Dental Tours in Turkey: All-in-One Treatment Services

In many European countries dental treatment is very expensive, they are not covered by insurance and the waiting lists are long. There is a relatively simple solution for these problems: dental tourism abroad. For Europeans, Turkey is increasingly one of the hotspots for dental tourism thanks to its proximity, cost and quality in the field: Same dental treatment with the same medical standards for 75% less, without waiting for weeks or months. Plus, Turkey follows European Community Health Standards. Back in 2009, 150,000+ medical tourists chose Turkey.

To tab into the demand, DentalToursTurkey.com has been launched to provide all-in-one dental treatment packages. “We have all-in-one packages that includes not only the dental treatment but also flight tickets, airport-hotel-clinic transfers, hotel reservations, and city tours & attractions. We are able offer our packages with all these services at very low rates because we can get the best price of the service providers as their regular customer,” said Deniz Candan, Operations Manager at Dental Tours Turkey.

"We have already organized more than 1300 treatment packages (including more than 3000 dental implants) since our establishment in January 2007. A personal guide of our agency accompanies our patients throughout their stay. We constantly improve our services based on the feedback we receive from our patients,” added Ms Candan.

Turkey is one of the hotspots in dental tourism for Europeans. Europeans can get the same dental treatment
 with the same medical standards for 75% less; plus can have a great vacation in Istanbul.

It looks like DentalToursTurkey.com can enable medical tourists to have a high quality dental care at affordable costs and spend good time in the historic city of Istanbul and people can get dental treatment even during a weekend trip. Because Istanbul is max 3.5 hours away from European destinations.

Source : Dental Tours Turkey Launches All-in-One Treatment Services in Turkey

Turkey climbs one place to sixth in World’s Top Tourism Destinations List

According to United Nations World Trade Organisation (UNWTO) Tourism Highlights 2012, Turkey moved up one position to sixth place (with 29 million tourists) overtaking the United Kingdom in the 10 ranking by international tourist arrivals.

From UNWTO Tourism Highlights, 2012 Edition:

France continues to lead the ranking of international tourist arrivals (79 million), and ranks third in receipts (US$ 54 billion), while the United States ranks first in receipts (US$ 116 billion) and second in arrivals (62 million). Spain is still the second largest earner worldwide and the first in Europe (US$ 60 billion), while ranking fourth in the world by arrivals (57 million). China continues to rank third in arrivals (58 million) and fourth in receipts (US$ 48 billion), while Italy remains in fifth place in both arrivals (46 million) and receipts (US$ 43 billion).

Turkey moved up one place to sixth in arrivals and is twelfth in receipts. The United Kingdom is seventh in both arrivals and receipts. Germany continues to rank eighth in tourist arrivals and sixth in receipts, while Malaysia is ninth and fourteenth respectively. Australia, Macao (China), and Hong Kong (China) complete the top ten ranking by receipts in eighth, ninth and tenth place respectively, while Mexico closes the top ten by arrivals in tenth position.

UNWTO ranks countries according to the two key tourism indicators: international tourist arrivals and international tourism receipts. 8 of the top 10 destinations appear on both lists, despite showing marked differences in terms of the type of tourists they attract, their average length of stay and their spending per trip and per night. In the case of international tourism receipts, changes not only reflect relative performance.

Although Turkey is 6th in the World’s Top 10 Tourism Destinations By International Arrival list, it is not in top 10 in the World’s Top 10 Tourism Destinations By International Tourism Receipts list.

Maiden Tower, Istanbul

World’s Top 10 Tourism Destinations By International Arrival

1 - France (79.5 million)

2 - United States (62.3 million)

3 - China (57.6 million)

4 - Spain (56.7 million)

5 - Italy (46.1 million)

6 - Turkey (29.3 million)

7 - United Kingdom (29.2 million)

8 - Germany (28.4 million)

9 - Malaysia (24.7 million)

10 - Mexico (23.4 million)

Turkish Airlines is flying between Istanbul and Maldives

Now you can have one more option to fly to Maldives. Turkish Airlines, the national flag carrier airline of Turkey, has launched flights between Istanbul Turkey and Male Maldives starting from November 24th 2012. Flights to the Maldives will be operated 5 times weekly. The airline has priced introductory round trip fares from Istanbul to the Maldives from 598 Euros, including taxes and fees.

