experienced Western Turkey, please investigate a tour which covers Eastern TurkeyY - if this does become available, we are highly like to book.

The group size was just right, not too big or too small. The places we went to for dinner as a group were very nice. I especially enjoyed the food at the garage in Selcuk, the fish restaurant by the beach near Olympios, the Tat restaurant in Selcuk and our last meal in Istanbul overlooking the river! It was nice getting some evenings free to arrange ...read more our own food when we weren't feeling too hungry. The arrival flight on the first day (about 3am on the day the tour started) was too late. Though I know that had changed because of the new airport, so there wasn't much else could have been done about that! Also the tourist attractions at Pergamum and Patara should have had toilets. Patara had no toilets at all (they were all closed). We waited 25 mins in Pergamum for the toilet queue & still didn't get to use the toilets- 2 toilets there was not enough!

Best Explore trip that I've been on. Due to the opening of the new airport at Istanbul our original flight was cancelled. Explore immediately informed us of this change and offered an alternative. Everything was taken care of effectively and efficiently. Thank you.

Great trip, just wish I'd read the information provided by Explore more carefully before I packed. It was generally cooler in the central uplands than I expected but I coped!