Top destinations of the moment in Europe
Ric
Turkey
Solo
Silk route in Turkey. Amazing places.
The best parts:
Ephesus, Pamukkale, Göreme Open Air Museum, Selime
The worst parts:
Visiting shops
Evaneos
Thank you for your feed back! See you around the world!
Wilda
Turkey
Solo
I loved Turkey and found it a very safe country to visit. A lot of places are set up for tourists, which carry pros and cons. The first day I participated in a tour organized by the local tour agency, I was quite shocked to encounter 3 different shopping stops, as I did not realize I had signed up for shopping tours. The tour agency didn't think to alert me to this as they are accustomed to setting up this type of tours for other tourists. As someone who is used to more independent travel this was not my style and quickly grew to resent the amount of time I was 'stuck' in these shopping stops. On this same trip I signed up for a few Airbnb Experiences and found them to be much closer to my ideal way of experiencing the place—spending time with locals doing what the description of the experience said we would do (no hidden shopping stops). I tried to tell my local agency about Airbnb Experiences and they did not believe that these experiences would not contain shopping stops. The tourism industry offering the types of tours consisting of shopping stops needs a huge rehaul if it were to appeal to millennial and middle-aged travelers who are more used to custom-tailored experiences that don't make people feel stuck and having their precious little time abroad wasted on activities that do not appeal to them.
The best parts:
Hotel pickups and drop-offs, good communication with local agency
The worst parts:
The tours are very traditional and geared towards older clientele, including commission-based shopping stops which I was not interested in.
Evaneos
Thank you for your feed back! See you around the world!
Westmorland
Turkey
Couple
It would be impossible to imagine a better Istanbul guide than Ergul. As well travelled as we are, the quality of a bright, engaged, thoughtful guide who is far more than doing her usual talk was perfect. In Cappadocia we had particular delight in our accommodations, luxury cave indeed!. Of course both the balloon experience with Erdal, an owner of Turkiye Balloons was fabulous and our guide made the valley an exciting time of discovery and understanding. On our own we did a day boat out of Gocek that we loved. All we wanted was more of everyting we did.
The best parts:
Turkey as a terrific destination, despite US warnings! The three cities and use of 11 days included great variety and excellent recommendations by Tovi, our agent. The guides surpassed our hopes and were excellent in every way. The lodging recommendations were excellent, as a match for us and as facilities. Personal attention and follow up were much appreciated. We had a great time and will gladly recommend Tovi and Kirkit. She is creative and offered a wonderful touch in a private chef meal with her partners in Avenos in their lovely courtyard. Memorable amidst many lifetime memories.
The worst parts:
The loss of time in travel is an issue. It is not the agent that has the responsibility since we were self booking air but help in how best to manage and minimize travel would have helped. I think a check list of options, and an itinerary worksheet that has both the customer and agent input as for itinerary, program, might be a good tool.
Tour the Turkey 🇹🇷
Turkey
Family
The different destinations were beautiful as we have wished and imagined. The ballon ride was like a dream. It was really good.
The best parts:
I do like the program and the planning about our trip. I don’t like only one hotel because of their unfriendly service in reception. The hotel is in pamukkale in Turkey. I wish that our private driver could talk a little bit English. It was very difficult to communicate with him especially when we need some practical informations.
The worst parts:
The reception in pamukkale Hotel.
Evaneos
Thank you for your feedback!! See you around the world!!
Allan
Turkey
Couple
This trip was centred on a trip to visit our son who is in Ankara. I decided that this was an opportunity to visit Istanbul. Via Evaneos I made contact with Demavend travel (Mehmet) who booked our hotel in Istanbul, arranged transfers (airport to city; city to rail station), two days with a guide (Ms Pelin) and onward travel to Ankara by train. We arrived on Monday evening, had two days of guided tour, one day free and then one day of travel to Ankara by train (Friday). We flew home from Ankara on Wed. Istanbul was the tourist city, Ankara less so though it has a very good museum of early civilisation (amongst others).
The best parts:
It went to plan!
The worst parts:
Nothing really
Evaneos
Dear Allan,
Thank you for your feedback! We are more than happy that you enjoyed your trip to Turkey and we are looking forward to see you again soon!
Yours sincerely, Your Evaneos Team!
Glam Adventure in Turkey!
Turkey
Family
I would like this trip and its type to succeed. It has all the ingredients of a great experience:
- Turkey is a fabulous country. It has fascinating culture. The food is terrific and the geography is stunning.
