We rented a Ford Tourneo Custom but its last row of seats wouldn’t fold. Hence, we had to load up the luggage from the side doors onto the last row.
BHPian luvurride recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
T.U.R.K.E.Y!! That is a bird! Not a country!
This was the remark from a local gentleman that made us realize that it is actually “T.U.R.K.I.Y.E”!
The last overseas travel that we took was pre-covid, the summer of 2019 to Dubai that is. Having gone through a lot during Covid and recovered, that impending itch to travel abroad was inevitable. My pick was Italy, as I wanted to pick up a car and enjoy the scenic views of what Italy has to offer. However, contrary to my suggestion, my wife was already fixed on Türkiye, after chancing upon some videos she found online. But I was clear. I was clear that this has to be a self-driven road trip, already slightly bitter on the turn-down of Italy. After a series of discussions, and a truce reached, I started my research on Türkiye.
Mid-research, we reached out to our friends asking if they would be interested to join. They were welcoming of the idea and this being their first ever overseas travel for leisure- they were thrilled!
Places to Cover
Istanbul, Cappadoccia, Antalya, Pamukkale, Kusadasi. This meant that we can’t do the Black Sea Coast, but only the Mediterranean coast.
Travel Dates
First week of May and I wanted to do it for 2 weeks minimum and keep it a casual road trip.
Flights
Expensive! At least my head was tuned to precovid fares and to see prices of over 50k to Türkiye was unexpected for me. Regardless, I went ahead and booked Saudi Arabian Airlines directly through their website as that was the cheapest from Bangalore. This was sometime in early February. Within 2 days, Saudi Arabian Airlines released a transit promotion to stay at Jeddah for 2 nights en route, which kind of sweetened the deal with me hoping for an extended stopover. With multiple futile attempts to reach customer care on this, I went to their office directly to enquire. They said since my flights were booked before this promotion was released, I would have to cancel and rebook with the offer. I promptly cancelled, but when I booked again, their website wouldn’t still allow me to avail the offer. The office suggested to wait for a couple of days before I try. When I tried after 2 days, to my shock, the fare went up by 10k per person! Hence looked for alternate options and booked with Air Arabia with a transit at Sharjah. With this, the dates were fixed as well – Leaving on 2nd May and returning on 16th May.
Hotels
Since the actual travel was 3 months away, I chose the hotels that offered pay-at-site option. Booking.com usually has a good range of such hotels and hence went with that. This is when broader research of going through multiple vlogs and articles helped to decide on how many days to spend at each place. So, after booking the hotels, the itinerary finally took shape like this:
Rental Car
My usual overseas pick was rentalcars.com. But this time around, the prices were quite high. As the plan was to do this as a road trip, we would land in Istanbul, hire the car, do the cross country and then drop it back in Istanbul to cover the city in our final leg. This would mean that for 6 of us, any 6/7-seater would mean literally very minimum space for luggage. Hence, I was looking for 9/10 seaters. This means we could use the last row for luggage. Upon searching, landed up on a Ford Tourneo Custom for a reasonable price to be picked up from the airport through Eco Plus Cars. The booking aggregator was VIP Cars. Went ahead with the full package with comprehensive insurance with zero excess and unlimited mileage. A 20% advance and insurance money are all VIP cars took, and the balance was to be paid to Eco Plus while picking up. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I am the sole driver in the group!
Insurance
Just purchased online through ICICI Lombard and was done with that.
Visa
This was the last piece in the puzzle and for me, I wasn’t bothered much as we 3 had our US visas, which meant we could just get the Turkish visa online ourselves. But our friend had to get help from a travel agency, send out his passports and also pay quite a premium for an offline visa fee.
Currency/Card
I have used bookmyforex for my previous trips and was hoping would continue with the same. However, I saw that they do not support Turkish Lira, prompting me to search for other options. Google put me on to a newcomer in the block called Niyo Global. Their concept was that they provide a savings account with an overseas bank and issue their credit card, which will actually work as a debit card overseas. You can load INR anytime you want and spend. They have no markup charges and a nominal fee for cash withdrawal. However, we found out during the course of the trip that it wasn’t the case. I ordered this just a week before my trip and received it just a day before my travel! I did have a Forex card from ICICI as a backup, and hence wasn’t anxious. My friend exchanged and brought with him some 500 Euros in cash, and we decided to use my Niyo card as a single means of spending for the group.
