Eastern Turkey Tours & Trips

Our guide Tashin was excellent. Most of the sites we visited were very interesting. I felt we could of skipped Laodecia Ancient City after visiting Ephesus and other sites. 16 in our group had a nice size bus so lots of room and the hotels we stayed at were nice and comfortable.

The tour operator, Umut Kurt from Guide of Ephesus, communicated well, providing reminders and updates for things I needed to do in plenty of time. I ask a lot of questions, and Umut always responded quickly. We had three guides: Sabri Şahin for 5 days in the east, Bünyamin Kavak for Sultanahmet, Ayasofya, and Topkapı Saray on Monday, and Imran for Bosphorus boat ride and Spıce Bazaar on Tuesday. Each was knowledgeable and professional, but Sabri deserves special mention. It seemed like everywhere we went, other guides, restaurant owners, and more recognized him. All said we had gotten the best guide for the entire area. I agree. Sabri was not only knowledgeable, but he improvised things to do based on our interests and the weather. We feel that we have made a lasting friendship with him. In 60+ years of international travel, this was the first time I have ever taken an organized tour. The experience was very good, if somewhat exhausting, as we had a great deal to cover on every day of the tour. Umut did a great job of keeping us informed so there were no surprises.

The tour guide Erdim was excellent, our driver was excellent,the places we visited were amazing, Eastern Turkey is beautiful however the hotels qere a disaster, tiny rooms, in some I had to share my bed with my luggage as there was no room for it anywhere else, no milk at the breakfast buffet, lots of steps to the hotels with no help offered from staff, no lifts. Yes it was stated that there would be steps however in my experience staff will help with luggage. The only good hotel was the Ozkaya in Sivas where the manager turned on the heating as we arrived soaked from the rain and the ladies in tge kitchen provided omelettes abd yoghurt for breakfast on request, the worst hotel was the Euphrat hotel in Adiyaman, the buffet dinner was very limited in options as was the breakfast and neither were good, but its the only hotel in the area so they have a monopoly, they weren't very friendly either. It poured rain, which formed puddles up the ankles because the water was not draining, my new adidas traibers were ruined, the room waa cold abd some light fixtures didn't work. In all the other hotels except the hotel in Sivas there were issues with hot water, light fixtures, in Aga Konagi in Mardin, the water bottle in my room had a broken seal which tells me it was filled from a tap and not bottled water, I didnt drink it but I could have gotten sick if I hadn't noticed the seal was broken. Safe deposit boxes were practically non existent. The Wimeingaet hitel in Istanbul weren' t able to organise a take away breakfast for us and gave us all sandwiches wrapped on a tray, no bag, no fruit and no juice. In Aga Konagi in Mardin the toulet was in my room with shower doors around it, the hand basin was seperate in the room and the shower was also in the room behind shower doors, I know that these renovated mansions have limitations on how they can change and build because of planning and heritage but a toilet in the room is ridiculous, there was no other room available. I will also be emailing Intrepid about this issue with the hotels