34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Try Lonely Planet, Blue or Eyewitness Gds--anything else!, April 8, 2001
Disclaimer: I don't pretend to be a Turkey expert. However, my experience during a 12-day trip Turkey is consistent with other guides much more than this one.
The author sometimes seems to be generalizing from experiences she had, to say that everyone will have the same experience (I didn't--and found other guides more reliable in terms of what to expect on a social & cultural level). Furthermore, many times I find myself wondering about the depth of research--asides like "(unless my guide was pulling my leg)," (p.101) are alarming and tend to indicate a lack of reliability and attention to detail (which extends to misspelled Turkish words--e.g. efendem for efendim). There was a sort of shallowness throughout that I can't pinpoint but which I found disappointing.
Even more startling are the omissions. Just for a sampling, the book gives no information on Edirne (Adrianople), Iznik (Nicea), or Kutahya; within Istanbul, it skips some of my favorite--not insignificant--mosques and churches (Rustem Pasa, Mehmet Sokullu Pasa, Sergius & Bacchus), the Bucoleon Palace ruins, and even the Theodosian Land Walls (which are mentioned in the introduction but the "see chapter 3" is a dead end). For even the most mildly curious about history/architecture, there is very little here. Even for those who only want to shop, the info on carpets conflicted with what I have read elsewhere (and saw with my own eyes--a fine carpet at 10 knots per inch? Shouldn't it be double that?--again, I'm not an expert, so correct me if you know otherwise) Anyway, there are much better guides out there. I won't pretend to have read them all, but for Istanbul the Eyewitness Guide was fantastic, and for the rest of Turkey, while Lonely Planet Turkey has many flaws, omissions are not one of them--it is encyclopedic (a term mysteriously used for this book by a reviewer on the flyleaf). The Blue Guide is also extremely helpful.
Better luck with the second edition.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
This book is by far the WORST Frommers publication, August 14, 2006
I always use Frommers books for my vacations, but I have to tell you that this book is the biggest waste of money I have ever spent on Amazon or any other book store for that matter. The author obviously has not done her job here. Be careful, you just might wind up in Iraq if you follow her guides. This book is very vague and confusing throughout. You can not trust her hotel recommendations. How in the world can she justify putting Apricot hotel in Istanbul in this book. This guy is a crook. This hotel should be taken out of this book completely for it's opportunistic behavior. Have you ever heard the phrase BAIT AND SWITCH? BUYER BEWARE? Well, that should be the heading for all her recommendations if they are all like the Apricot hotel in Istanbul. My advise to the author, have a chat with the guy who wrote the Frommers Italy book, you can learn alot from him.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Indispensable Guide, July 6, 2005
Our battered and dogeared copy of the Frommer's Turkey guide was an indispensible guide on our trip to Turkey. We are independent travelers who like to get out on our own, away from tours, and this guide was perfect for our needs. We used it to plan our trip, modifying Ms. Levine's suggested 2-week itinerary to match our needs. The guide also provided us with plenty of off the beaten path suggestions of where to stay and eat. We found the reviews of accommodations and restaurants particularly accurate in terms of quality, though would have liked to see a few more restaurant recommendations -- this is one area, I think, where Frommers guides in general feel a bit thin. The book also has lots of historical and cultural information and "surivival tips" that made for good reading (and re-reading) during long airport waits and on downtime -- I found myself reading this book more often than the novel I brought along. This guide also works well in conjunction with the Eyewitness or Insight guides (we have found this for other locations too), as the latter seem to provide better at-a-glance cultural information and have superior maps. Yes, prices were more than what were listed in the book, but this is not the author's fault. In any case, after a couple of days in Turkey we could get a sense of "budget," "moderate," and "expensive" prices and estimate these categories in the guidebook accordingly.
I am impressed by how much ground is covered in this guide. We appreciated the attention given to some places and experiences that we didn't find mentioned in other guidebooks to Turkey. Traveling distances and times seemed entirely accurate, and they helped us to budget our time efficiently.
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