Easymade Turkey Tour – Istanbul to Cappadocia

Overall I think Fez Travel did a great job. The organisation was great, we had an international and domestic flight and the transfers were great. Our names were listed outside the airport. We had a brief wait in Istanbul airport for a driver but this was nothing. I have been with other tours where you leave the airport and there’s no one there and that’s a nightmare. All the drivers and guides were on time or usually early for the tours. Our two guides Khan and Aras were great, cannot praise them enough. I’ve never know a guide with so much knowledge as Khan and he had such patience and tolerance with the group. Also our driver Murat was the safest and best driver. Khan also kept his mask on the whole time which made me feel safer. Some of our group said they had asthma so refused to wear masks, but I think they should have been made to wear visors in the bus. The itinerary was great. Our group had slightly different itineraries, for example one involving a drive from Pamukkale to Kayseri, while we flew. We drove 3 hours back to Kusadasi, then next day an hour to airport, an hour flight, then an hour to Cappadocia, so driving there is only about 4 hours more and get to see more places on the way. I think Fez should offer options on travel and give prices for each. Most of our hotels were really nice and the staff in all of them were fantastic. All the hotels were Covid safe. This does involve more plastic unfortunately with most hotels abandoning buffet. Our nicest hotel the cave MDC hotel in Cappadocia had the best system, with guests using plastic gloves and then guests could use the superb buffet breakfast. The worse hotel was the Barbados hotel which had plastic on everything in the room, including the kettle, towels, toiletries, completely unnecessary. All the hotels were clean except my room at MDC hotel. A dead spider shot out when I used the shower, but it was still there the following day after the room had been cleaned. When I complained the manager was apologetic and the room was cleaned within 10 minutes even though I said I was happy to wait till next day so I think that is great service. I suspect the room had not been used in a while. As the rooms are previously cave homes there is natural dust and fine debris falling from the ceiling. Also as they were previously homes, each room is different and the bedding and cushions are authentic Turkish. I loved it. Turkey felt safer than UK. All restaurants and hotels and airports routinely took temperatures, sanitizer were widely available. There were social isolation stickers on the floors in airports. I would thoroughly recommend this itinerary, I would encourage hotels to reduce their use of plastic in

After much research, we decided on the”Easy Made Turkey Tour.” After spending 10 days with the awesome guide, Serdar, he quickly moved up to the VERY top of our favorite Tour Guide list. He’s been in the business for 35+ years. What we appreciated most was his thorough knowledge of history and connecting it to Roman & Greek Mythology, Islam & Christianity beliefs. The tour company was very organized and made all the accommodations & travel arrangements once we had arrived in Istanbul. We had well-planned daily itineraries and Serdar was quite flexible in the timing of them whenever the tour group wanted to add/change something. Our driver was fantastic and the vehicle was top-notch – clean, A/C & roomy. The sites were amazing and the craft places were educational and fun to shop at. In Cappadocia, Serdar made arrangements for our group to experience “Turkish Nights” and “Whirling Dervishes”. Both were a lot of fun. The hotels were excellent, with the exception of the one in Cannakkale (old & dirty). They all had good breakfast buffets. We had upgraded our stay in Cappadocia because we wanted to stay in a nice “cave” hotel – excellent decision. We also decided to fly to Cappadocia (from Izmir) after the Pamukkale stop because we didn’t want to waste a day driving 10 hours. Instead, we spent that extra day seeing sites that aren’t on the typical tour trek – Priene, Miletus & Didim. That day was one of our favorites as Serdar had made arrangements for us to see those impressive places with another excellent guide. We flew back to Istanbul from Cappadocia which gave us the flexibility to have a hot air balloon ride, since weather can play havoc with balloon flights. After enduring the long ride to Cappadocia, the rest of our tour group liked our idea about flying back to Istanbul instead of driving, so the tour operator made their flight arrangements with no problems. Flying back also builds in an extra chance for the balloon ride. We have two areas of improvement – hotels & airport transfers. Hotels – the hotel choice in Canakkle needs to change as it was old & dirty. The hotel in Pamukkele upcharged each guest $10US for internet and would not issue refunds when the power went out & internet couldn’t be accessed. Those, in our group, that did not “upgrade” their Cappadocia were disappointed that they didn’t have a “cave” hotel especially when that hotel lost power, too. Airport Transfer – the tour stated that airport transportation to/from the Istanbul airport were part of the package. However, we arrived the day before and stayed the day after the tour began. Despite several attempts to work something out, the tour company refused to provide the “included” transportation because we didn’t arrive/leave on the exact tour dates. It shouldn’t have mattered because they had to make arrangements for the different arrival/departure times for the other tour group members. So, we had to make our own arrangements costing us $50US. The tour operator staff that we were with, each day, were professional, courteous, knowledgeable and truly wanted to provide the best experience possible! All in all, though, we had a fantastic time and can’t wait to return!