Traveling to Greece and Turkey from Toronto

Society Travel & Tourism
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I will be traveling with my sister and brother at the end of April. Can someone provide a good travel agency to book from.

Thank you

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Re: Traveling to Greece and Turkey from Toronto

book online, you get the best rates. be a little flexible in your itinerary.

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Re: Traveling to Greece and Turkey from Toronto

I always book online, Agencies are rip off. Try

Expedia.ca
KAYAK - Cheap Flights, Hotels, Airline Tickets, Cheap Tickets, Cheap Travel Deals - Compare Hundreds of Travel Sites At Once
Cheap Flights, Airline Tickets, and Airfare - Cheapflights.ca

There isone thing that we always do ..

  1. Try and compare prices on different websites first
  2. Once you find a decent flight, note its flight number and see what is price difference if you book that very flight from the official airlines website
  3. Delete your browser history or log into private mode tos ee if there is any flight difference (sometimes if you can change your ip address it will fluctuate the flight prices too).

If you need any further help for Turkey itinerary, then let me know.

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Re: Traveling to Greece and Turkey from Toronto

I am going to Turkey this summer. I am planning for Istanbul--Izmir/Ephesus/Kusadasi and possibly Cappadocia. I'm debating if I should book the internal flights and hotels to these through an agency or try to navigate the bookings myself..any ideas/thoughts?

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Re: Traveling to Greece and Turkey from Toronto

^ enjoy!

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Re: Traveling to Greece and Turkey from Toronto

My recent trip was Egypt > Turkey > England .. Before that, I have done many other trips and one thing I always did was not to involve an agency. Specially in this high-tech age. For my Europe trips, I always prefer to do couchsurfing or stay at hostels .. but ofcourse its not ideal if you are travelling with your family. As a bachelor its fun. But this is only advised if you are travelling to europe.

I always plan my trip like this

  1. Figure out what places i am going to visit
  2. Make my route plan i.e., first day i am going to blue mosque, second day i am going to topaki palace etc ..
  3. One I have my route plan final .. then i look for hotels which is in center or near to the attractions which i have planned
  4. Head to Hotels.com, booking.com, tripadvisor to look for hotels around that aread .. ALWAYS ALWAYS READ REVIEWS ... never ever pick a hotel because it has nice pictures. the most important thing which matters is the staff of that particular hotel. I had so many experiences which would have put me into trouble but decent hotel staff helped me out
  5. Book the hotels ..

I stayed for 2 days in Istanbul and visited most of the places that I wanted. If you want i can share my two days Istanbul itinerary ..

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Re: Traveling to Greece and Turkey from Toronto

My husband and I have traveled extensively through Europe ourselves, but this is the first time we’re taking the kids on an international vacation. I’ve never used an agency for anything, as I always book travel myself, however this time, since we’re taking the kids and I want to do several places in different regions, I was wondering if it’s better to use a Turkish based travel agent to handle the logistics of getting from Istanbul to the other places, as I’m not familiar at all with the local/regional carriers :hmmm:

I usually use Hotels.com to book, but I’ve gotten some good recommendations from Ricks Steve’s Istanbul & Lonely Planet’s Turkey, so I may book out Istanbul hotel directly through the hotel rather than use a third party site. I know we’ll be staying in the Sultanahmet/Old Town area.

Nour total trip will be about 10-12 days. I was thinking about 4 days in Istanbul…3 days in Izmir/Ephesus/Kusadasi,2 days Cappadocia with one last day in Istanbul before flying back

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Re: Traveling to Greece and Turkey from Toronto

5 days for Istanbul are more than enough .. But again since you will be with your family, you wouldn’t be going around the way I go. My vacations are normally very hectic and i try to cover as much as i can in shortest time.

I lived in old town too and travelling from old town to airport is pretty easy. I chose a hotel which was in the middle of subway station and Blue Mosque. So once I chose to leave, I took LRT to subway and subway to airport (total 1 hour commute). I had one hand carry and a bag and it wasn’t that terrible to take LRT > Subway. Worst case, you can get a cab from your hotel to subway and then it will take you directly to airport.

Would any agency be helpful ? I don’t think so. To be honest, I have no idea what kind a recommendation i can give since you will be travelling with kids. But there is one thing I can strongly recommend you is to visit tripadvisor forum. You might find lots of other families who have done similar trips with their kids. Go to Asia > Turkey > Istanbul specific forum and see what people have talked about their experiences.

There is one thing that i should tell you (which no one told me before so it took me by surprise). There is a small museum in Topaki palace (near to blue mosque). That museum has pretty good stuff like

  • Staff of Moses
  • Cloths of Hazrat Fatima R.A
  • Cloths of Hazrat Hussain R.A
  • Swords of 4 claiphs
  • Some belongs of Prophet Muhammad SAW
  • Some belongings of other prophets as well

But due to security reason, It was almost impossible to take any picture of them .. so keep in mind, you might be able to steal a chance