Rides/Attractions/etc
We did not book any in advance as this being a road trip, we did not want to have a plan and then miss it. So we decided to figure them out locally at every location based on our convenience.
Our luggage was 2 large suitcases, 1 medium and 2 carry-ons. A backpack and laptop bag in addition to these.
With everything set, we were ready!
DAY 0:
I had pre booked the taxi through Uber and an Ertiga showed up. It was a CNG fitted taxi and I was surprised at the decent pulling power of it. With no further drama, we reached the airport on time at 1:30am. Our scheduled departure was at 4:30am. The check-in process was smooth, and we boarded the aircraft. The A320 was probably squeezed in with more seats and hence my plans for catching some sleep went for a toss. I had pre booked meals for all legs while making the reservation. The food was just ok.
DAY 1:
We landed at Sharjah on time (6:40am local time) and went straight to the next boarding gate. We spotted a decent looking “Olive restaurant” just after the transit security clearance, and we had our breakfast there. After killing a couple of hours there, reached the gate only to be overwhelmed by the smell of cigarette smoke! Yes, the Turkish people have taken up to smoking quite fondly and this was just a prelude to the passive smoking that we were to be subjected through the entire trip! Do note that the gate was nonsmoking – this was just a bunch of men reeking of post-smoking odor!
All of us took a nap through this flight as there was nothing much to do anyway! I miss those international flights that offer the whole experience with free food and in-flight-entertainment! We landed at the Istanbul Airport around 14:30pm local time.
Istanbul has 2 airports – The older Sabiha Gökcen airport that is on the Asian side and the swanky new Istanbul airport on the European side. It was a swift exit from immigration. Picked up our bags and met with our friend’s family at the arrival area. They were flying from Pune in Indigo and had arrived much earlier than us. We were hungry by then and while the family went food hunting, I went to the Turkcell counter to purchase a local SIM card. I remember paying some 50 euros for everything unlimited. This is a road trip, and we need our internet!
When I got back with the SIM, I saw the family munching away some vegetarian stuff. The non-veg in me was so happy to spot a Popeye there and had my fair share of their finger-licking chicken! The rental car guy had already turned up and was hurrying us to come out. Not to test his patience further, we met up with him and he took us into the parking lot. I realized that this was not a reputed agency in the likes of Avis/Hertz/Sixt, but a local operator who just aggregates through these portals. This guy could not speak any English. But he opened up his G Translate and started communicating! We returned the favor as well!
There was this Black Ford Tourneo Custom waiting. He showed us the vehicle and we promptly shot the video. Then there was this problem, the last row of seats wouldn’t fold. It is only removable, not foldable. Hence, we had to load up the luggage from the side doors onto the last row of seats. He made it look easy, but we found this an arduous task every time we had to load and unload. Once all set, he asked for his money in cash. This is the problem of dealing with curbside pickups as they don’t carry any machines to swipe cards. My friend had 400Euros cash he withdrew at the airport, and we gave it to him, promising that we will pay the balance amount when we return the car. The car carried the Turkish equivalent of Fastag and hence there would be no issue. He will tell us the amount when we return, and we would have to pay him that. With paperwork done, we set rolling.
As the itinerary indicates, the plan was to drive out of Istanbul and stay put for the night, before continuing the journey to Cappadocia. Instead of just booking a regular hotel, I had opted to stay at a mountain getaway, probably more active during the winter for its adventure activities, nevertheless beautiful during summer. Enroute, we stopped for gas, and also did have a coffee break at the convenience store attached. The kids loved the idea of Starbucks vending machines and all of us were hooked through our entire road trip.
We reached the place by dusk and loved the setting. It was a family house, where the owners lived in the Ground floor and the entire first floor was for us. It was a 3-bedroom spacious suite.
We freshened up and went out for dinner at a close by restaurant. Food was different and delicious, even for the vegetarians! Of the group of 6, my daughter and I are the only meat eaters!
With dinner done, I just wanted to drive around the village. The weather was nippy, and we stopped at the convenience store to buy road trip essentials – gallons of drinking water, milk, snacks, juices, etc. That was the end of a long 2 days!
Continue reading about luvurride’s international trip for BHPian comments, insights and more information.
