“I have travelled with many many tours and tour companies for over 50 years!…”
My guided tour of Turkey this April (2011) was one of the best organized trips I have ever taken…and I have travelled with many many tours and tour companies for over 50 years! The trip was planned with full co-operation and extensive input from the participants. The logistics were handled perfectly, including the unbelievably rapid repair of a broken fan belt on our luxurious Mercedes minibus! The guide was excellent: knowledgeable, very patient (even with a group that could be a little too independent at times), above all gentle, kind…and extremely efficient.
The hotels were well chosen and the restaurants truly remarkable….many were of gourmet quality. There were also some very thoughtful (and helpful) touches like free bottled water on the mini-bus that are signs of truly efficient and caring tour management, I recommend Mesuthan without any reservations to anyone planning a trip to Turkey or nearby countries, You will be very well cared for and experience a great, but comfortable, adventure!
Alan Sable, 70, San Francisco, April 2011
“Traveling with Mesuthan – There can’t be a better way to see Turkey!…”
What care. What consideration. What fun! Mesuthan Ozgen was our guide and he took such good care of us, physically, intellectually, and spiritually. We saw Turkey as we never expected to. It wasn’t just the sites, rare and wonderful as they were. Actually, they were breathtaking, even in the rain, which we had a little of. It was how Mesuthan felt about them and talked about them that gave us a sense of what it would be like to be Turkish and have these monuments not only in your backyard but in your heart.
It wasn’t just the food, although the range and freshness of the meals was always a surprise and a delight. I knew it was a highly regarded cuisine but I didn’t realize what variety and succulence I would be experiencing. The wines and especially the beer were also sublime. And Mesuthan knew where to go, including in places we, and he, didn’t expect to be, such as the restaurant in where everyone in the family was enlisted unexpectedly to pull together their wonderful clay baked yogurt and chicken kebabs with mezzes right out of the garden. It seemed as if Mesuthan had contacts all along the way for whatever we needed or what mood we were in.
That was true of the hotels, too. They seemed tucked away, secrets, only for the very special. Which in our case, was us! From a remodeled Ottoman mansion to a newly carved luxurious cave to a night under a bridal net by the sea, we slept in style.
Although it was amazing to run around Cappadocia and to see the caves and tunnels of the persecuted early Christians, the most breathtaking national treasures for me were the Museum of the Anatolia Peoples in Ankara-perhaps the best museum I’ve ever been in-and the Temple of Pergamon sited on a mountain ridge, its white marble shining almost as brightly as the sun.
There were the crafts, too, from rugs and pottery to rug repairers and felt-into-silk shapers. The designs of everything from the tiles to the textiles to the tulip gardens along the highways were exquisite.
Mesuthan was so attuned to our needs that we stopped, ate, changed our itinerary, went shopping, all according to the mood of our group, the weather, and where we were. He was always non-condescending and convinced we could do what we wanted to do, from scrambling up ruins to diving into the Mediterranean. There was no pressure and plenty of support, not just from him but from people along the way and from the company that backs him up.
There can’t be a better way to see Turkey!
Trish, C.A – April 2011