Maldives, one of the world's most popular destinations for leisure travelers, is the 206th destination and 92th country to which Turkish Airlines fly. Fast growing, Turkish Airlines has reached its goal of getting its 200th aircraft, a Boeing 737-900, in its fleet last week. The airline, compared with the same period in 2011, increased its sales revenue  by 30% to 11,2 Billion TRY and recorded an operating profit of 1,08 Billion TRY.  Net profit increased 655% compared to the previous period; to 868 Million TRY.

Flight Number	Start	Days	Departure		Arrival
TK 730	24.Nov.2012	Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday	Istanbul	20:25	Maldives	07:10
TK 731	25.Nov.2012	Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday	Maldives	09:00	Istanbul	14:30

Tourism paradise Maldives are nearer to Turkey as Turkish Airlines start to fly from Turkey (Istanbul)
to Maldives (Male).

Istanbul is in Top 10 best cities to travel

It is so delightful how tourism in Istanbul came a very long way in just a decade. This largest and most beautiful city of Turkey which spans between Asia and Europe as well as modern and ancient has been visited by 7 million foreigners in 2010, up from 2.4 million visitors of 2000. [1] This makes it the 10th most visited city in the world.[2]

Although still largely (and narrowly) known for its historic center (Sultanahmet-Old City) with majestic mosques and ancient shopping bazaars, this is only a fraction of what Istanbul offers for a holiday visit. Istanbul offers great shopping experience, a world class cuisine (ancient Ottoman recipes are must try), beautiful shores of Bosphorus and surprisingly rich and entertaining night life. It is also quite easy to travel to other tourism centers in Turkey from Istanbul such as Turquoise Coast a.k.a Turkish Riviera.

So in short, Istanbul is one of the best cities in the world to visit. Actually the 3rd best, according to the 2012 World’s Best Awards. Travel + Leisure readers voted Istanbul the 3rd best city of the world to travel to. But what is more promising is the fast rise of the city in the list: Istanbul has risen from 5th spot to 2nd. And it is now the Europe's second best city to visit [3]:

"New York City holds its title for the twelfth year in a row as the Best City in the U.S. and Canada, and ranks No.7 among top cities overall, while Bangkok retains its number one ranking in the world for the third year in a row. Istanbul rises to its highest ranking ever in the survey at No. 3 on the list of Top Cities Overall. Among cities in the U.S. and Canada, Chicago rises to the No. 2 spot and New Orleans moves up to No. 5 this year from No. 6 in 2011." [2]

Istanbul is rising in almost all types of tourism such as medical. Thanks to the high quality of healthcare of private hospitals, medical tourism has surged in Turkey with laser eye surgery is the common among medical tourists.[1] Recent, popularity of Turkish Soap Operas in the Arab world also helped this part of the region to rediscover Turkey as a holiday destination.

Although largely known with its historic center, Istanbul offers much more to visitors.
In the photo Ortakoy district of Istanbul seen from European side. Other side of the Bosphorus is Asia.
Bogazici Bridge connecting Asia and Europe can be seen behind.

Worlds Top 10 Cities for Travel & Leisure

RANK	2011	NAME	SCORE
1	1	Bangkok	89.87
2	2	Florence	89.14
3	5	Istanbul	89.11
4	6	Cape Town	88.64
5	8	Sydney	88.52
6	3	Rome	88.49
7	4	New York City	88.12
8	-	Hong Kong	88.03
9	-	Kyoto, Japan	87.90
10	10	Paris	87.67

[1] - Istanbul
[2] - World's Most Visited Cities

[3] - World Best Cities 2012

[2] - Travel+Leisure Press Release

For Those Who Died Alone - Pentagram (Mezarkabul)

Mezarkabul (known as Pentagram in Turkey) is an internationally acclaimed Turkish metal band known for integrating Anatolian elements into their music. They use Mezarkabul (means 'accepting the grave', or literally 'grave accept' in Turkish) as international name since there is a famous American doom metal band called Pentagram.

For Those Who Died Alone, an instrumental in their 2001 heavy metal album named Unspoken, is an elegy for those 17,000 souls who have died in the devastating 1999 İzmit earthquake. This is in my opinion one of the best  instrumentals composed by a Turkish musician with trivial elements of Anatolian music.


As one of the commentators wrote in YouTube, if life was a movie its soundtrack would definitely been For Those Who Died Alone.

