Our first-time, month-long, visit to Turkey started August 21, 2023. Last year the country’s name was officially changed to Turkiye. The first part of the journey, the western/central region we explored on our own.
For the last portion we joined an organized 12-day archeological tour to explore the east. We saw so much in a short amount of time. It challenged our ability to absorb the onslaught of gobsmacking cradle of civilization encounters. In a perfect world we wanted at least twice as much time overall. One thing we really missed was having a day off in between certain big days to just catch our breath and look at all the pictures we took. (We’re doing that now in Peru!) The flip side was that we efficiently discovered so many epic destinations, were lead by experts who could help unpack the archeological wonders for us and we didn’t have to worry about any of the logistics. It was hard letting go of the control of our schedule some days. But one of the best parts of the group tour was our band of 20 kind-hearted kindred spirits from five continents. What a great group of people! We got along swimmingly! One casualty — we don’t want any more chicken kebab for the foreseeable future!
Below are our destinations, where we stayed and what we saw. Each destination includes a select slideshow of our hotel and one select slideshow of what we did there. Because of the quantity and quality of our archeological discoveries, some entries include a link to additional Turkiye Archeological Highlights.
Turkish Pistachio Coffee
We stayed two nights September 6-8, 2023 as the first stop on our organized 12-day Turkey tour. Located in the old city it was convenient for our group sightseeing of the city that we did. Overall, was adequate for two nights. The front desk service needs improvement. Breakfast buffet was ambitious and very nice.
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