Turkey Tours - Turkey Travel Centre - Wheelers Hill, Victoria

Sandy Neale

We all totally enjoyed our time in Turkey. What a fantastic experience. The hotels were fabulous, and the guides extremely knowledgeable.
The country itself is wonderful and we found the Turkish people to be warm, friendly and welcoming.
Having never visited Turkey before, we did not know what to expect. If we knew what we know now we would have put in a couple of extra days of free time to explore on own at a couple of destinations (Istanbul and Kusadasi) to also allow a bit of down time as we did feel quite exhausted and that would have slowed the pace a bit for us. However the tour exceeded our expectations, with every detail taken care of, from transfers to tour guides and hotels to meals. A very professionally prepared package.
We would certainly recommend the Turkey Travel Centre to others.

Andreas

We took the 19 day Grand Tour in September 2024. Great experience and a really good way to see Turkey for first-time visitors, as it covers many of the well-known sights you'd want to take in. We also liked the balance between sight-seeing and "downtime" where they schedule in some relaxation days. The time on the gulet cruising the coast between Marmaris and Fethiye was the best example of this, but there was also time to enjoy other spots (eg Pamukkale, Kas) after the formal tour/sightseeing had been completed.

The various tours are outsourced to local operators, so we ended up with a different mix of people most days. This was fine and worked well. Tour sizes varied from just us to sometimes one other couple, to about 16 people on some of the more famous and popular tours like Ephesus. The guides were mostly pretty good, although in places the time allocated for the visit felt insufficient. They also include stops at various shops (leather goods, carpets, ceramics etc) which we didn't really like but I guess that's part of group touring... and it is questionable how useful this is to the shop owners, as we only saw one person actually buy something! Anyway, that's not a big gripe, the carpet weaving shop at least was quite interesting.

The lunches included in the various tours were always pretty good, mostly local restaurants serving "home style" Turkish food like meat kebabs and grilled fish. The one thing I found odd was that no drinks at all - even water - was included in these and had to be paid for separately, except on the Istanbul walking tour where it was all included. Again not a big thing, and I get it in terms of things like alcohol, but surely at least water

The hotels chosen on this tour were all good - mostly smaller boutique hotels, which we generally like. They varied a bit in terms of facilities and room size, but were all good, clean and with helpful staff.

Last but not least, I want to give a big shout-out to Makbule, TTC's person on the ground in Turkey who made the local arrangements with the hotels and tour operators. She was absolutely brilliant at organising things and making sure the itinerary runs smoothly. We never had a single issue, drivers and tour guides were always there on time, the communication (via WhatsApp) was timely and comprehensive and Makbule always responded within minutes to any questions. She is a really good operator, like having a personal assistant looking after all the details for you!

So overall, I can highly recommend the Grand Tour through TTC. We had an amazing time and will look back on this trip with fond memories.

Sam S

My family and I just returned from an unforgettable 22-day Türkiye trip which was absolutely AMAZING! WOW!!! I take great pleasure in commending Makbule and Micheal from Turkey Travel Centre on their outstanding customer service experience 10/10. My family and I have been dreaming to visit Türkiye for ages and from the first communication email to TTC, they guided us all the way. During the planning of our itinerary, Makbule took onboard what our desired cities/ destinations were, our accommodation needs which included her expertise feedback. With the professional help by Makbule, we managed to customise our trip to visit Istanbul, Kusadasi, Pamukkale, Antalya, Cappadocia and come back to Istanbul by way of interstate flights and minibus transportation. Our trip included tour guides and free days. The whole trip was so well organised with punctual drivers, selection of central hotels, informative tour guides and interstate flights, it was seamless which made the trip to Türkiye extra memorable. I have no hesitation in recommending Turkey Travel Centre, they are absolutely incredible and super friendly and a clear understanding what "CUSTOMER SERVICE" is all about. We look forward to dealing with you again, Kindest Regards, Hussam & Family

Glenda Wallis

I had the trip of a lifetime with Turkey Travel organising everything. There was nothing that wasn’t thought of and looked after by Makbule in turkey. I was looked after and treated like a VIP everywhere I stayed. The Hotels, tour guides and drivers were wonderful. Would highly recommend TURKEY TRAVEL for anyone with any doubts about travelling this wonderfull country on their own