More Greeks are emigrating to Turkey for jobs

Because of the severe economic crisis at home, many Greeks are considering emigration but many traditional emigration destinations like United States, Germany, France and United Kingdom are not doing any better. On the other hand neighboring Turkey is growing around 10% every year and seems it is not effected a lot from the European economic crisis yet. And more and more of Greeks are deciding to leave for Turkey. Greek pilots are finding business opportunities in booming Turkish Airlines while academics are taking positions at Turkish universities.

Greek pilot Takis Lagopoulos is one of these new immigrants in Istanbul. has lost his job when Greek Olympic Airways bankrupted, he turned to Turkey for his next job. Booming economy is not the only reason. The way of thinking is very similar in both countries so adaptation to Turkey is much easier. It is also only 1 hour flight away from home. Actually, his hometown is probably nearer to Istanbul than a lot of his Turkish colleagues’. 30 Greek pilots work in Turkish Airlines.

More and more foreigners are heading to Istanbul to look for a job. And more and more of them are Greeks. “Turkey is a rising market with 70+ million population” says Turkish-Greek Business Council Chairman Selim Egeli. “Skilled and well educated Greeks will not have any problem to find a job or start up a new company in Turkey. Turkey’s jobless rate, although high, is far below the Euro-zone average, and is not trending up at the moment.”



Dimitris Triantaphyllou is a Greek teaching in Turkey’s English language Kadir Has University. “A Greek teaching international relations in a Turkish university and running a research center was unthinkable just a decade ago” says Mr. Triantaphyllou “but thinks have changed.”
It is really great to see that the old, stupid and completely artificial hostility between Turkey and Greece fading away. In the past, largely thanks to both countries’ brain washing education systems, people on the opposite sites of beautiful Aegean Sea were in a mini-cold war although they have much more common way of life. Traditional indoctrination against Greeks have been irreversably damaged during the massive 1999 Izmit earthquake when many Turks watched large number of Greek rescuers working in collapsed buildings days and nights looking for survivors:

“Both the official response and dialog and the reactions of the ordinary Greek were given wide coverage almost every day in every newspaper and on every TV channel in Turkey. Incidents such as people bringing in food donations to municipalities in Greece and blood drives in Greece specifically to be sent to earthquake victims in Turkey were highlighted. The emotional language in reporting differed significantly from the usual rhetoric found in both countries—words such as “neighbor”, “true friend” were given in the headlines.”
Source :  Greek–Turkish earthquake diplomacy

It is not only the individual job hunters coming to Turkey. Greek businesses are also looking at their larger neighbour for business opportunities. “Numerious Greek firms for example in the IT Industry, have been investing in Turkey since the crisis started” says Selim Egeli. “While the consumption in Greece has plumped, it is increasing in Turkey”.

So far the number of Greek emigrants to Turkey is estimated to be only several thousands.

Oludeniz and Icmeler are in Top 25 Beach Destinations list

TripAdvisor, one of world’s largest travel site, has announced the winners of its annual 2012 Travelers’ Choice® Beach Destinations awards. 181 top beach locations were named around the world including Africa, Asia, Australia, Brazil, Caribbean, Central America, Europe, France, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Middle East, South America, South Pacific, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, U.K. and the U.S. Turkey's Oludeniz and Icmeler has been in the list.

Ölüdeniz, a small beach resort in Fethiye in South West coast of Turkey. It is the 14th best beach destination in the list. Other then offering one of the best beaches in the world, Oludeniz is also one of the best places for para glide due to its unique panoramic views, and the Babadağ Mountain's exceptional height. İçmeler, a popular Turkish holiday resort 8 kilometres away from Marmaris, is 24th.

Both Oludeniz and Icmeler beaches are on Turkey's Turquoise Coast, a 1000 km coastline in South West Turkey famous with the best holiday resorts in Turkey.

Oludeniz (Blue Lagoon) offers one of the best beaches and paragliding spots in the world.

Where is Olu deniz? Oludeniz is on the famous Turquoise Coast (also known as Turkish Riviera), the Mediterranean coast of Turkey between Cesme and Alanya. Oludeniz is somewhere in the middle on the Turquoise Coast in Fethiye (see the map below). Icmeler is also on the Turkish Riviera, in Marmaris.

Turquoise Coast (Turkish Riviera) is the coasts of Cesme, Kusadasi, Bodrum, Marmaris, Fethiye, Kemer, Antalya and Alanya. The coast has the best tourist destinations in Turkey. 

