Published on Jan, 2025
My husband and I had a fantastic time on the 2 Days, 1 Night Gallipoli and Troy Tour, and the team went out of their way to accommodate us. Since we were staying at an Airbnb in a hilly area in Taksim, they pre-emptively arranged for us to be picked up at a nearer hotel (even closer than the one advertised in the tour description), which made things much easier for us. On the first day, our driver, Tamer, was incredible, handling really thick fog on the way to Eceabat with confidence and skill. Once we tried speaking a bit of basic Turkish, his personality really came alive, and we had some lovely (albeit broken!) exchanges. Half way, we stopped at a Shell station that had the cleanest and most high-tech toilets we’ve ever seen (seriously, Japanese toilets pale in comparison), along with affordable snacks and drinks. The lunch that was included on the day was nothing special in term of Turkish best of the best cuisine but fine for a much needed quick meal. At Gallipoli, our guide, Burak, was incredibly knowledgeable and passionate, and his explanations brought the site’s history to life for us, particularly through his clever use of visual aids. A true animal lover too, who introduced us to all the local dogs (whom he had a bag of dog food to feed), foxes and even a jackal at the tour stops! A truly memorable moment too was when Tamer found some old bullets in one of the trenches and generously gave them to us as a keepsake, which was really touching and for which we are very grateful. The 3* Arthur Hotel we stayed in was surprisingly good and very well located. Clean and comfortable, with a great breakfast featuring a proper Turkish spread. Staff were super kind and polite. The only downside was that the room was a bit too warm even for winter (we could not figure out how to reduce the temperature although I’m sure front desk could have helped) - and as non-smokers, we could faintly smell tobacco from previous guests, though it wasn’t a big deal (so maybe that’s one thing to check with guests beforehand, if they would prefer a smoking or non-smoking room if available). On the second day, the Troy museum was great. At Troy itself, our guide, Charu, was full of fascinating insights and really made the ancient city’s history easy to connect with and picture. Through a game he made the different layers of the city over the centuries really easy to remember. Our driver for the return leg, Süleyman, was just as wonderful, and after dropping off the other passengers, once he saw we learnt some very basic Turkish, he got super enthused and gave us a surprise “mini-tour” of Istanbul as we made our way to our accomodation, kindly pointing out landmarks and chatting with us as my husband and I happily fumbled through some more Turkish. Overall, the tour was smooth and well-organised, and the drivers and guides made it a truly memorable trip that we’d happily recommend to anyone. My one tip is that during this part of our trip we purposefully booked the cheapest of our Airbnbs in Istanbul so we could leave our bags safely in our accomodation there, whilst just taking a light overnight bag with us. The vans had space for the suitcases people brought with them, but some of our fellow tour members looked well and truly miserable with their numerous big bags! It made the early start and late return much easier too as we had left stuff for dinner in the fridge there, waiting for us on our return after day 2.
