Christmas & New Year Tours in Turkey

This was my 7th tour with on the go tours and my first Christmas Tour. Turkey is such an amazing place, the sites, sounds, people, history, and one of the most magical things I’ve experienced in life. ???? The trip was fantastic – 13 passengers total with a mix of Australians, Filipinos, Fijians, British, Irish and Chinese. Great group with ages from 30 – 75? Some of the drive days were long, but plenty of stops on the way. I find being in the bus and looking out at the scenery very relaxing. Turkish country side is so diverse, it was like we crossed all 4 of the seasons along the way. Summer vibes by the Mediterranean coast, autumn driving through the mountain valleys and Forrest, spring time in the villages and small towns, and winter snow driving back to Istanbul from Cappadocia. Now on that – there is an option to do a flight back to Istanbul or bus it back – I recommend to save your money and do the bus. The views were beautiful and honestly, time went quicker than we all thought. YES it is 10 hours, but frequent stops and nice scenery made the time fly. ??? Just to get the negative out the way first - Troy. The famous wooden horse was under construction. Stripped of all the wood and just a metal frame of the horse lol. The sites were good, but after a while, ancient rubble all looks the same. I mean cool to see, but yeah, was a bit meh. BUT hey, seen it now, no need to see Troy again. This has no reflection of ON THE GO Tours, the tour was fab. ? NOW Some big highlights were Istanbul, Anzac Cove, Ephesus, Pamukkale & Cappadocia. Istanbul, the busy bustling city has a cool vibe. It was very busy, but I never felt unsafe or overwhelmed. The blue mosque was beautiful, as was the Sofia basilica, which honestly I found a little more impressive inside then the Blue Mosque – but still great to see. A hidden Gem in Istanbul was the Underground cistern basilica. this underground world of pillars, statues and water, was very cool to see with an interesting history. ??️⛪ Anzac Cove/Gallipoli was such an emotional experience that really got me in the feels. This is a big site for Australians and New Zealanders Having learnt so much about in school. Actually being there was a completely different story. I think from the first stop and the next few hours, I was overcome with emotion. Its hard to put into words, but everyone should visit this site to pay respects to those fallen soldiers. The memorial sites themselves are well maintained and looked after – and what is great is that some of the tour money – ON THE GO automatically sends some to the war commission for protection and maintenance of the sites. Really an emotional day – but a day I cherished and glad I got to see. ????? Ephesus was full of great ancient ruins, with a lot of complete buildings and in tact sites. The most impressive being the old library front, which still stands. This was perfect opportunity for our group photo. Was a great area to see and experience.⚖️ Pamukkale, known as the ‘cotton castle’ almost looks like an ice glacier when you see it. This is place is known for its mineral rich thermal waters that flow into the white travertines terraces. Here you can opt to dip your feet in the terraces or go for a full swim in the pool near by. Surrounded by ancient ruins, museums and also a beautiful restored amphitheater – there is plenty to see and do. ? As this was a Christmas trip, a lot of the hotels were decorated – but out on the streets there really wasn’t much. Xmas isn’t a huge thing over there. But on Christmas eve we had a lovely dinner in Antalya, in a restaurant right on the cliffs edge, looking over the water. Turkey, roasted veggies, warm rolls and gravy was the dinner – with dessert to follow. So good. Christmas night was another xmas dinner, but unfortunately I missed out o that – as I wasn’t feeling well – but was right again the next day. ??? I really enjoyed the hotels, clean, spacious, comfy bed and they were all nice, Some better than others, but nothing to complain about – I was in turkey. Pools, saunas, gyms, restaurants, massages, games rooms, these were in majority of our stays. A lot of the included dinners were at the hotel restaurants and buffett style. I liked this – after a day of site seeing and arriving late arvo – it was nice to have free time, go for a swim, sauna, get a Turkish bath visit in, go to the gym etc and then not have to worry to rush for the bus and drive to dinner. Now you don’t Have to do dinner there, if you want to go out, you can, at your own expense. Plemty of food on offer, a lot of traditional Turkish food, some westernised, and lots and lots of dessert… now the Turkish do great desserts, and lots of Turkish delight lol ???? Cappadocia is a unique and wonderful place, that reminded me of land from the Flintstones. Houses in the rocks, multiple colour tones, tall chimney like towers made from rock (Not gonna lie, they did look like a giant PEN1S a lot of them) – but such a wonderful place. One of the massive highlight for this trip was Hot Air ballooning in Cappadocia. I think we’ve all seen the photos, they are in almost every travel brochure. One word to describe this experience.. MAGICAL…. But it almost didn’t happen. 5 days prior to our arrival, all ballooning was cancelled due to bad weather. The wind has to be under certain knots, (and its not very much I believe under 12 knots) We got the OK to fly the night before, and that next morning we went up. WOW – I felt like it was a dream. I don’t think ive ever seen something so beautiful, the sun rise, 150 balloons in the air all multiple colours, a calm morning. So I’m normally terrified of heights – but I had no issue being up there, I felt totally safe and comfortable. The balloon guides gently rotates the balloon so everyone gets the views around them from all angles with out anyone being in the way. You also float between the chimneys, and one of the coolest parts, is after an hour up in the air, you come down and land on the back of the truck trailer – I felt like a James Bond. We then had afew glasses of bubbles after and received a medal to say we completed the ballooning – Magical. Now, the ballooning was then cancelled that afternoon and the next 3 days after – so we were not only lucky, we put it down to a Christmas Miracle. ?? Roughly $400 AUD in winter (and I think $600 in Summer) it was well worth every penny and more, I have NO regrets in doing it. ???? I really loved this trip – Great country, group, sites, and a big highlight was our Guide Burhan. He was so fantastic. His knowledge without any notes, all from his head was incredible, if it was me, I wouldn’t remember all those details, dates, sites, monuments etc – he was great, and kept it interesting. He was also fun, kind, easy going, and down to earth – which is always great in a guide. ?? Had a fabulous time, and I thank ON THE GO Tours for another fabulous trip and experience. Ticked a few bucket list items off – so now onto the next adventure for my 8th trip with ON THE GO Tours. ❤️?????????

