Travelling on your own gives you more scope to avoid the
crowds at Turkey's headline sights like Ephesus, with its
grand library frontage and links to New Testament apostle
Paul. Photo by Philip somerville.
Should you join organised tours when travelling overseas?
Otago Daily Times editorial manager Philip Somerville, just
back from Turkey, discusses the pro and cons.
I've seldom seen my wife, Shona, as disconcerted as when I
suddenly changed our holiday arrangements.
It was the evening of our fourth day in Istanbul and I wanted
to visit one of the local travel agents to consider an
organised tour for part of our time in Turkey.
We were due the next morning to find our way to the massive
Istanbul intercity bus station to begin independent travel to
Gallipoli and onwards.
Yet, here I was, with no warning and little time to make
fresh arrangements, overturning our plans.
It is my job, in our family division of labour, to research
and arrange travel, and I had been busy roughly working out
how many days we might spend in various places and how we
might get around.
We had our basic destinations sorted and I had decided the
northeast towards Armenia and Georgia was too ambitious
because Turkey is a lot bigger than most people realise,
about seven times the area of New Zealand.
But I began to wonder, after enthusiastic recommendations
from our hotel receptionist, if we might travel to the
southeast near the Syrian border, the heart of Kurd and Arab
Turkey.
I calculated that on our own we'd take a full day to get to
the town near Gallipoli and then, without transport, would
need a tour visit to the various battlegrounds and
cemeteries.
Travelling to Troy by ourselves would be time-consuming and a
little tricky, and the days would soon disappear as we waited
for and switched buses, searched out accommodation and
oriented ourselves to and around subsequent cities and sites.
All of a sudden, three more days were available thanks to the
speed of tours, with another two saved by flying back from
the southeast rather than enduring marathon bus trips. That
would still leave most of our trip on our own at our own
pace.
Luckily, businesses often stay open late because it was about
6pm before we returned from a day on the Bosphorus ferry and
called in at "Hassle Free" tours.
The agent, of course, pushed for as extensive a trip as
possible.
We knocked that back but did extend well beyond Gallipoli.
Afrodisias, which is difficult to reach to by public bus,
is notable not just for constructions such as this
30,000-seat stadium, but also for the feeling of just how
big and impressive former Roman cities can be. While our
tour was far too rushed, I found time to scamper down the
tunnel to the circle where gladiators once fought and
admire the adjacent chariot-racing circuit. Photo by Philip
Somerville.
Shona's horror at my out-of-character and apparently
precipitous actions proved effective for forcing the agent to
trim the prices, although the bouncing between euros and
Turkish lira made our heads spin.
Fearful of being ripped off, Shona also insisted we go
outside to evaluate these new proposals before agreeing to
anything, only for the agent to follow us.
By nature Shona is not assertive, but I suspect the common
Turkish male views of different roles for Western women would
have been reinforced by her contribution.
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