2012 Travelers’ Choice® Beach Destinations Top 25

1. Providenciales, Turks and Caicos
2. Palm/Eagle Beach, Aruba
3. Tulum, Mexico
4. Negril, Jamaica
5. Saint Pete Beach, Florida
6. Boracay, Philippines
7. Cancun, Mexico
8. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
9. Miami/Miami Beach, Florida
10. Varadero, Cuba
11. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
12. Playa del Carmen, Mexico
13. Virginia Beach, Virginia
14. Oludeniz, Turkey
15. Honolulu, Hawaii
16. Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
17. Daytona Beach, Florida
18. Fort Lauderdale, Florida
19. Lahaina, Hawaii
20. Cayo Coco, Cuba
21. Marsa Alam, Egypt
22. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
23. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
24. Icmeler, Turkey
25. Puerto Alcudia, Spain

Hostel in Istanbul: Istanbul Hostel

Staying in a centrally located hostel in Istanbul will save a lot of money for a budget conscious traveler in many ways: you will pay very little to accommodation, minimize taxi rides and have access to public transportation to get around.

Istanbul Hostel in Sultanahmet is one of the best hostels in Istanbul if location is very important for you. It is very centrally located in the heart of Old Istanbul, Sultanahmet, the main Historic Hub. It is just a few minutes away from Blue Mosque, St.Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Underground Cistern, Turkish Baths and The Grand Bazaar.

The hostel has received a hostelworld.com Top 10 Hostel Award in September 2006 and it is newly renovated and redecorated for 2012.  It provides several accommodation options and the prices start from 10 Euro for Superior 8 and 10 bed mixed dorm. Siperior 4 and goes up to 25 Euro for Twin Private room with shared bathroom. Other than mixed dorms, the hostel also provides female only and male only dorms for 13 Euros per bed per night.

Istanbul Hostel

Istanbul Hostel's central location makes it one of the best hostels to stay in Istanbul. Since most attractions are within the old city, where the hostel is located, you will minimize your exposure to the greedy taxi drivers and since the train line connecting the old city to Bosphorus and Istanbul Metro is walking distance away, you can use public transportation to get around. The hotel also has a restaurant where you can eat cheap food and provides tourism agency services to other places in Turkey such as Capadoccia. The breakfast provided is traditional Turkish breakfast with boiled egg, cucumber, tomato, bread w/jam and olives, coffee or tea. If you are on budget, you will eat here a lot because the food in Sultanahmet is very expensive.

The hostels restaurant is at the roof terrace. This terrace provides a very beautiful view of the Marmara Sea and St.Sophia. The rooftop terrace is also a great place to have a view of the old Istanbul city or watching the sunset with a beer and a book.

One drawback of this hostel is the lack of meeting room to socialize with other people.

The Travertines of Pamukkale

This article is moved to Pamukkale Cotton Castle.

Boutique hotel : White House Hotel Istanbul

If you are looking for a conveniently located and affordable boutique hotel in Istanbul Turkey, White House Hotel Istanbul may be just for you. The hotel is located near some of Istanbul’s biggest attractions, in the historical peninsula of old Istanbul, and it is within walking distance to Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace, Archeology Museum, the Basilica Cistern, Grand Bazaar, Spice Bazaar, the Millennium Stone and Byzantine Hippodrome, which are the most important landmarks of the city. 

Guests staying at the White House Hotel for 3 nights or more are entitled to a free one-way transfer from Ataturk Airport to the hotel. A shuttle service from Sabiha Airport to the hotel is also available. Taxi cabs and rental cars are also available nearby and can escort guests to various points of interest throughout the city.

White House Hotel Istanbul has 22 rooms with 60 beds, including 2 Superior Rooms. All rooms provide a private bathroom, high-speed and wireless internet connection, hair-dryer, direct dial telephone system, LCD TV, satellite system, mini-bar, VRF air-conditioning system, safe box, emergency alarm system, make-up mirror, hot-water machine, tea and coffee making facilities.

Guests of the White House Hotel Istanbul will find plenty of shopping and dining options in the area. The hotel offers numerous amenities, including a restaurant and a lounge bar. Other offerings include laundry service, business facilities, and concierge service. The hotel staff can also provide guests with tourist information as well as rental car services.

White House Hotel Istanbul

The hotel has a very high rating in hotelscombined.com which is 10, amazing! Over 1,500 reviews praised the hotels many aspects of this boutique hotel:  clean rooms, good food in hotel's restaurant, clean and working shower, very convenient location and helpful and polite staff.

