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Turkey
Jul 17, 2016 21:53:17 GMT
Post by bet on Jul 17, 2016 21:53:17 GMT
I delayed Turkey this year due to the recent bombings and was hoping things would settle down for next year but now with the political unrest who knows. I wonder if I'll ever get there now. Turkey is my one regret for not visiting sooner.
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Turkey
Jul 19, 2016 2:44:20 GMT
Post by purvis on Jul 19, 2016 2:44:20 GMT
Bet: There is a whole wide world out there. What is happening in Turkey is very scary since there seems to be a president that looks like he wants to be an autocrat. Any head of state that arrests the military's generals, fires the judges, fires many police and imposes his idea of law is frieghting so I would not want to visit this country as the possibility of a civil war is high. Purvis
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Turkey
Jul 21, 2016 11:31:07 GMT
Post by tiffany on Jul 21, 2016 11:31:07 GMT
I was thinking on the weekend how lucky I was to have gone to Turkey when I did, because I wouldn’t go there now. I hope you do get there someday Bet, but it may be a while before things settle down there.
I agree with you Purvis. What’s happening over there right now is very scary. When I was in Greece last year, our tour director mentioned Turkey’s president, and she wasn’t a fan of him. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.
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Pauline
Full Member
Edinburgh, the Highlands & Islands with TravelMarvel, Enchanting Eastern England, BackRoads, July'24
Posts: 211
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Turkey
Jul 22, 2016 4:47:36 GMT
Post by Pauline on Jul 22, 2016 4:47:36 GMT
I was fortunate to visit Turkey back in 2004. I have friends who are currently booked on Trafalgar's Best of Turkey with 7 days Aegean Cruise Premium, Sept 11 departure. They are currently up north in Queensland, touring with their caravan and won't be back home for another 4 weeks. I have no idea if they will continue with the Trafalgar tour or not.
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daphne
Junior Member
LOVE Travelling!!
Posts: 58
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Post by daphne on Aug 2, 2016 8:55:42 GMT
Hi all, we just returned from Best of Greece plus 7 Day Aegean Cruise (Celestyal Crystal Cruise Liner), was supposed to visit Kushadasi and Cesme/Izmir, the ship was not allowed across the border, we would have crossed the border at midnight at the time of the attempted coup, the next morning we just saw that we were not in Turkey.
Everyone was called to the 9th floor and they explained what had happened, we instead went to another island, received our money back for the optionals, but received free wifi, discount on massages etc.
There were also Turks on board who were supposed to get off in Turkey, had to wait another day, shame, one could see they were very worried about what was going to happen next.
Two days later, we were supposed to visit Izmir, also did not go, situation was still not calm, went to another island. We were always informed, had a wonderful wonderful TD David Price. We never felt unsafe.
Luckily, we were not already in Turkey at time of the coup, otherwise they would not have allowed us to leave.....
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Turkey
Aug 2, 2016 21:31:12 GMT
Post by plane2catch on Aug 2, 2016 21:31:12 GMT
Daphne, glad you made it home safely. I hope things settle down as Turkey is a beautiful country to visit. I was there in 2007 and had a great time especially in western Turkey. Maybe in a few years thing will calm down and you will be able to visit Izmir and many other towns in Turkey.
I remember being in a hotel on the water in Izmir and enjoying a beautiful fireworks display through the hotel windows over the water. I guess the country was celebrating their Independence Day.
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Post by marielouise on Aug 3, 2016 1:45:25 GMT
Daphne, you were very lucky. I went alone to Turkey also in 2007 , Insights Treasures of Turkey which is an excellent tour, I liked it so much so I convinced DH to go with me in 2010 on the same tour. He enjoyed it very much since he already knew a lot of the history, which is very interesting. However I noticed a big change in those 3 years, a lot more tourists, the tour buses had problems finding places to drop us off, we had to walk further to see sights and they were building a lot of mosques. I suppose tourism will decrease dramatically now.
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daphne
Junior Member
LOVE Travelling!!
Posts: 58
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Post by daphne on Aug 11, 2016 11:59:58 GMT
Hi, sorry for delay in reply... I also hope we will be able to go to Turkey some time when things have calmed down....
Another thing, we were only 10 people on Best of Greece and 8 on the Aegean Cruise (both Trafalgar) and 30 on the Rome and Tuscan Highlights. With the land tours, on a 52 seater bus... our Tour Guides said its because of the current situation in Europe with current terror threat level and also the economy, not all can afford to travel as much.
Apparently the minimum amount of people on Trafalgar has to be 5 in order for the trip to be denifite. So on our Best of Greece trip, 7 of us travelled together before, Aussies and Americans and us, so only a Canadian couple and a Mexican lady that was new to our group of friends . We had a wonderful time!!
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Post by plane2catch on Aug 11, 2016 22:28:41 GMT
Wow, found that interesting. When I took a TT trip to New Zealand also in 2007. There were only 17 of us on the bus and I remember the TD stating that Trafalgar almost cancelled that departure due to the smaller number. My ideal number would be between 15-20 on a bus tour.
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