Travel to Middle East

Frommer's Turkey (Frommer's Complete)

Format: Paperback
Author: Lynn A. Levine
ReleaseDate: 26 June, 2006
Publisher: Frommer's
Rating:

This book is by far the WORST Frommers publication
The author obviously has not done her job here. 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. 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.

a little out of date
The currency has been modernized and preparation for membership in the EU changes other things as well. Things have changed in Turkey. The book is still dealing with the old currency and you must convert everything. Hotel ratings, restaurants as always need to be checked against standards where they exist. It is not enough to say first class or three star. The historical venues and the directions, advice on what to see probably very valid. Need to get guide that includes the New Turkish Lira. .

An Indispensable Guide
We are independent travelers who like to get out on our own, away from tours, and this guide was perfect for our needs. Our battered and dogeared copy of the Frommer's Turkey guide was an indispensible guide on our trip to Turkey. 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. .

Related products:
click image or link for details on these Middle East travel books.

	Frommer's Greece (Frommer's Complete)
	Lonely Planet Turkey
	Turkey (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
	Istanbul (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
	Lonely Planet Istanbul