Insight Guides Turkey

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight
• Print ISBN: 9781780052137
• eBook ISBN: 9781780058474
• Edition: 7
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Insight Guide Turkey is a comprehensive full-colour guide to the culture, history and people of this varied and youthful country. Be inspired by our Best of Turkey section highlighting unmissable sights and experiences and lavish Photo Features on topics such as Turkish cafs, carpets and kilims and the great outdoors. A detailed Places section, with stunning travel photography and full-colour maps, shows you where to go and what to do, from from the bright lights of Istanbul to ancient monuments, amazing landscapes and characterful old towns - making sure you don't miss anything. A comprehensive Travel Tips section gives you all the travel advice you need to plan your trip, with our selective, independent reviews to guide you to the most authentic hotels and restaurants.

Accommodation

Price Categories

İstanbul/Ankara/İzmir: price categories are per night for a double room during the high season, including breakfast:

€ = below €90

€€ = €90–145

€€€ = €145–240

€€€€ = over €240

Non-big-city price categories: price categories are per night for a double room, with breakfast unless stated, in high season:

€ = under €42

€€ = €42–90

€€€ = €90–144

€€€€ = over €144

Turkey offers all conceivable varieties of accommodation, from campsites to luxury complexes. The broadest choice lies in the resorts and cities of the western two-thirds of the country; on the sunnier coasts, huge, faceless international resorts alternate with even more anonymous concrete blocks for those of lesser means.

But since the 1990s there has been a backlash against both, and boutique hotels aimed at discerning Turks and more demanding foreigners alike are proliferating, often restorations of traditional buildings. But the term butik is much (ab)used to justify hefty prices.

Types of Lodgings

Hotels

Hotel categories

The Ministry of Tourism classifies all hotels from one to five stars, with the majority between two and four. Boutique hotels are often categorised as özel (special) accommodation.

At one-star level you will get a serviceable if basic en-suite room. A three-star hotel should have a bar-restaurant, air conditioning and better furniture in the rooms, fairly reliable hot water, and probably a swimming pool.

Four- and five-star hotels include local franchises of international hotel chains like Accor, Iberostar and Swissotel, or Turkish chains like Dedeman or Anemon. Although their rack rates are astronomical, at quieter times they offer extremely attractive packages online.

All-inclusive complexes are proliferating, especially around Kuşadası, Marmaris and along the Mediterranean coast. While in theory good value, they generate steady complaints about inedible food, undrinkable (occasionally dangerous) alcoholic beverages and hidden charges.

Apart-hotels

These offer some of the independence of a flat, but with hotel-type services included. Some multi-star hotels also offer apartments in one wing.

Pansiyons

A pansiyon or guesthouse is somewhat akin to a British bed and breakfast, and can be as good as or better than a one/two-star hotel. At some seaside resorts the more basic ones are used by Turkish families on holiday, and pitched at their needs with self-catering kitchens and multi-bedded rooms. More expensive examples will have en-suite facilities in every room.

Hostels, Treehouses, Trekkers’ Lodges

Accommodation is so reasonably priced in Turkey that hostels per se are seldom found. Along the Lycian coast, an interesting adaptation of these – which circumvents a ban on permanent buildings in protected areas – are the so-called “treehouse” lodges, particularly at Olympos and Faralya, near Ölüdeniz. Along the Lycian Way and St Paul trail, as well as in the Kaçkar mountains, trekkers’ lodges have essentially a hostel format with multi-bedded rooms and shared toilet facilities.

Self-catering

There are many comfortable villas and apartments with pools; you should, however, ensure that you won’t be amidst a construction. Some UK package agents (for more information, click here) specialise in providing quiet, rural, “genuine” locations, but these may not have pools on-site.

Camping

Some pansiyons with gardens allow pitching a tent. Otherwise, more elaborate campsites (kamping) are situated close to the principal seaside resorts, and have showers, shops, restaurants and children’s activities. They cost around as much as staying in a cheap hotel, especially when per-vehicle fees are figured in. More basic, but far nicer and cheaper, are the twenty forestry department sites along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts – often with their own beach.

You can actually camp almost anywhere except designated historic or natural sites, provided you don’t damage farmland or light fires in forests. However, it’s not for those who value their privacy, except in parts of the higher mountains where tenting is essential. But you may get unwanted attention from the jandarma or local police if you camp rough...

Table of contents

• How To Use This E-Book
• Turkey’s Top 10 Attractions
• Editor’s Choice
• Introduction: Welcome To Turkey
• Geography
• Decisive Dates
• The Cradle of Civilisation
• The Classical Years
• Byzantium
• An Empire Under Threat
• The Ottomans
• Insight: Süleyman the Magnificent
• The Decline and Fall of the Ottomans
• The Republican Era
• Modern Turks: A Quest for Identity
• Religion in Turkey
• Fit for a Sultan’s Table
• Insight: Turkish Cafés
• Anatolia’s Ancient Arts
• Saz, Jazz and Sufi Chants
• Heirlooms of the Future
• Insight: Patterns of Life: Carpets and Kilims
• Introduction: Places
• Introduction: İstanbul
• İstanbul: Old City
• İstanbul: The New City and The Bosphorus
• Insight: A Trip to the Turkish Bath
• Introduction: Thrace and Marmara
• Thrace
• Marmara
• Introduction: The Aegean Coast
• The North Aegean Coast
• İzmir, Manisa and Sardis
• Insight: Turkish Festivals
• The Southern Aegean
• Bodrum and Marmaris
• Introduction: The Mediterranean Coast
• Lycia
• Insight: Plants and Wildlife
• Pamphylia
• Cilicia
• The Hatay
• Introduction: Central Anatolia
• Ankara
• Northwest Anatolia
• Southwest Anatolia
• East of Ankara
• Cappadocia
• Introduction: The Black Sea Coast
• The Black Sea
• Insight: The Great Outdoors
• Introduction: The East
• The Near East
• Insight: Prophets and Preachers
• The Far East
• Transport
• Accommodation
• Eating Out
• Activities
• A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information
• Understanding the Language
• Further Reading