Two failed life bucket lists l Turkey

Tips and travel agency that helps.

(Overall expenses at the end!)

Rooftop in Goreme, Cappadocia, Turkey.

The last trip before I ended my exchange semester in Switzerland, I flew to Turkey.

A place full of colours, wonder and a sense of mystery. At least in my mind.

Customer next to me. Just kidding, that's Tommy on a Red Tour in Cappadocia, waiting for our Turk coffee cooked on hot sand.

"I wanna plan our itinerary!" I requested.

If I don't, I'll get pretty forgetful where we have been.

This six days packed-with-wonders tour, we went: Cappadocia (hot air balloon) - Pamukkale (cotton castle) - Selcuk, Kusadasi (Ephesus the Ancient City) - Istanbul (Mosques)

Quick tips:

Tips #1. FIND AN AGENT. I started from google search "travel agent in turkey" so it probably works for anyone too. Anyway, I'm lucky to find a really good one and recommended by others too so I'll just share the info here to save you. I stole the flow of itinerary from first agent Efendi Travel: (Price updated April 2019)

Yusuf Karaca  Efendi Travel Agency  Address: Yeni Akbiyik Caddesi No: 30 Sultanahmet - Istanbul - Turkey Tel : +90 212 638 63 43 Mob : +90 543 473 88 79 Fax : +90 212 638 39 22 web : http://www.efenditravel.com E-mail : info@efenditravel.com

Association of Turkish Travel Agency License No : 2617  (Working days : Everyday except Sundays )

The final quote they gave me was around 440 euros per person (including guide, lunch and hot air balloon 180 € pp). This exceeds my budget, so I decided to book everything separately. I always heard the night bus service in Turkey is quite good. Besides I'm not a fan to waste time at the airport (transportation from city centre +immigration + boarding..ugh) so the bus company Kamil Koc appears to have the best reviews.

Here comes my second agent:

Huseyin Uysal

troublefreeholiday@gmail.com

This one is really really good, cheap and efficient!! Go for this guys!

Not only Huseyin had good reviews online, he almost instantly replied to me every time (including before trip and during trip). It feels secure that when I'm abroad but someone always helped to solve your problem. The price quote Huseyin offered is also cheaper (after I compared it to other agents and also when I visited the place myself). The travel agencies probably had a common agreement already that there is neither advantage nor disadvantage whether you booked it.yourself.

Eventually, I booked three night buses with Huseyin (Istanbul-Goreme, Goreme-Denizli Pamukkale, Kusadasi-Istanbul); one Cappadocia Red tour and one evening bus (Pamukkale-Kusadasi).

After all the transportations are booked, and Tommy booked all the accommodations, we're good to go!

Tips #2. Decide tour when you arrive, if you can't decide which one to join.

My suggestion is Cappadocia is difficult to walk by your own due to the open air and steep hills (join Red & Green tour), our personal favourite was Green tour because we are tired of mushroom rocks after the first day of Red tour (however its shorter in duration).

Pamukkale tour was kind of useless, so if you're just interested in the cotton castle, going by your own is okay because the tour inserts some useless factory tour which makes me doubt my life haha.

Ephesus is perfect to go on your own! We enjoyed taking the local minibus from Kusadasi (beach town) to Selcuk (the nearest town to Ephesus).

Istanbul is soooo much fun, stay longer please! (3-4 days)

Tips #3. Note there's two airports for Istanbul: Asia (IST) NEARER & Europe (ISG)

Tips #4. Local phrases are good conversation starter!

I always knew the Turkish are kind are friendly. That time during my visit it was the end of their fasting (same as buka puasa in Malaysia), so "Mutlu Bayram" (similar to Happy Aidilfitri) is definitely a good conversation starter. Anyway, we travel to experience other's culture, so why not immerse into it?

Tips #5. Book hot air balloon in advance advance!

Heard that the price doubled in the past three years but anyway it's on my life-bucket list! And here comes my first failure. The hot air balloon is operated according to weather and they are strict on this. I arrived Cappadocia on 7am on the first day (they flew around 5am) so I didn't manage to witness it and on the scheduled second day the signal went from yellow to red :( Sigh, both life and turkey trip still goes on.

Tips #6. Check if any mosque is under reconstruction:(

Second life-bucket-list failure: I DIDNT SEE THE AMAZING BLUE MOSQUE.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque was the reason I decided to visit Turkey since I last saw it on a travel magazine. The moment i got there, the gonna-be-sooooo-pretty dome was covered by construction canvas. It seems that it has been under construction for the past three years (updated June 2019) according to internet sources, BUT YOU DONT SEE IT ON OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.

Oh, and during prayer time, mosque are closed to visitors.

Tips #7. Costumes

Although as a relatively more religious country, I would say it's okay to dress whatever you like around tourist destinations. (But still, respect the local people please, I guess I won't be interested in naked body in my hometown too) The only place that needs you to dress appropriately is in the mosque. Girls with head covered and long dress below knees; men with long pants. However, most mosques provided you something to cover. The mosques are pretty tourist-friendly too, they even provide books like my Moral textbook and tell you what actually being a Muslim means.

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Overall we spent 850 euros per person (including flight ticket from Switzerland) for this trip but I enjoyed myself soooo much! The foods are crazily nice, cheap and enjoyable. You will understand this excitement when you're in Turkey.

*Leave me a comment if you have any questions about travelling in Turkey!