The room prices at White House Hotel Istanbul starts from 183 USD.

Is it difficult to learn Turkish?

A couple of years ago, I have met with a Russian reporter who could speak many languages including Chinese. I have asked him how difficult was it for him to learn Chinese (at that time I was planning to learn Chinese). He told me, it was not as difficult as to learn Turkish :) I was surprised when he told this seriously but when I tried to teach Turkish to my wife later (she is Chinese and at that time she was taking Turkish language lessons), I have realized that he may be right!

Learning Turkish is difficult. The language, whose roots can be traced to Central Asia, belongs to a language family called Altaic (and interestingly in the same family with Japonic language families and the Korean language).

The most difficult aspect of Turkish language, and the aspect which makes it difficult to learn for many, is its extensive usage of agglutination (as you will see below). For example, below is the decomposition of a relatively extreme case of agglutination in Turkish language. Avrupalılatırabildiklerimizdenmisiniz is a single Turkish word which means Are you from the ones that we could make European !!!

A more common example of agglutination can be like this:

Question : Dün akşam neredeydin? (Where were you last night?)

Answer   : Odandaydım! (I was in your room!)

Now the composition is like this:

Oda                         : Room

Odan                       : Your Room (if it was odam, it was my room!)

Odanda                   : In your room

Odandaydi              : Was in your room

Odandaydim           : I was in your room.

But many people who start talking Turkish skip a lot of agglutination and they can be perfectly understood by the Turkish people. One of my friends wife, a Singaporean, speaks Turkish usually without all those suffixes and I can perfectly understand her and tolerate this because she is not a native speaker. But Turkish verbs without suffixes are usually used to give order and some suffixes make them polite so they actually would sound arrogant :)

Turkey Public Holidays 2013 Calendar

UPDATE : Refer this post for the calendar of 2014 : Turkey Public Holidays 2014 Calendar.

Public holidays in Turkey fall into 2 groups: The ones which commemorate the important events from the foundation days of Turkish Republic and the Muslim festivals. There are only 2 religious holidays but they tend to be long, usually Turkish take a week long holiday during these holidays and business life almost stops.

Religious holidays for Muslim festivals and their date change every year since they are based on lunar calendar.

Below are the Turkish holidays in 2013 with their dates:

Turkey 2013 Holidays
Here is the list of Turkey 2013 holidays in Turkey 2013 calendar:

New Year Holiday
(Turkish Yilbasi)
January 1st, 2013 Tuesday
Turkey celebrates Gregorian Calendar's first year as new year and most of the time December 31st is also a half day holiday. Since the holiday is Tuesday, many will merge this with the weekend and create a 4 day holiday for themselves.

National Sovereignty and Children's Day 
(Turkish Ulusal Egemenlik ve Cocuk Bayrami)
April 23rd, 2013, Tuesday
Grand National Assembly of Turkey has first opened its door at Ankara in 23 April 1920 and the day is a holiday for the commemoration of the event. This official holiday is dedicated to the children.

Labour and Solidarity Day
(Turkish Turkish Emek ve Dayanışma Günü)
May 1st 2013, Wednesday
This is May Day holiday, which was removed from the list of public holidays in 1981 by the military rulers of 1980 Turkish coup d'état. 28 years after, in 2009, May Day has been an official public holiday again.

Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day
(Turkish Atatürk'ü Anma Gençlik ve Spor Bayramı)
May 19th, 2013, Sunday
May 19th 1919 is a public holiday commemorating the beginning of national liberation movement initiated in 1919 by Atatürk's landing in Samsun. The holiday is dedicated to the youth.

Ramadan Feast
(Turkish Ramazan Bayrami)
August 7-8-9-10 2013


This religious fest is Eid_ul-Fitr and one of the longest holidays in Turkey and if all these days are in weekdays, Turkish tend to have a long 9 days holiday by merging this holiday with the weekends. Since August is summer time, many Turkish will flock to south for holiday and it would be difficult if not impossible to find hotel rooms and plane tickets during this time.

Victory Day
(Turkish Zafer Bayrami)
August 30, 2013, Friday
This holiday is for the commemoration of the victory at the final battle in Dumlupinar which has ended the Turkish Independence War in 1922 with a victory and it is dedicated to the armed forces.

