Turkey with Treasures of Travel

My wife and I traveled to Turkey with Umit Dogan, the owner of Treasures of Travel (Box 714, Edmonds, WA 98020; 800/572-0526). The land price of our 21-day tour was $2,800 per person. We used frequent-flyer miles to fly Air France to and from Istanbul.

Because we wanted to book the tour as early as possible so as to be able to use our miles for free business-class air, we made our arrangements for the tour in early January of 2005.

Knowing that the dates we chose, Oct. 28-Nov. 17, ’05, were late in the season, I asked Umit if he would still take us if the minimum of 10 persons per tour did not sign up. Umit’s reply was a gracious “Of course,” so we signed up. As it turned out, we were in fact the only two people on the tour, thus we enjoyed the privilege of having Umit as our private driver and guide.

We arrived a day early (as we usually do) and were met at the airport by a member of the staff of Treasures of Travel, who took us to the lovely Nena Hotel in Istanbul. The following morning we met Umit and began our remarkable tour of Turkey.

Rather than fly from Istanbul to Ankara, we agreed to drive, and the trip was lovely. We visited Ankara and Cappadocia (where we were thrilled to take an early morning hot-air balloon ride) and then went down to the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts. Along the way, we visited many historical and interesting sites.

Umit was a marvel. He is a walking encyclopedia of Turkish culture and history. He introduced us to the wonders of Turkish cuisine, and we did not have a bad meal the entire three weeks. Overall, the hotels were adequate, with a mixture of 5-, 4- and 3-star plus “special” hotels.

We cannot say enough about how Umit and Treasures of Travel take care of their guests.

— Ken Unrath, Riverside, CA