{"id":6327,"date":"2022-12-05T21:35:59","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T19:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/?p=6327"},"modified":"2026-09-17T13:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T11:10:30","slug":"cappadocia-antalya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bronicable.com\/en\/itineraries\/cappadocia-antalya\/","title":{"rendered":"The Turkish cats \u2014 from Antalya to Cappadocia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For a while now the voucher sites have been permanently stuffed with offers for T\u00fcrkiye<\/strong>. Most of them are All Inclusive beach packages, which makes sense given our neighbours’ reputation: endless stretches of sand, serious competition on both quality and price, even with the plane ticket included. But two rather more sightseeing-minded organised trips keep surfacing as well \u2014 one to Lycia and one to Cappadocia. Several different agencies sell them at similar prices with near-identical programmes. The differences are minimal, mostly the departure dates. The programme looks impossibly rich and the prices are alarmingly low. Paid two months in advance, the terms were: under 800 leva for seven nights with breakfasts and buffet dinners, flights, all transfers, entry to most of the sites, and on paper at least a very full programme<\/a>. We settled on Premio Travel<\/em>. The offer sounds too good to be true. Still, we know roughly what we’re going to see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update 2026:<\/strong> those 800 leva were about \u20ac410 at the time. Bulgaria switched to the euro on 1 January 2026, so the lev figures in this article are history \u2014 treat them as a reference point rather than a quote. Packages of this type still run year-round on the voucher sites, but check the current price yourself; nothing about T\u00fcrkiye’s cost base has stood still since 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shall we go and check?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve been through getting to know the region. Have a look at the Things to know<\/strong> section at the bottom before you start packing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 1: Sofia to Manavgat (the Antalya area)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Departure, great mood. The planes are flying at a civilised hour. Small dent in the mood: some deeply convoluted weather. The flight is delayed by two hours. A quick look online at air passenger rights<\/a> \u2014 the delay has to be at least three hours to count. They get us airborne just inside that window. It’s a connecting flight: Sofia to Istanbul, Istanbul to Antalya. We fly Turkish Airlines<\/strong> and you can feel that it’s a nicer experience than Ryanair. Somehow it’s the same aircraft, but everything inside it is better. More room<\/strong>. A tablet<\/strong> on every seat with games and films. They hand out headphones<\/strong>. They feed you. It’s simply good. The tablets carry a lot of information about the flight itself, with a map and real tracking. There’s a brutal storm over Istanbul and they have us circling in the same spot, which is fascinating \u2014 a first for me. Through the window you can see a second aircraft doing exactly the same manoeuvre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Flight<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some time spent going round in circles and we reach Istanbul. Out of the little window there’s an incredible<\/strong> view \u2014 Istanbul<\/strong> is a giant<\/strong> landscape. Everything is giant. Skyscrapers<\/strong>, endless districts. What fascinates me is that whole neighbourhoods<\/strong> on the outskirts are being built simultaneously<\/strong>. We’ve all seen a crane or two going up in Sofia, but have you ever seen 30 blocks<\/strong> going up side by side? Two kilometres further on, another 30. A little to the right, another 30. You can see brand new roads<\/strong> being laid too. A shame there’s no way to look at it properly. That deserves a trip of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We land at Istanbul airport<\/strong>. I’m like a small child. Fact: I’ve taken a finite number of flights and seen a finite number of airports, but this one leaves me speechless. Istanbul airport is a city in itself<\/strong>. It has two or three malls inside it and shops of every description. It has a hotel<\/strong>. Signs tell you how many minutes it takes to walk to a given gate. By my rough reckoning, walking from one end to the other<\/strong> takes more than an hour<\/strong>. That’s 4 kilometres<\/strong>. An extraordinary building. We marvel at the enormous Roman structures today; I assume that in a thousand years people will be marvelling at the Turkish ones. I’m being serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So. Our first flight was late, and here is where the tour operator’s organisation<\/strong> shows itself to be very weak<\/strong>. Brutally weak \u2014 or rather, it isn’t weak, it’s absent<\/strong>. You’re on your own. T\u00fcrkiye, a foreign place, you landed three minutes ago, you’ve missed your second flight. You have no idea what’s happening. You can’t make phone calls without bleeding money. There’s nobody to ask. There’s no representative of the operator on the ground (I’m not labouring the name; I assume it’s the same with all of them). You call at premium rates and get the classic answer, which in two words amounts to: sort it out yourselves, ask someone how to get to Antalya. Luckily, the airport staff are genuinely helpful<\/strong>, and Istanbul to Antalya is a domestic route that runs almost like an intercity bus, every two hours around the clock. They rescued us, put us on a flight, and on we went. Antalya was easier and more human. Our guide had been waiting three hours because of the delay, met us, loaded us up, and things calmed down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A while back I went on an organised coach trip to Montenegro. I promised myself never to do that to myself again. Which is exactly why we picked a flying trip. Oh, how naive<\/em> I am. We hadn’t even got out of the airport, crushed by a total of eight hours of loitering in terminals, and straight away: 70 kilometres on the little coach<\/strong> as a good-evening present. Mild indignation: “accommodation in the Antalya area”. They didn’t actually lie to us. T\u00dcRKIYE IS, TO PUT IT MILDLY, ENORMOUS.<\/strong> The “Antalya area<\/a>” is a strip nearly 200 kilometres long. We’re practically in the wider city centre. They put us in a hotel in Manavgat \u2014 allegedly five stars. Wow. Our guide explains that there’s a difference between a five-star hotel and a five-star hotel. Ours is closer to a three-star, but still: WOW. Reminder, THE SPACE IN T\u00dcRKIYE IS ENORMOUS. The hotel takes 15 minutes to walk from one end to the other. First wow for sheer volume. Second wow: cats, cats everywhere<\/strong>. In the hotel, around the hotel, in the restaurant, on the restaurant. Mixed feelings at first \u2014 we adore cats, but let’s not kid ourselves, they also make a mess. Should they be on the table where people eat and cutlery is laid out? We’re only passing through, there’s hand sanitiser everywhere, we’ll enjoy the cats, they’re a bonus. How could you be cross with them. For a whole week they’ll be putting smiles on most people’s faces. There are always a few who disagree, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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