Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16832 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 724 pages

Customer Reviews

Great, indepth guide.
I bought this Lonely Planet guide to Turkey as it was the most recently published book that I could find before my visit to the country during April 2009. I was so glad to have bought it!!
The book is informative, easy to navigate, contained helpful up-to-date advice & recommendations and included some great photographs. If you're looking for a pocket sized guide however this is not the book to choose as it's fairly heavy to carry around with you!
I had a great holiday in Turkey (I visited Ephesus amongst other places, whilst staying in Selcuk/Kusadasi) and I'm now reading up on other sections of the book in preperation for my next visit!

Helpful as a directory, but not for the opinions
It's very obvious when you first start reading this guide that it's aimed at the wealthy traveller. It's written from the perspective of people who are having everything paid for, do not need to save money, and therefore focus on the aesthetics rather than the bare essentials and value, whether its eating, sleeping or sightseeing. Phrases like "It's inevitable you'll buy some sort of carpet when you're in Turkey" (under the 'highlights' section) do not seem to have the books largest demographic in mind, 18-25 year old backpackers.

Many of the hotel descriptions focus on the appearance of the rooms and furnishings, not the things that matter like helpfullness of staff, safety, noise levels etc., and this is in the budget section! You just have to assume that as they've not brought them up these things are fine- but that's not always the case. You almost get the feeling they went in, took a look around, wrote down some notes on the decor and then checked in at the upmarket hotel down the road. Who can blame them I guess, if lonely planet is paying you might as well take the luxury option.

Which brings me to another point; the upmarket sections are given far more space than the budget sections than in any other guide I've read, sometimes there's only one or two budget options. They also need to be far more conservative with the flowery language so that they could fit more useful stuff in. Our lives would have been so much easier with some bigger maps that actually had all the road names on, rather than just about a third of them. Other than these criticisms, I suppose the guide was helpful in finding some hotels and eateries, but in all honesty we'd have saved a lot of money and time just asking the locals for reccomendations/directions instead.

I'll leave you with some sample descriptions (with nothing ommited, it's all there) of BUDGET hotels, in Malatya and Antep:

"'Soviet tenement' springs to mind upon first sight of the greyish, peeling facade, but give this central abode a chance for it was undergoing a much need freshening up at the time of writing. When we checked in, brand-new mattresses were stacked next to the reception, which bodes well. The breakfast room boasts contempory furnishings and a flat-screen TV" - Hotel Yeni Sinan. Well at least we know what it looks like.

"As far as physical beauty goes, this is a real plane Jane, but it's a secure place to hang your rucksack, the rates are good, and it's handily set in the centre of town. It features anodyne rooms with well scrubbed bathrooms (but please upgrade the boarding school style furnishings). The breakfast room is windowless" - Yunus Hotel. Man I hate boarding school style furnishings, this was definitely a no-go.

"The decor's a bit blah, and the carpets are tatty, but the bathrooms are kept in fine fettle and location is primo. Oh, and there's the Gulluoglu pastry shop on the ground floor." - Hotel Gulluoglu. Wow, if there's anything I hate more than boarding school style furnishings, it's blah decor and tatty carpets. But a pastry shop on the ground floor?! I'm sold.

A Youngster's Guide
This was obviously a mistaken purchase - silly me for not spotting that this guide is definitely for the under thirties market. And how should I have known?... well, perhaps the startling blue of the sky on the cover? Loads of information included, written rather sparsely (it's a big country) in youngsters' language (nothing wrong with that), but lacking something human somehow. It gives the impression that the authors didn't like Turkish people much. And one of the recommended hotels was really awful (and I've had plenty of experience of the bottom end, believe me). Back to the Rough Guide next time.