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Tourist sightseeing tours Turkey
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TOURIST GUIDE TO SIGHTS, TOUR ACTIVITIES, ATTRACTIONS, TRAVEL AND EXPLORATION IN TURKEY.
Istanbul Tour, Private, regular Guided Sightseeing Tours - Istanbul city tours with private and regular guided tour, istanbul sightseeing tours
Western Turkey is the most visited and economically developed part of the country. Istanbul, straddling the Bosphorus straits and the Marmara coast, is a heady mix of the Oriental and state-of-the-art modern. It's the country's cultural and commercial centre and also visibly the old imperial capital, and would take months of exploration to truly do it justice. Flanking Istanbul on opposite sides of the Sea of Marmara are the two earlier Ottoman capitals, Bursa and Edirne, and the former Byzantine capital of Iznik, with, just beyond, the World War I battlefields of the Dardanelles .
Information for visitors to Turkey
The Aegean coast is, in many ways, Turkey's most enticing destination for visitors, home to some of the best of its classical antiquities and the most appealing resorts. The north shore is a quiet, rocky region, well endowed with Hellenistic remains but with few sandy beaches - and so is spared the tourist excesses of the south. Tiny Assos with its ancient ruins is one of the gems of the coast. Ayvalik , the north's longest-established resort, makes an excellent place to stop for a few days, with good beaches and easy access to Bergama a little inland, with its unmissable ruins. Further south, the city of Izmir is for most travellers an obstacle on the way to more compelling destinations, but it is not without charm and serves as a base for day-trips to adjacent sights and beaches. The territory to the south is home to the best concentration of classical, Hellenistic and Roman ruins, notably Ephesus, usually first on everyone's list of dutiful pilgrimages, and the remains inland at Aphrodisias and Hierapolis - although the latter is more often visited for the pools and rock formations of adjacent Pamukkale . The coast itself is better down here, too, and although the larger resorts, including Kusadasi and Marmaris, are beginning to be lost to the developers, Bodrum and Çesme still have a certain amount of charm.
Despite their proximity to Istanbul, the shores and hinterland of the Sea of Marmara are relatively neglected by foreign travellers. This is not altogether surprising: here Turkey is, at first glance anyway, at its least exotic. But this may well be your first view of the country and the area is not entirely without charm or interest. The border town of Edirne, at the end of the Roman and Byzantine Via Egnatia, later the medieval route to the Ottoman parts of Europe, was once the Ottoman capital and is home to some of the finest early Ottoman architecture. To the east the quaint country town of Iznik was briefly the Byzantine capital and boats extensive ruins, while nearby Bursa - on many routes towards the Aegean coast - was the first Ottoman capital and aside from many fine buildings has an exquisite city centre. Many visitors also stop off at the extensive World War I battlefields and cemeteries of the Gelibolu peninsula (Gallipoli), using either the north Marmara port of Gelibolu as a base, or, more commonly, Çanakkale - from where it's also easy to visit the ruins of ancient Troy a little further south.
When the first Turkish nomads arrived in Anatolia during the tenth and eleventh centuries, the landscape must have been strongly reminiscent of their Central Asian homeland. The terrain that so pleased the tent-dwelling herdsmen of a thousand years ago, however, has few attractions for modern visitors: monotonous, rolling vistas of stone-strewn grassland, dotted with rocky outcrops, hospitable only to sheep. In winter it can be numbingly cold, while in summer, temperatures can rise to unbearable levels.
It seems appropriate that the heart of original Turkish settlement should be home to the political and social centre of modern Turkey - Ankara, a modern European-style capital, symbol of Atatürk's dream of a secular Turkish republic. The south-central part of the country draws more visitors, not least for Cappadocia in the far east of the region, where water and wind have created a land of fantastic forms from the soft tufa rock, including forests of cones, table mountains and canyon-like valleys, all further hewn by civilizations that have found the area sympathetic to their needs. Further south still, Konya is best known as the birthplace of the mystical Sufi Muslim sect and is a good place to stop over between Cappadocia and the coast.
ISTANBUL LISTINGS
Airlines Aeroflot, Mete Cad 30, Taksim (tel 0212/243 4725); British Airways, Cumhuriyet Cad 10 (tel 0212/234 1300); Olympic Airways, Cumhuriyet Cad 171a (tel 0212/247 3701); THY Turkish Airlines, Cumhuriyet Cad 199-201, Harbiye (tel 0212/663 6363).
Banks The Garanti Bankasi in Sultanahmet stays open through lunchtime, and the Akbank at the airport is open 24hr. However, you'll get the best rates to change money from the Döviz offices throughout the city.
Boats Ferry journeys north along the Bosphorus are one of the city's highlights. There are special sightseeing boats throughout the year from Eminönü ($6 for the 2hr journey to Anadolu Kavagi). Ordinary ferries on the same routes are reasonably frequent. Last return boat from Anadolu Kavagi in summer is at 5pm, after which you must resort to a bus or dolmus .