Milton Carruthers

Our Gallipoli Plus tour was wonderful and Turkey is such a historic country!! Makbule (Coordinator Istanbul), in Istanbul helped us coordinate all necessary transfers…she was very communicative and advised us almost daily about our tour details. Tour guides were also very knowledgeable, and each tour day was well organised. We knew exactly what was scheduled for the day.
Accommodation was very comfortable, and the included meals provided us with an enormous variety of the excellent Turkish cuisine.
The tours allowed for plenty of time to "roam" the sites, for photos etc.
We had a wonderful time seeing major historic sites . Ballooning in Ugurp (Cappadocia) has to be a highlight.

Kathy Kershaw

From the initial contact with Michael to sort out sites, sights, days and dates, the reassuring every day contact with Makbule through to the final trip to Istanbul airport our holiday in Turkiye was amazing.

Overall we loved the flexibility of being able to add days and travel fairly independently with day tours vs being on a tour with the same people the whole time. A great feature.

We were well prepared by Makbule’s initial contact before the holiday. Our arrival to the Istanbul hotel of Dosso Dossi was seamless.
Highlights of Istanbul were the Rustem Pasha mosque and the Basillica Cistern. Both guides were fabulous, very informative and weaving their way through the crowds to get to the right places to shortcut to the major attractions of mosques, palace and bazaars. Of course the Blue Mosque, Haig Sophia and the Topkapi palace were stunning as well.

Off to the next highlight, Gallipoli. Great guides with lots of knowledge and respect and stories of grandchildren of soldiers and their relationships with the ‘enemy’.

Whilst we visited many memorable places with excellent guides in each one, the next highlight was Ephesus. The beauty and how much was intact was fabulous.
I wished we’d stayed one more day in Kas, it was a great opportunity to slow down the pace.
The final highlight was the spectacular Cappadocia. We were fortunate to be able to ascend in a balloon, see the underground city and the open air caves museum. Fabulous.

Makbule, your constant communication and quick responses were wonderful. We spoke to other people who were not clear about pickups the following day, until late in the afternoon. We always knew by lunchtime.
All tiny hiccups were fixed in minutes. Fabulous service!

Our best meals were away from the tourist areas, where pointing and laughing got what we needed.

The tours that included leather and carpet shops were a little tiresome but I guess some people want to buy from them.

Hotel choices were fabulous. The breakfast at Kas! The view from Pamukkale! The cave house at Cappadocia as be the women making fresh gozleme were highlights. Dossi Dossi is a little tired compared to the other magnificent hotels we stayed at and the staff not particularly friendly but I understand options would be limited in the old city.

As we drove from Istanbul airport at 10:00 pm to Dosso Dossi only to be picked up at 6:00am to fly out again, it occurred to me an airport hotel would have been better. To have had that option would have given us an extra few hours sleep.

I have told everyone I meet of your wonderful service and recommend your company highly. A great way to travel in an amazing country.
Thank you Makbule and Michael

Paul Galea

We did the Best of Turkey tour and were very impressed! The organisation by Makbule was perfect and she communicated by WhatsApp every day to keep us informed about the following day’s schedule. Most of the travel was by plane, enabling us to visit several parts of Turkey in a relatively short time. The hotels were of a high standard. Having a daily departure feature means this tour is very flexible. Sometimes it was just us two and a guide, while at other times we were in a group of 4-9 people. The guides were generally good, with special mentions to Suleiman and Songul in Istanbul and Gurkan in Cappadocia. We would not hesitate to recommend this tour and this company to anyone wanting to visit Turkey,

MIKE STEKETEE

A truly memorable trip. What a rich history, particularly for an Australian - 1500-year old mosques in Istanbul remarkably well preserved, the best preserved Roman city in the world in Ephesus, where you could imagine life 2000 years ago and the remarkable underground city in Cappadocia, not to mention the balloon flight. These were the highlights of my 11-day tour. Full marks for organisation: the accommodation was excellent,everything worked like clockwork, the guides were very professional and knowledgeable. Particular thanks to Makbule, who made contact every day with the following day's arrangements. Mike, Goulburn, NSW, Australia.