Guidebook Miscellanea

A few notes to pass onto Lonely Planet:

FERRIES

In Istanbul, the ferry boat to the Prince's Islands (Adalar) now leave from a completely different dock.

To get from Bergama to Mitilini by ferry, there are now departures from Dikili as well as Ayvalik. The bus ride to Dikili is faster, the ferry boat is larger, and the fare is lower. However, Ayvalik is a prettier town and the ferry boat wends through an enchanting maze of islands on the way out. Jale Tours is the owner-operator of the Ayvalik ferry. The ferry from Dikili is the Constantinos.

Greek inter-island ferries have a very quick turnover at intermediate island stops. The boat barely kisses the dock and is off again in minutes. One has to be ready and waiting with bags in hand to jump off the boat. Not knowing this on our first passage, we almost missed our stop in Tinos and would have gone straight on to Piraeus.

SANTORINI

In Santorini, the calderimi (donkey trail between Oia and Fira) can be picked up from the Desalination Plant in Oia, or from Nomikos Convention Center in Fira.

There is no way to walk from Ammoudi to Armeni, and Armeni is a dock, not a beach.

KTEL Buses from Fira to Oia are reliable, but those to smaller towns like Perissa are not.

There's a walking trail from Perissa and Kamari to Ancient Thira, and thence to Profitis Ilias. There's a separate road for driving from Kamari to Ancient Thira. To walk up from Kamari, go up the cobblestone car road to the first hairpin turn. There's a car park and a hotel there, where the walking trail starts. Although the map shows one, we could not find a walking trail from Profitis Ilias down to Pyrgos.

IZMIR

To transfer from bus to plane in Izmir, take the bus to the Yeni Garaj (new otogar northeast of town), and get on the bus company's servis (free shuttle) to Gaziemir. It took us 50 minutes to reach Gaziemir. From there, it's a 5 minute cab ride (10 YTL) to the airport.

N-STAR HOTELS

A 4 star hotel in an outlying city such as Adana or Antakya is more or less equivalent to a 2 star hotel in Istanbul.


MUZEKART


There is something called the Muzekart which for 20 YTL will grant admission to museums and sites across Turkey. The website is http://www.muzekart.com. It's too late for us to get one, but it might work out well for somebody else since each museum usually costs 5-10 YTL.\


AIRPORT SHUTTLES


Many travel agencies that sell airline tickets also operate airport shuttles that aren't advertised anywhere. This can cut down travel time considerably, since one doesn't have to take a bus to the otogar or city center, then transfer to an airport dolmus. For example, we caught a shuttle for a flight departing from Adana from a travel agent in Antakya.

TURKISH LANGUAGE: see post on Turkish language, especially about the yetele