What are the top Destinations of Turkey?
Turkey’s top destinations for first-time visitors are Istanbul, Cappadocia, the Ephesus area south of Izmir on the Aegean coast including Pamukkale, and the western Mediterranean coast, including Antalya. You can visit the top destinations in as little as 8 days on a tour, or on your own. Of course, 9 days or 10 days excursions are better, and 2 weeks is comfortable. Especially on the first trip to Turkey, and especially if your travel time is only around 6 days to 10 days excursions, it makes sense to consider joining a guided tour.
Is it better to visit Turkey with an Agency or On Your Own?
Experienced travelers and small groups may want to make travel arrangements and design their trips. First, a good agency will suggest possibilities, but when you work with an agency you’ll always have a support team of local experts to help whenever changes are necessary, or unexpected events occur.
Does working with a Turkish travel agent cost more?
If you’ve decided to use a Turkish travel agency for help in arranging your trip, here’s what you need to know to get the most out of your excursion for the least cost.
A travel agency makes reservations and bookings for travel services and also helps individual travelers to plan the itineraries they want, just as they would plan themselves, but with help to answer questions, anticipate and avoid problems, and be available for changes and challenges while the travelers are on the road in Turkey. Your travel agent is usually available all the time to help you, often 24 hours a day, with no time limit. But travel agencies don’t work for free.
Agencies often work closely with particular, trusted hotels that have a record of satisfying their clients. If you want a reservation at a particular hotel that the agency does not customarily work with, you may want to make that reservation on your own.
If you’re planning plane travel within Turkey and you buy your ticket from a travel agency outside of Turkey, you may pay twice as much for it as you would if you bought it from an agency in Turkey.
That’s just how international airfares are set—a good reason to use a good Turkish travel agency. An agency within Turkey can get the ticket at domestic—not international— rates, and can also arrange airport shuttles and transfers.
Turkish travel agents love booking trips and working with people, and they often give extra service for which they may earn no money, such as re-booking canceled flights for you, sorting out missing hotel reservations, or helping out in case of illness.
Keep in mind that travel agencies are businesses. They cannot afford to work for anything. If you buy only a cheap flight, and the agency earns only a little commission, they simply cannot spend hours helping you to plan your trip. They’ll go bankrupt.
If you plan to use a travel agency, it’s best to ask only one agency to do everything you want to be done, rather than asking various agencies to arrange various parts of your trip. You become a more valuable client to the agency, they can afford to provide more help and they’ll have a better grasp on all aspects of your trip and can often make it run smoother, especially if you need to make changes. And it’s simpler for you.
Some travelers ask several agencies to quote prices for the same trip in order to compare. It makes sense, but agencies rarely mention individual prices because of confidential arrangements with service providers. They charge by the complete trip.
You may wish to ask several agencies to quote a total price for a trip, but if an agency cannot be sure a traveler will use their services, they may not spend all the time and trouble it takes to plan an individual trip. They may give you an estimated price, or price range, but the final price will be determined by exactly which services you require for particular dates.