Christmas & New Year Tours in Turkey

What people love about Christmas & New Year Tours in Turkey

• JohnnyTraveled in January

  5

  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. ❤️?????????

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  Christmas Turkey - 12 days
• SamTraveled in April

  5

  + excellent quality price performance + Cautious driver with comfortable bus + Wifi during tour +Well balanced program + Excellent guide + Good hotels - poor hotel meals - long drives sometimes (well Turkey is big) Cappadocia Pamukkale day was long l recommend

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  Absolutely Turkey (Small Group)
• BenTraveled in October

  4

  Amazing sights, good hotels, planning could be improved. This tour was a good weeklong highlights of Turkey package, the places visited were amazing and varied. However there is definitely room for improvement, which is probably reflected in the price being cheaper than a lot of other similar tours. Although the tour operator was responsive and adapted to our schedule, it was bit difficult getting the exact details about everything. We only received info about the hotels, flights etc the day before. The fact the flight times were unclear before the beginning of the tour meant that that some days were jam packed leading to less time than desired at certain sights, and then the next day was spent waiting around to go to the airport. For instance the last day in Cappadocia there was nothing on the schedule and the flights to Istanbul were at 11pm - this meant we had the whole day to explore for ourselves but as we weren't informed of the flight times in advance we couldn't book anything in advance for that day. However the operator to their credit did arrange a van for us at no extra change this day so we could visit another town. Another day, during the Pammukale visit, we didn't have lunch until 4pm, which wasn't made clear to us until midday after we had entered the site. The guides were a bit hit and miss. The guide in Istanbul, Bahadir, was great, and the guide in Cappadocia was good as well, however the guide we had for Pammukale and Ephesus was a bit average. We didn't get much information at Pammukale and Hierapolis in particular which was odd because the site is fascinating with a lot of history. The specific guides are probably just luck of the draw, but worth noting. The worst part of the trip was the transport between each city. It seemed that the flights were getting booked just days prior to travelling, and the flight times were not ideal. The flight to Kusadasi was at 8pm, and after the hour long ride from the airport we didn't arrive at the hotel until after 11pm. The same thing happened with the flights to Cappadocia, not arriving until 11:30pm with the balloons supposedly at 4:30am the next morning. This flight also had a transfer in Istanbul, which meant we spent from 2pm until 11:30 that day in transport mode. And then the final flight back to Istanbul we arrived at the hotel at 2am which was pretty brutal. Disappointingly, the details around the balloon flights in Cappadocia were also unclear; it sounded like the operator had already made reservations. However when we inquired we were told that all flights had been cancelled as the balloons had been grounded due to weather for a few days, and the prices had gone "black market", more than double what we were expecting. I can't speak to the validity of this, but our individual tour guides all indicated that we should have booked well in advance. Perhaps this is what the operator did and the black market prices was just unlucky, but again something worth keeping in mind. Still, the hotels were all nice, the breakfasts and lunches were good, transportation arrived on time and having shuttles made everything very convenient. As mentioned the sights are incredible and we finished the tour with good memories. Overall I think we probably got our moneys worth, but with a little extra planning this tour could be improved a lot.

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