- Outdoor adventure is a good match for Turkey. The sea kayaking was fantastic. The canyoning would have been terrific had it not been for the weather. The hiking was great (how many hikes end with 2000 year old ruins with no tourists around!!).
- The organization was excellent. The hotels were great. The driver was exceptional. I have never met a kinder or more service-oriented Chauffer.
The challenge was the guide. He was very knowledgeable about hiking in the area and about much of history. But he was a bit parochial (unable to speak about the long arc of history in the area, not the fact and dates but the themes) and mechanical. I think he laughed 3 times on the trip. I think he thought of himself as the leader of the trip as opposed to the guide. Leader of a hike is different from a guide of 2 adults. I also wonder about his comfort with taking direction from a woman.
This was a terrific trip, all in all. We carry with us some wonderful wonderful memories! Thank you for making it possible.
The best parts:
- Turkey is a fabulous country. It has fascinating culture. The food is terrific and the geography is stunning. We LOVED Kos and swimming in the Mediterranean. The beach areas are different (no sand); in the end, we grew to appreciate and prefer the more European beach.
- Outdoor adventure is a good match for Turkey. The sea kayaking was fantastic. The canyoning would have been terrific had it not been for the weather. The hiking was great (how many hikes end with 2000 year old ruins with no tourists around!!). Our tour guide knew about lots of potential routes along the way.
- The organization was excellent. The hotels were great. The driver was exceptional. I have never met a kinder or more service-oriented Chauffer.
- I also like that the tour was locally sourced.
- The value was pretty good. I priced other comparable trips and this was the best value.
The worst parts:
The challenge was the guide. He was very knowledgeable about hiking in the area and about much of history. But he was a bit parochial (unable to speak about the long arc of history in the area, not the fact and dates but the themes) and mechanical. I think he laughed 3 times on the trip. I think he thought of himself as the leader of the trip as opposed to the guide. Leader of a hike is different from a guide of 2 adults. I also wonder about his comfort with taking direction from a woman. The bike trip was a bust due to the vendor (bad
Laslo Nimne
Turkey
Couple
It was a most excellent trip.
The best parts:
The absolute best part of our trip to Turkey was meeting so many warm and friendly people. Without exception they were smiling and offering us a cup of tea. Istanbul is a lovely city and the view from the Bosphorus tour was enlightening. Cappadocia was awe-inspiring. The ruins at Ephesus were the most impressive we’ve yet seen.
The hotels met or exceeded our expectations with Sirkesi Mansion in Istanbul, Kale Konak in Uchisar, and Key hotel in Izmir being exceptional. I thoroughly enjoyed cocktails with Apo, our gracious and witty host at Kale Konak.
Our guides in Istanbul were perfect.
The food was tasty and the local wines surprisingly good. Two of our favorite meals were with Memhet Ejder, his wife and son in his tiny restaurant in Selcuk. We were treated like family and this is the ONLY restaurant we returned to in our entire trip.
Tovi, our amazing travel agent, was one of the best I’ve ever worked with. She listened to my idiosyncratic demands and satisfied them without complaint.
The worst parts:
Cappadocia is a beautiful area, but I was very disappointed with our tour guide. Extracting any information about how the local people made a living, either currently or historically, was like pulling teeth; he simply repeated the same rote details about the paintings in the caves. His English was adequate, but either his knowledge or his attitude was wanting.
The Cappadocia Balloon ride was a disaster: we departed in a thick fog, and then made an unscheduled landing (crashed??) on a snow-covered hillside less than a half-hour into the trip where we waited another very cold thirty minutes for the ground crew to retrieve us.
After an hour the rental car had a couple of warning lights but no owner’s manual to decode them. After finding one online, we notified our travel agent, who spoke with the rental company and told us to simply ignore the warnings as they knew about them and they were of no concern.
Concordia
Turkey
Friends
Despite some of these issues, we had a great time on this itinerary (and recommend it). It was our friends who selected it and we were invited to join them after it was established so we had no say. The people of Turkey are incredibly welcoming and friendly and we enjoyed some of the rituals like the Hammam baths and Turkish coffee and clay pot cooking. It was interesting and special to see Cappadocia covered in snow but there were a few limitations getting around on foot due to icy conditions on streets and footpaths. Our travel agent, Tovi, was a dream and made it a point to meet us in Istanbul.
