“
The tour was okay but had some faults. Specifically, the first hotel in Istanbul (Hotel Grand Halic) was poor. It was dirty and out-dated. The breakfast was poor and it was noisy. It was not 4 star as advertised. The hotel for the 23rd was nice, however we arrived later than planned (around 7:30pm) so I didn't get to experience much of it. The final hotel (Golden Tulip Istanbul) was of a better standard than the previous hotel, however it was in a poor location with very little around. I ended up needing to get a taxi into Istanbul proper which took 40 minutes in peak hour.
We had to supply money towards the kitty (understandable) for entrance tickets, etc. On my paperwork, this was stated we could pay in Turkish Lira, however we needed to pay in Euros. This was frustrating as many people did not have enough, or any Euros on them and had to seek them from an ATM or money exchange.
The tour itself was okay but we had very long days (I understand ANZAC Day is long, but the other days were too). The days dragged on as people did not return to the bus or meeting point on time, which meant we were late leaving. For example, people being late meant we missed the ferry which meant we had to wait around for an hour for another ferry. People were late most times, and I don't think we left many places on time, usually 5 or 10 minutes later than planned.
The food across the tour was not a great standard. I understand tours often don't have fantastic food, but the quality of food and choices were quite poor on this tour. I had come to this tour after finishing another tour with another company and have to say I had a better experience with the other company. ”