The tour was all it promised to be but it was our guide Erdem who made it exceptional. Considerate of all guests, phoning ahead so hotel check ins were quick and seamless and imparting 1000s of years of challenging history with an unbiased and balanced perspective. Erderm opened our eyes to so much and gave us lots of opportunity to enjoy free time at sites. It was a well balanced tour of the ancient Civilisations, epic memories of ballooning across Cappadocia fairy chimneys as the sun rose and introuction to the famous textiles, crafts and food culture of Turkey. I also must mention our bus driver Yusef who took great care of us particularly in the hazardous torrential downpours we had for a couple of days. This tour has made an indelible footprint on our souls and we will be highly recommending it to friends. Thank you.

Iglesias does a nice job of integrating regional travel experiences, nearly seamlessly. There was only one extended wait for a connecting bus, by the side of a highway, on our way to an airport. You are not traveling with the same group, as you are with other tour co's like Intrepid or G Tours, for better or worse. In our case, that was completely fine. 2 out of the 3 tourguides we had in Cappadocia and Ephesus were outstanding - very knowledgeable, great communicators, and very organized. Unfortunately the 3rd tourguide we had for Pamakkule was a disaster - disorganized, inexperienced, and immature (she was all of 22 yrs old). We were left largely in the dark as to where we were, where we supposed to be, and what the history of the area was. She even criticized us for reading placards instead of listening to her, when she hadn't even told us where we could find her to hear her pearls of wisdom. She walked much faster, ahead of most of the group, leaving us behind, and talking only to those walking right beside her. Her voice was also so soft, half the group couldn't hear her on the bus at all. Interestingly, she mentioned that her family owned Iglesias, which may explain why she was entrusted with a tour group. When we complained to Iglesias that this tour was very substandard, we were assured our concerns were taken seriously, but offered no compensation of any sort. Also, Iglesias was also oddly inflexible on moving the included airport transfers one day forward and back, which I highly recommend if you want to have any time to explore the many sights in Istanbul. They wanted to charge us $60US for each transfer. We met other tourists who reported they had much more accomodating tour companies. Still the hotels and food were very good, and the transportation fairly coordinated, so rounding up to 4 stars. We will choose a different company in the future, though.