Sacrifice Feast
(Turkish Kurban Bayrami)
October 15-16-17-18 2013
This religious fest is Eid_ul-Adha and one of the longest holidays in Turkey and if all these days are in weekdays, Turkish tend to have a long 9 days holiday by merging this holiday with the weekends. It is very difficult to find tickets and hotel rooms around this time.

Republic Day
(Turkish Cumhuriyet Bayrami)
October 28-29th, 2013
This 1.5 day holiday starts at 28th afternoon and October 29th is a full day holiday commemoration of the proclamation of the republic in 1923.

Shopping In Istanbul: Istanbul's Shopping Mall Belt

This post is moved to Oravar : Shopping in Istanbul - Istanbul Shopping Mall Belt article.

Four Seasons Hotel at Sultanahmet Istanbul, Turkey

Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul At Sultanahmet may be one of the best places to stay in Istanbul now but in the first half of the century it was indeed one of the worst! This beautiful sunflower yellow, 4-story building with guard towers enclosing an elegant courtyard was once constructed as a jailhouse in 1918/1919, in the last few years of Ottoman Empire. It has a contemporary concept and housed inmates who were awaiting trial or serving brief sentences. The design of the building is Turkish neoclassical style and it was built in the beginning of the "First National Architecture" period. After housing many inmates, including famous Turkish political political dissidents such as communist leaders Mihri Belli and Hikmet Kivilcimli, poets and writers like Nazım Hikmet, Rıfat Ilgaz, Orhan Kemal , Aziz Nesin and Kemal Tahir, the jail was abandoned on January 25, 1969 and has been neglegted until 1992. The building was later renovated and opened in 1996 as a deluxe hotel of the Toronto-based Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts chain and is now one of the best hotels in Istanbul.

The hotel, which has just 65 bright and comfortable guest rooms and suites, it feels like a luxury and warm boutique hotel although it is a part of a large luxury hotel chain. Four Seasons Hotel at Sultanahmet is very centrally located in old city and is walking distance away from Istanbul's main tourist attractions like Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia,  Basilica Cistern and Topkapi Palace and offers great walks through the old city.  Hotel is famous for its rooftop bar called St. Sophia Terrace which has a stunning view of old Istanbul, its Ottoman cuisine at Seasons Restaurant.

Four Seasons Hotel at Sultanahmet Rooftop Bar (Hagia Sophia behind) - Source : luxecityguides.com

The only problem is that this hotel, with its price in the range of 800+ USD per night, is quite an expensive place to stay although it will save some taxi money and significant time for leisure tourists. And there is no swimming pool in the hotel. which may not a problem in winter but a quite nice to have in hot Istanbul summers.

Sultanahmet is the old city center and is home to many historic sightseeing of Istanbul. There are many hotels in Sultanahmet catering tourists but you can also choose to look at hotels in Bosphorus, which has a great view especially in spring.

You can check the room prices and availability in Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet here:

Other hotels in Istanbul Sultanahmet (old city) and Istanbul

Hotels in Sultanahmet	... Bosphorus	... and other hotels in Istanbul

Butterfly Valley: One of the best places to have holiday in Turkey

This post is moved to Butterfly Valley: One of the best places to have holiday in Turkey.

Number of international tourist arrivals to Istanbul up 18.7 per cent

In the first 6 months of 2012, number of foreign tourists visiting Istanbul has been 4 million and 231 thousand, an 18.7 per cent increase compared to the first 6 months of 2011. The numbers are collected from Istanbul's Ataturk and Sabiha Gokcen Airports, Haydarpasa train station, Pendik and Kadikoy ports. 11.3 per cent of these foreign tourists were Germans, 6.2 per cent of them were Russian tourists and 5.2 per cent were Americans:

1 - Germany, 479,147
2 - Russia, 262,391
3- USA, 219,183
4 - France, 190,432
5- UK, 190,092
6 - Iran, 189,532
7 - Italy, 178,231
8 - The Netherlands, 121,680
9 - Libya, 94,292
10- Ukraine, 92,554
11 - Japan, 87,775
12 - Spain, 85,079
13 - Iraq, 84,414
14 - Azerbaijan, 83,054
15 - Saudi Arabia, 78,206
16 -  Others, 1,795,380


Istanbul Culture and Tourism Manager Prof. Dr. Ahmet Emre Bilgili said:

"Istanbul has hosted 4,230,612 international tourists in the first 6 months 2012 and this is 19 per cent increase compared to the first 6 months of 2011. If we assume that this trend continues until the end of 2012, the city can close the year with 9.5 million tourists."

