Turkey: Flight, Visa, Car Rental, Itinerary
Dates: from 11/09/2009 to 27/09/2009
Flight details:
London Gatwick- Izmir Adnan Menderes (ADB) non-stop flight with British Airways. Outbound 14:20, Inbound: 21:05.
Price was £203 per person ,bought 4 months in advance.Bought the flight at Opodo.co.uk, same flight in other UK websites was up to £40 per person more (strange as Opodo tends to be one of the most expensive, it is definitely worth looking for exactly the same flight at least in 3 or 4 webs). Plane was 737-486.
Outbound flight 1 hour delay, inbound flight 30 min early (!)
Visa: Paid visa on arrival. Visa has to be paid before queuing for passport control. Queue was fast. Payment has to be in cash: £10, 15€ or $20 (so given the current currency exchange is much cheaper to pay it in GBP). They put a stamp in the passport and you can go to the passport control.
Itinerary: Izmir, Ephesus, Selçuk, Sirinçe, Kuşadaşi, Pamucak Beach, Dilek National Park, Herakleia, Hisarönü peninsula, Selimiye, Iztuzu beach, Kaş, Patara, Kekova, Kaleköy, Side, Capadoccia, Goreme, Ürgüp, Mustafapaşa, underground cities (Kaymakli and Derinkuyu), Ilhara valley, Akşehir, Pamukkale, Foça, Pergamum.
Rental car and driving in Turkey: rented a car for the full length of the trip through a online company called Economy Car Rentals (www.economycarrentals.com) and it was a total success. The prices I had seen in most common UK websites were around £400 with the highest level of insurance cover. In this website price announced was £300 for the same level of coverage and a slightly better car. I decided to take the risk and got the car with them.
The reservation fee was 2€ and the required down payment in advance was 50€. I have to admit I was a bit concerned about how the company was going to respond although from the beginning they looked professional. When arrived at the airport a person was waiting for us with my name written on a board.
The car was a Renault Symbol 1.4, clean and fairly new (30000 kms). The person who attended me was nice and efficient, and in a few minutes we had the car (sometimes the process in the big companies can take a long time). The car behaved perfectly all along the trip and we were very satisfied with the quality of the service and the car. Excellent value for money (although due to the pound weakness I ended up paying £313). Very recommend!!
Petrol was quite expensive in Turkey, prices range was from 3.25 to 3.35 TL per litre (although we found one petrol station with fuel at 3.09). In total we drove around 3200Km.
Around Konya Police stopped me and gave me a speeding ticket. They attached no proof of it, just told me that limit was 90 Km/h and I was driving 121Km/h. I do think I was speeding. I mentioned the fine to the rental company and I paid ¾ of it in cash (discount for early payment). They told me that if I had left the country without paying it they would have taken the money from my credit card with no discount for early payment.
Driving in Turkey was not very difficult. Roads are in very good condition on the coast and not so good but still ok in the inlands. Also on the coast there are many kilometres of highways and dual carriage. I did not find too much traffic, only in the surrounding of big cities. It is important to drive being aware that turkish drivers are not so consistent with the driving rules as we are in western countries, but in general people don´t drive fast and it did not feel dangerous.