Turkey Tours & Trips

Day 1 Arrival at Recital Hotel which turned out to be by far the best hotel of the trip. Beautiful ambiance, incredibly friendly and helpful staff, extremely comfortable and spacious rooms. Day 2 Breakfast was the best of all the hotels with a good variety of cereals, fruit and yogurt. For those of us not accustomed to “continental breakfast” the staff offered and supplied us with fried eggs. The only hotel on the trip that had a toaster and suitable bread for toasting. Our guide Benjamin was extremely knowledgeable, had a good command of the English language and a willing smile. Well planned and enjoyable tour of Istanbul. Good lunch. Transfer to airport, flight, pick up and delivered to Efe Butik Hotel all done smoothly. Reception staff at hotel very friendly and helpful. Room well-appointed with a beautiful view over the harbour. Day 3 Breakfast not bad but very limited selection of fruit and cereals and staff not very friendly. Our guide Utku was absolutely fantastic, he was the most knowledgeable, friendly and cheerful guide I have ever experienced and cannot praise him enough. Tour very informative and interesting. Lunch was at a very friendly restaurant that served us pizza which I can honestly say was the tastiest pizza I have ever had. Day 4 Once again an extremely enjoyable tour lead by Utku. Weaving school very interesting and they laid out a lovely lunch. Transfer to airport went smoothly and arrived safely at the Irenic Hotel. Day 5 Beautiful scenery on this tour lead by Bekir who once again was an extremely informative and friendly guide. Very tasty lunch at a restaurant in a shopping mall. I unfortunately was not impressed with the Irenic Hotel. Reception staff were very friendly and room comfortable with all the amenities BUT the rest of the staff were not friendly at all, the dining room was more like a cafeteria in a railway station where we had to drink our coffee out of paper cups and there was a very limited selection on offer. On the evening of the 5 day a full band started playing at 9pm in the Irish Pub under the hotel. It was totally fruitless trying to get some sleep with such loud music and we had to be in reception at 5.30am the following morning. We complained to reception and asked to be moved to a room at the back of the hotel where hopefully the music would not be so loud but they did not have any rooms available in that area. This loud music went on until midnight. Needless to say we were totally exhausted and suffering from lack of sleep the following day. Day 6 Transfer to airport and then airport to hotel in Cappadocia went like clockwork. We were booked into the Abras Cave Hotel which was very unique. Very friendly and helpful staff. Breakfast very good with freshly cooked savouries. Day 7 Unfortunately I cannot remember the tour guides name but once again he was very informative during our very busy and interesting tour. Lunch very good. Day 8 Our tour guide Didi was a lovely girl and once again, extremely informative. A very busy day visiting many different, interesting sites. Lunch which was a buffet was very good, I think one of the best meals during our tour. Transfer to airport and back to the recital hotel, once again went like clockwork. Day 9 Benjamin was our guide in Istanbul again. Unfortunately he was not well and in quite a bit of pain but he still ensured that we had a very enjoyable day’s tour. Lunch very mediocre and gent who served us was not very friendly. We had booked for the Istanbul Bosphorus Dinner Cruise and were looking forward to it. We had in the past done a dinner cruise down the Nile in Egypt which was excellent with wonderful food and entertainment so this cruise was going to be a wonderful end to a wonderful tour but unfortunately it was such a big let down. With the exchange rate to South African Rands this was an extremely expensive outing but the meal was the worst we had been served during our entire tour, the desert was slices of water melon but we could have baklava if we were prepared to pay more for it. It took 4 attempts to order a drink as everything we asked for was out of stock. A female turned up at our table and started taking photographs which she later brought in book form to our table. The photographs were terrible and despite her reducing the price we were not interested in purchasing such poor quality workmanship and she got extremely annoyed with us when we refused to buy it. The entertainment was extremely amateurish and they had the cheek to come round twice asking for tips for the entertainers. The toilets were not clean and there was no toilet paper. All in all a very, very disappointing and expensive evening. Day 10 Once again the Recital was wonderful. We checked out and went for a walk to the bazaar and on returning to the hotel to wait for our transfer to the airport we were offered tea/coffee at no charge. Nothing was too much for any of the staff who always had a smile for us. We had a wonderful time, everything was well organised by very professional people. We would highly recommend this tour but do feel that Ephesus Travel need to look at changing the hotel in Antalya and finding a more professional organisation for the dinner cruise.

A tour of a lifetime. The organisation was impeccable(special thanks to Zerrin). The tour guides were very friendly and informative(Benyamin, Rafael and Gigi). Very nice hotels in great areas. The country is full of history, so much to explore and so many civilizations to learn about. A must on any traveler's to-do list. Thanks again for all the team and highly recommended for anyone who wants to visit the country.

Great way to tour without having to be with the same people each day. I love the concept of having accommodation and travel arranged, and being able to choose if you attend the daily tours. This is the second tour I have done with Tour Altinkum and they are always so helpful and responsive, ensuring they include everyone you are travelling with in the messages so everyone knows what to expect for the following days’ activities. Accommodation is generally very close to main hubs with restaurants and shopping close by. Arranged tours are not compulsory, but are led by local tour guides who are extremely knowledgeable. Daily pick up and drop off is from your accommodation. Entrance fees are not included in the cost of the tour (you are not obliged to do daily activity). Most lunches are good, although a couple on my recent tour were not so great. Some days there were only a handful of travellers on daily tour. I love Turkey and would use Tour Altinkum again.