Istanbul Hagia Sophia

Istanbul, the economic and cultural capital of Turkey, is one of the most important tourism spots of Turkey with thousands of hotels and other tourist oriented industries are catering to both leisure and business visitors. The city has two international airports handling more than 50 Million passengers a year and several ports for cruisers and ships.Istanbul is also one of the world’s major conference destinations and is an increasingly popular choice for the world’s leading international associations.[1]

Source : Istanbul 2012'nin ilk yarisini yuzde 18.7 artisla kapatti (Turkish)

[1] - Economy of Istanbul

Seabird Airlines offers coast to coast flights in Turkey

Seabird Airlines is the only airline in Turkey which is equipped with sea planes capable of landin and taking off from sea and air strips. Seabird Airlines has been established in 2010 by Kürşad Arusan (Founder and Chairman of the Board)[1] and gained necessary permits from Turkish Civil Aviation Authority (SHGM) recently[1].

Sea Bird Airways carried out their first test flight between Alacati-Istanbul in June 2012 and is Turkey’s first and only Air Taxi / Airline company to land and take off from water.

The airline flies from Halic Istanbul to destinations like Bozcaada, Gemlik (Bursa), Alacati (Izmir) and Bodrum. Starting from January 2nd 2014, Seabird Airlines also offers flights from Halic to Kocaeli. The flight will take 22 minutes.

According to Seabird Airlines although Kocaeli is right next to Istanbul, because of the traffic the travel time from European side of Istanbul and Kocaeli is quite long.[3]

Although the airline’s flights were quite popular, they had some problems on their journey in Turkish aviation history. Seabird Airlines has started with one plane which meant that if there was a technical problem with the plane there were no flights (no other airline in Turkey has the same type of plane to temporarily rent).

But now they have 2 planes and a third is on its way so these problems would probably be a matter of the past.

Seabird Airlines destination map

The airline operates DHC-6 Twin Otter, a Canadian 19-passenger STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft, powered by Pratt&Whitney PT6-27 turboprop engines. These planes are capable of landing and taking off from sea and conventional runways. One of the most exiting experience of these flights are their low altitude which allows you to have a close-up view of Turkey which is quite impossible to have with a high flying jet airliner. With low altitude flights, the airline offers a great bird-eye view of Turkey’s coastline with relatively affordable prices. The planes take off and land from the coast and allows passengers to save on time which would be wasted to go to an airport and clear all those security check queues.

Seabird Airlines DHC-6 Twin Otter

Other than scheduled flights, Seabird Airlines also allow you to charter sea planes for group travel. With planes of 19 passangers, you can individually or with a group charter a flight from the airline and fly without restrictions of time and destination. The airline also offers an exiting Istanbul Sightseeing tour from air.

[1] –  Seabird Airlines
[2] –  Sea-plane’s first landing in Halic; DHA General Manager Cebeci on aircraft
[3] – Izmit’e ucak seferi basliyor (Turkish).

Blogger Cafe - Blogger's Base

I have 2 more weeks left in Istanbul before leaving for Singapore and I have just realized that there is a blog cafe here. Blog cafe is something I have never heard of. This is a cafe designed for bloggers. Yes, I can find decent places to just sit and write both in Singapore and Istanbul, but something is always missing. Usually plugs are not enough, occassionally you are not welcomed to sit for long times and write, there is no wireless connection, connection is slow, etc. This place have everything you need (or have more than you asked): It is full of plugs, multiple plugs. There is fast wireless connection. There are books, magazines, disks, bits and pieces to fuel your inspiration. There is a music corner with instruments, projector for presentations, a big meeting table and a good Italian coffee bar, Caffe Nero.

Owners of Blogger's Base, Mansur Forutan and Tolga Arican are themselves bloggers and they say their aim is to create a warm place and they want to fill in the cafe with bloggers (it is of course open fot non-bloggers). This place can provide a meeting point for digital personalities to share ideas and to chat face to face. They have been working on this project for 2 years and for the last 6 months they were working hard to realize their dreams.

You can see some photos from this place in this post: post 1. The design of the place is vivid. Seats comes in different designs and shapes. You can just choose or create your corner in this place. AQnd of course there is a fast internet connection. I hope a place like this is opened in Singapore in the near future.

