by cmsellers » Sun Jul 05, 2015 2:50 am
If you want to go to Turkey, I can write you an itinerary around your timeframe and budget, recommend hotels in certain cities, tell you have to find an affordable hotel in other cities, warn you about scams and make you a list of the only Turkish phrases you'll need to learn.
Hell, if I had money saved and time, I'd offer to chaperone you. I took my family around the western part of the country and it was great fun. I really wish I could get a job as a tour guide in Turkey, but sadly (though understandably) they only hire Turks. Hell, if I were independently wealthy, I'd probably just hang out in places where tourists are in Turkey and offer to subsidize their trips if they let me drag them all over the country. I frigging love Turkey. The food is awesome, the people are friendly (though in the most touristy areas they will try to scam you), it's a wonderful place to go if you're into ancient cities and old ruins, and the whole country is wicked cheap compared to the US. Also, parts of Turkey do have beaches and palm trees.
Any rate, I'm assuming I probably won't persuade you to let me write you a personalized itinerary of Turkey, but I'd still recommend traveling alone. Admittedly, I've only been on a package tour thrice (all in my young teens, two were actually package day trips), but that's enough.
Package tours need to accommodate people of diverse interests. This is most obvious to me in terms of the fact that most tourists apparently really like shopping. (The tours I was on were cheap ones, but our neighbors have a son who works for a company that does high-end ones, and they make the same assumption.) Traveling alone lets you travel at your own pace, see the things that you want to see, and visit attractions that aren't as touristy but just as interesting, and visit touristy attractions during non-touristy times.
The people I've met who rave about package tours tend to be social butterflies. They can't just read a book or enjoy the scenery when traveling between destinations, and feel the need to talk. Package tours guarantee that you'll always have people who speak your language and have at least one interest (travel) in common. I don't get the impression that you're particularly social, but if that's what you want, package tours are the way to go.
People who like package tours also tend to like order and schedules. I don't know enough about you to know if that's you, but I know that my mother (who's not a social butterfly but is obsessed with order) loves package tours because they mean she doesn't have to plan all the details of her trip in advance.
I like going to a place and finding a hotel when I get there. I also like to go to a place and ask locals if there are places that would interest me; in Turkey it was usually "where are the ruins?" or "where's the museum?" on the assumption that nearly every Turkish town has ruins and at least one museum. I like to ask locals where to eat, or just stop in at places that look good. All of this would be anathema to my mother, and if you, like her, are fond of advance planning, package tours may relieve some stress. (Though if you go to Turkey, I'm absolutely serious about drawing you an itinerary, and I can even make it a schedule for you. Turkey is awesome, package tours miss some of the best parts, and I can tell you which ones.)
Personally I hate having to be places at a certain time, hate having people talk at me while I'm trying to take new places in, and love the feel of discovery as I go to unknown places without any serious expectations as to what I'll find (beyond that it's always possible to find an affordable hotel, you should never drink the tap water, and you can always find someone with fluent English in a pinch by looking hopelessly lost). I personally like to let things happen and experiences unfold as they may, while package tours are generally, well... packaged.