Turkey??

[stanncie]

Has anyone visited turkey? I'm very interested in going. Is it safe for a woman alone?? I'm serioulsy considering a trip to greece next year and maybe i'll include turkey. Any advice or referral to other sites would be appreciated

[crystal]

I love Turkey!!!!!
We did a little bit of travelling around turkey by bus. We travelled down the west coast from Cesme (do not go here mega boring!), Ismir, Marmaris, Bodrum to Alanya and places in between. The coaches are proper luxury you should have no worries using them. The tourist resorts like Maramis and Alanya can get manic and it is properly here that you will have the most trouble with people trying to sell you EVERYTHING. The prices are also creeping up in these resorts although they are still cheaper than western europe obviously.
I did not feel unsafe but it's like anywhere that you travel to there are scams and bad guys about although I wasn't on my own (had my 'burly' b/friend with me Ha ha ha).
The coast is beautiful but the larger cities like Ismir can be hectic and confusing sometimes.
If you go to Turkey you must try and fit in a trip to Pamukkale. They are stunning site where white calcium has harderened on to the 200m high cliffs and created pools and stepps. I am not even touching on everything you can do in turkey - think about the Turkish baths, the bazaars and the Turkish Delight (MMMMM). I sound like an advert for the Turkish tourist board!!
When I was in Turkey I found things more by default that by serious planning (we were on a pckage holiday that went wrong so took to the coahes) however I would love to go back and fit in everything I missed and try to get up to Istanbul. If you are gonna travel outside of the tourist areas you will need a phrasebook and take your passport with you when travelling. We were asked for our passport by an armed turkish policeman and had to do a lot of babbling to convince him we were just lost tourists.
Happy travelling :-)