She was incredibly responsive to issues we had along the way. I recommend her highly.
The best parts:
First working with our agent in Istanbul, Tovi, was a great experience. We joined our friends trip after it had been planned and she was a great help to bring us up to speed and include us in all communication.
We liked Istanbul very much. The superior top floor rooms at Sirkeci Mansion were wonderful. It has an excellent location and wonderful staff. Our Istanbul guide, Ergul, was fantastic. She was very knowledgeable, friendly and spoke excellent English. She warned us that the Blue Mosque was under renovation and we wouldn't see it at its best, and in consideration of that she managed to get us inside without waiting in the long line. We expressed interest in Suleyman Mosque and she was excited to take us there. It was amazing. The food tour was fun since we got to try a lot of different uniquely local foods.
The Kale Konak Hotel in Uchisar was atmospheric and the staff was lovely. They had a wonderful breakfast and a beautiful hammam. The underground city of Kaymakli was fabulous as were the Open Air Museum of Goreme, the village of Zelve and the fairy chimneys. We had a fun evening at Memories with an entertaining host and the best Testi Kebabi.
We absolutely loved Ephesus and enjoyed Sirence with a stab at trying Turkish coffee. The family-run Ejder Restaurant in Selcuk was so enjoyable we went twice. We thought Aphrodisias was fantastic and Pamukkale/Hierapolis was uniquely amazing. Enroute to Izmir we stopped at the phenomenal Gymnasium at Sardes.
The superior room at Izmir's Key Hotel was fabulous and the shower at Venus Suites was the best.
The worst parts:
I've never taken a food tour but in the Turkish world of exotic spices I thought we might hear explanations of and try foods made with different spices for comparison.
I expected to like Cappadocia the most but we had one day too many here; specifically, day 2, in part perhaps because the snow and ice made the proposed walk in the countryside treacherous, but there wasn't much more on the agenda except one church on a cliff which we could have skipped or fit into another day. Overall, there were so many monasteries and churches that our guide seemed to repeat himself to fill in time. We anticipated the balloon ride to be the highlight but it was not 'a mind blowing experience' (as stated in our itinerary), and in fact not a very good experience at all. It was too foggy so we couldn't see much and we 'landed' precariously after 30 minutes in the air, not even close to an hour as they advertise. Our pilot was agitated upon touchdown and it took 20 minutes for a crew to find us. By the time we were dragged to a trailer and the basket was secure I guess that totaled an hour - not really the kind of hour one expects from a flight.
We were not impressed with the lunch selection on day 1 in the Cappadocia area. I felt our guide in Cappadocia gave more attention to some of our group, and didn't always answer the questions of others. He also repeated himself a lot and it was sometimes hard to understand his accent.
It was a stretch to say the Greek village of Mustafa Pasa had 'lovely houses'. Maybe a couple but not really worth a stop.
At Selcuk the St John Hotel cannot be recommended. We had no hot water in our bathroom either morning and after going without the first day (and telling the staff to no avail) we showered in our friends room on the 2nd day. The lobby, breakfast room and halls were cold because they wouldn't close the doors because of 'a bad smell'. The breakfast options didn't appeal to us.
The breakfast at the Venus Suites Pamukkale offered lots of choices but the quality was not great.
We were not impressed with our vehicle rental from Izmir. A warning light was on from the moment we picked it up. The car was pretty old, not very clean and the 'extra' GPS did not work properly so we used google maps on our iPhones. We don't recommend you use this company again.
MikeP
Turkey
Couple
Excellent service from you, thanks. The hotel is Pamukalle exceeded all expectations and also the meal in the restaurant was one of the best we had all holiday. The Nazar hotel room in Selcuk was really too small for a double room - and the management know this. We suggested it would have been better without the wardrobe but with a small table/chest of drawers. Owner agreed, but said other guests wanted a wardrobe! I gather changes are planned. I gather this was one of there smallest rooms anyway, so this would not apply to other rooms.
Having said that the Nazar hotel service was exceptional - drinks in the garden by the pool, first rate breakfast and an evening meal on the terrace that was also one of the best we had. The staff were so obliging - nothing was too much trouble for them. Good source of information about visits etc. Would happily go again - but in a bigger room.
The best parts:
Fantastic hotel booked for us in Pamukkale - Venus Suite
The worst parts:
Hotel room in Selcuk rather small - but service was great!