Books Galeri Kayseri, Divanyolu Cad 58, Sultanahmet; Pandora, Büyükparmakkapi Sok 3, Istiklâl Cad; Robinson Crusoe, Istiklâl Cad 389; and Homer, Yeni Çarsi Cad 28, Beyoglu.
Buses The better bus companies are: Pamukkale (tel 0212/658 2222), Varan (tel 0212/658 0277), Ulusoy (tel 0212/658 3000) and Kâmil Koç (tel 0212/658 2010).
Car rental Avis, airport (tel 0212/663 0646) and Hilton Hotel , Cumhuriyet Cad, Harbiye (tel 0212/241 7896); Budget, airport (tel 0212/663 0858) and Cumhuriyet Cad 19, Taksim (tel 0212/253 9200); Europcar, airport (tel 0212/663 0746) and Cumhuriyet Cad 47/2, Taksim (tel 0212/238 0084); Hertz, Küçükbayar Sok, Harbiye (tel 0212/234 4300).
Consulates Australia, Tepecik Yolu 58, Etiler (tel 0212/257 7050); Canada, Buyukdere Cad 107/3 Begun Han, Gayrettepe (tel 0212/272 5174); Ireland, Cumhuriyet Cad 26a, Elmadag (tel 0212/246 6025); Netherlands, Istiklâl Cad 393, Galatasaray, Beyoglu (tel 0212/251 5030); UK, Mesrutiyet Cad 34, Tepebazi, Beyoglu (tel 0212/293 7546); USA, Mesrutiyet Cad 104-108, Tepebasi, Beyoglu (tel 0212/251 3602).
Hospitals American Hospital, Güzelbahçe Sok 20, Nisantasi (tel 0212/231 4050); International Hospital, Istanbul Cad 82, Yesilköy (tel 0212/663 3000).
Internet Internet Café, Divan Yolu, Incili Çavus Sok 31 (2nd floor); Net Café at no. 37 on the same street (also 2nd floor); Blue Internet Café, Yerbatan Cad 54. Single women should head for Yagmur, Seyh Bender Sok 18, Tünel, Beyoglu.
Laundry Active, Dr Eminpasa Sok 14, off Divan Yolu; the Hobby, Caferiya Sok 6/1, Sultanahmet.
Left luggage Left-luggage offices (Emanet) are in both Sirkeci and Haydarpasa train stations.
Police The tourist police are at Yerebatan Cad, Sultanahmet (tel 0212/527 4503).
Post office Main office is on Yeni Posthane Cad, Sirkeci (daily 9am-5.30pm; stamps 8am-8pm).
Train stations Haydarpasa (tel 0212/336 0475); Sirkeci (tel 0212/527 0051).
Travel agents For plane and bus tickets try Marco Polo, Divan Yolu Cad 54/11, Sultanahmet (tel 0212/519 2804), or Imperial, Divan Yolu Cad 30, Sultanahmet (tel 0212/513 9430).
Turkish baths The most central, and most frequented by tourists, are the 400-year-old Çemberlitas Hamam on Divan Yolu, and Cagaoglu Hamam, Hilali Ahmed Cad 34 (daily: men 7am-10pm, women 8am-8pm). Expect to pay between $10 and $30. Outside the main tourist areas hamams are much cheaper; the 500-year-old Tophane Hamam on the Bosphorus at Tophane costs only $3 (daily 7am-10pm).
The first stretch of Turkey's Mediterranean Coast, dominated by the Arkdag and Bey mountain ranges of the Taurus chain and known as the " Turquoise Coast ", is perhaps its most popular, famed for its pine-studded shore, minor ruins and beautiful scenery. Most of this is connected by Highway 400, which winds precipitously above the sea from Marmaris to Antalya. In the west of the region, Dalyan is renowned for its beach - a breeding ground of loggerhead turtles - as well as being a characterful small resort. West, Fethiye , along with the nearby lagoon of Ölüdeniz, is a full-blown regional centre, and gives good access to some of the pick of the region's Lycian ruins, the best of which - Xanthos and Patara - are close to one of the coast's nicest beaches. The region's second major resort, Kas, smaller than Fethiye but no less popular, is a good base for scenery which becomes increasingly spectacular until you reach the site of Olympos , close to another fine beach. Further along, past the port and major city of Antalya, the landscape becomes less dramatic but is home to yet more impressive ruins, notably those of the old Pamphylian cities of Perge and Aspendos. Side, too, has its share of antiquities, although it's better known as a tourist resort, as is the former pirate refuge of Alanya, set on a spectacular headland topped by a stunning Selçuk citadel. Beyond here you're entering the relatively undiscovered reaches of eastern Turkey.
