Turkey with Argeus

My wife and I took a 14-day tour of Istanbul and western Turkey, Sept. 18-Oct. 2, 2010. The tour with Argeus Tourism & Travel (Istiklal Cad. No. 47, Ürgüp/Nevsehir, Turkey; phone +90 384 341 4688) was more expensive than similar tours of other companies we investigated, but we thought the quality more than compensated for the cost.

The land price, $3,970, included everything except wine at dinner and tips to the guide and driver.

Argeus limits its groups to 10 people (we had eight) and, on our tour, used a very comfortable Mercedes-Benz van in which we could go places the huge tour buses could not. Generally, we stayed in smaller boutique hotels and ate in local restaurants.

Our guide, Erkut, was extraordinary. He spoke fluent English and was knowledgeable about history, art, architecture, politics and everything else relating to Turkey. He navigated us around large tour groups so we never felt we were part of a mob. Although he packed a lot into each day’s schedule, we never felt rushed.

We flew Turkish Airlines business class from New York to Istanbul and can highly recommend them. The modern, clean plane had individual “pods” in business class with fold-flat beds. Food and service were extremely good.

CHARLES W. SCHELKE
Philadelphia, PA