The place is in one of the oldest parts of the city, Galata. Galata takes it name from the Galata tower, a medieval stone tower, just to the north of the Golden Horn. It is one of the city's most striking landmarks and offers one of the best views of Old Istanbul.

Galata (Galata Tower to the left) from Marmara Pera

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Hot Air Balloon Tour over Cappadocia Fairy Chimneys

Last Friday, I was looking at the holiday photos of a friend in Singapore taken in Turkey. He has flew to Turkey from Singapore in October 2011 for a 1+ week holiday and travelled to many great locations in Turkey like Pamukkale, Cappadocia, Istanbul, Efes, etc. He has taken a balloon tour in Cappadocia region of central Turkey and I have realized that the company he has taken was the one one of my friends is working as a balloon pilot.

Cappadocia means the land of beautiful horses. It is famous for its stunning view created by amazing rock formations thanks to the volcanic activities of nearby Erciyes mountain and erosion. Locals in Turkey call these rock formations "fairy chimneys". There is really something mystical about them. Until early 1990s, the only way to get a great view was to climb or drive to a nearby hill and watch the sunset and sunrise on the fairy chimneys. But then, locals discovered the power of hot air balloon to get a great view of the landscape.

Hot air balloon flight over Cappadocia - Source : Royal Balloon

The hot air balloon allows tourists to see fantastic views of the naturally formed columns of rock formed by nature slowly in 10 million years. Some of these fairy chimneys are 40 metres high and if people were not more innocent back in the past, these phallus rocks would be definitely given a very different name. Most beautiful chimney can be found around and about Göreme, the village where my friend's company flies the hot air balloons from.

The balloon experience is quite unique. During the flight, there is absolutely no noise except the hot air producing burner's mild noise. The balloon flies with the same speed of air surrounding it so even the sound of wind is absent. This noise free flight over a magical landscape creates a stunning experience. Many Singaporeans flying to Turkey goes to Cappadocia and many tour packages include these balloon experiences. If you are going to Turkey by tour, check if the tour takes you to Cappadocia and includes a hot air balloon experience. It is a must do in Turkey holiday. 

New law removes restrictions to foreign purchases of real estate in Turkey

Turkish parliament has just passed a new law which will allow any foreigner to buy property in Turkey. The law removes a restriction called "mutualness" where if a country does not allow Turkish citizens to buy property in that country, this country's citizens could not buy property in Turkey. With the new law, practically will be effective in the next 15 days, this restriction is removed. This will allow Russians, citizens of Gulf States and Central Asia nationals to buy property in Turkey.

This law was supposed to be effective early 2012 but Turkish property developers, who are struggling to sell their mid to high end developments, pressed to release it just before summer, the hottest time for foreign demand for Turkish properties. With this law now, developers will have a very large pool of customers especially from Arab states.

According to Kanal D Property news, Qasim Sultan Al Banna, who has been director general of Dubai Municipality since 1992, has bought 50 flats from a development named My World when the new law is announced.[1] The Developer, Ağaoğlu İnşaat, has already collected deposit from foreigners  for 740 flats in Istanbul even before the law was passed. A company from Saudi Arabia, whose citizens could not buy property in Turkey before, has paid deposit for 400 flats in near Istanbul Olympic Stadium for investment purposes. Agaoglu now expects to earn 250 million dollar when the sales of these reserved units proceed. In fact, the developer targets a whopping 2 billion dollars of real estate sales to foreigners.

My World - Source : My World

Turkey has recently became very popular among its neigbours such as Russia and Arab states. 4 million Russian tourists are expected this year alone, who do not need visa to enter Turkey and stay 1 month. There is also a growing popularity among Muslim countries thanks to popular Turkish TV shows, recent more open and friendly policy of Turkey towards them and cultural similarities. With this rule, money from oil rich Arab states and natural gas rich Russia is expected to flow to Turkey to buy property.

There are mixed forecasts about the effects of this new law on the property prices in Turkey. CEO of Ukra Insaat, Kursad Tuncel, does not see a price rise due to the new demand from foreigners. This is because of the already huge supply in the market. [1] On the other hand, some experts predict 10 per cent rise in property prices when the law becomes effective. But it is pretty much likely that the price fall, which is awaited by many Turkish home buyers, will not happen or will not be as deep as expected.

.[1] - Qasim Sultan My World'den 50 daire aldi