ISTANBUL, Turkey — This is shaping up as the year I’m traveling to nations where I’ve never been. I started with five days in England in early July (yes, I can’t believe that I have never been to London or the U.K.). It was mostly a work visit – three days of conferences about Ukraine – but I spent the last two days as a tourist, enough to get a small taste of the magnificent and overpriced city.
Next up this month: Turkey. I was becoming embarrassed as one the only ones among my colleagues and friends in Ukraine who had never traveled to Ukraine’s southern neighbor and one of Kyiv’s most important trade partners.
So I decided to take a short vacation from July 15-23, first stopping in the Mediterranean Sea resort city of Antalya, with 2.2 million people, after entering the country through Istanbul.
The sea, music and cuisine did not disappoint, but I would end up paying dearly for my lack of planning and preparation, as well as boneheaded mistakes that no international traveler should make.
It hadn’t occurred to me that I needed a visa as an American citizen, but it occurred to the border guard, who sent me back to the automated machines that are supposed to dispense the $20.75 visa of 180-day duration with credit card payment. But none of the machines worked, so I had to get cash from an ATM — I chose Turkish lira — and stand in line buy the visa from a human who only accepted dollars or euros. Thanks to the Australian couple with a later flight who let me cut in line.
My Ukrainian companion, by contrast, sped through the line thanks to visa-free travel between the two nations and waited for me. So much for the privileged American passport. We were the last to board the plane to Antalya, arriving only three minutes before takeoff.
I picked Turkish Airlines, a Kyiv Post advertiser and great supporter of Ukraine through charitable donations, such as to the Kyiv Lions Club, a civic organization to which I belong. It also had the most options and cheapest fares to Turkey on Travelocity (no surprise there). On the recommendation of Burak Pehlivan, chairman of the International Ukrainian Turkish Businessmen Association, I looked for a beach hotel west of Anatalya where he said there would be fewer foreign tourists.
I found the cheapest hotel — the small, five-story Volkii Hotel — along the seven-kilometer long, stony pebble Konyaaltii Beach. Even though we checked in late, the sea-view room we ordered still wasn’t ready, the internet only worked in the lobby (and then only sometimes) and the pool was so small it was more like an oversized bathtub. Still, for $60 a night, a good deal.
I enjoyed vacationing in an area with few other foreigners, but the language was more of an issue than I imagined — and knowing Russian and English didn’t save us. Now I understand why so many of the 1 million Ukrainians who visit Turkey every year choose the all-inclusive packages arranged through travel agencies.
The view from the Galata Bridge at sunset in Istanbul on July 22. (Brian Bonner)
It turned out no one in the hotel spoke English or Russian (except the Georgian maid). Very few restaurants we encountered had waiters or waitresses who spoke anything but Turkish. Some would summon their lone staff member with the languages we sought. And, also surprisingly for what I thought was an international tourist haven, few menus were written in any other language but Turkish. (We were saved by the pictures.) It was also the rare taxi driver who spoke Russian or English.
But we managed to get around. Antalya has a great taxi call system: Just press a button at one of the black-and-yellow taxi stands on almost every corner and a ride comes within minutes. The cars have metered fares to avoid unpleasant surprises and haggling.
We favored the Old Town area of Antalya, spending most of our nights there. We took a four-hour private cruise on the Mediterranean Sea that departed from the marina in Old Town. (The other big marina, near our hotel, is a private one off-limits to members).
Food was great everywhere — Konyalltii Beach and Old Town (Kaleici) have dozens if not hundreds of restaurants, many with similar menus and prices (various kebabs, sea bass, grilled shrimp were my favorites). Another pleasant discovery is Atarturk Park, loaded with sea-view spots.
One of the best chance encounters came at a small clothing shop staffed by a Turkish man who had been in the business for 47 years. I bought three shirts from him. He was articulate, English-speaking and burning with contempt for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who he believes has alienated the country’s 80 million citizens and the nation’s foreign partners, causing a drop in tourism. I asked if he was afraid to speak out, and he matter-of-factly replied no – that he’d “tasted prison” in the 1990s for his political views. He also said the good people in a nation should be at least as brave as the bad people.
Among the Turks I encountered who spoke English, there was unhappiness with the state of politics and tourism. The numbers bear them out: The number of foreign tourists dropped from 36.2 million people in 2015 to 25.4 million people in 2016, a 30 percent fall. The lira has also declined sharply, from 2.9 to the dollar a year ago to 3.5 today. Some estimates are that tourism accounts for 13 percent of Turkey’s annual gross domestic product, which hit $858 billion in 2016.
In any case, I tried to stay oblivious to the news. I succeeded for the most part and spent most of my time in the Mediterranean Sea, which was wonderful at least until noon (when the sun became too hot in 34 degree-plus Celcius temperatures) and again after 6 p.m.
The huge mistake came in not printing out and double-checking my itinerary, causing me to miss the flight from Antalya to Istanbul by minutes, and having to buy new tickets. Ouch!
But even worse, the missed prompted Turkish Airlines — inexplicably to me — to cancel the final leg of the journey, from Istanbul to Kyiv, which I only found out about upon arrival in Istanbul and from checking my online itinerary. So I also paid twice to go from Istanbul to Kyiv. Double ouch! Another Istanbul travel tip: Only travel to Ataturk airport, which is in the heart of where most tourists want to be. The other airport is 30-40 kilometers and an expensive taxi ride away from the center. We weren’t brave enough to take public transport.
All the unexpected costs and delays put me in a foul mood until the charms of Istanbul set in. We stayed at one of the dozens, if not hundreds, of boutique hotels that surround the Blue Mosque and the Sea of Marmara. You can’t go wrong with any of them. Ours was called Timeks Hotel, which had a great balcony overlooking the sea, a living room and bedroom — all for $40 a night. The owner even met us at the door and carried our bags. Now that’s service. There must have been 10 great restaurants on our block alone.
From there, the two days were spent like most tourists in Istanbul, with a map in hand, a trip to the Old Bazaar, the Sultan Ahmet or Blue Mosque, the Galata Bridge on the Golden Horn and so on.
Unfortunately, Istanbul appeared to be hurting as well economically, with vacant buildings, aggressive merchants, shady taxi drivers and empty restaurants all providing testimony that these were not the best of times for the massive metropolis of 15 million people.
Turkey is not for everybody, but I will return because it takes much more than a week to do anything but scratch the surface of the ancient, complicated, predominately Muslim civilization straddling Europe and Asia.
Next up on the travel list, however, are such countries as Georgia, Greece, Vietnam, China and Spain, more first-time stops for me.
Postscript:
Perhaps everyone who has been to Turkey has an anecdote about the nation’s reverence for cats, dating back to prophet Muhammad’s time. Here’s mine: Some kids were playing with a street cat at night, dangling a shiny plastic mouse in front of the feline. Suddenly the cat darted into the path of an oncoming street car loaded with passengers. The driver stopped on the dime and didn’t go until the kids could get the cat out of harm’s way. I missed the picture, however, because I was too captivated by the scene.
If you go:
* Turkish Airlines offers the most options. Low-cost Pegasus Airlines is also a choice. Avoid multi-destination itineraries. If travel plans change, you could have the whole itinerary cancelled. Kyiv-Istanbul-Antalya and the return trip cost $423 on the dates I traveled.
* Expect to spend $25 to $40 for a full meal for two persons with drinks in comfortable, tourist-area restaurants.
* Seaside hotels are bargains now. Volkii Hotel in Antalya cost $60 a night. Timeks Hotel in Istanbul cost $40 a night.
