Historical & wild flower holidays in Turkey

niftyduo


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 230

Message Posted:
11/12/2010 12:52

The Istanbul based tour operator offers some really fascinating historical tours in Turkey and wild flowers tours to places like Lake Van. Your very own Niftyduo will be leading the three botanical tours so it would be great to see some Cyprus44 folks in our groups. See http://www.petentour.com/ Our Mount Ida tour offers three cookery lessons (by a Turkish chef) as well as daytime walks & flowers.

niftyduo


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 230

Message Posted:
11/12/2010 13:35

forgot to mention all tours start from Istanbul

LaptaMike


Joined: 07/10/2009
Posts: 1679

Message Posted:
11/12/2010 13:39

sounds good

niftyduo


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 230

Message Posted:
11/12/2010 15:48

dwarf iris and tulips grown in the Lake van area in some variety but the terrain hides a great wealth of wild flowers as well as castle and Armenian monasteries.

niftyduo


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 230

Message Posted:
12/12/2010 12:41

Our third tour is largely chasing orchids in the Black Sea area. The first stop is the beautiful Lake Abant tucked away in the mountain. It is excellenr for flowers here. Next stop is Safranbolu which is the home saffron crocus where you can buy some genuine saffron. It is a really intetresting ancient town. After that it is on to Kastamonu for excursions into the Ilgaz mountains. With luck we mainly find at least 20 different species of orchid.

niftyduo


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 230

Message Posted:
12/12/2010 13:50

Clients are given a check of flowers for the tour. Each evening, usually over a gin & tonic, those who wish can be guided through the list to tick off the species seen throughout the day.

flightholiday


Joined: 19/07/2007
Posts: 3217

Message Posted:
12/12/2010 17:35

Why not look at http://www.iah-holidays.co.uk our tour operator suppliers are specialists based all round Turkey with tours from Cappadocia, Istanbul, Antalya etc.

Ten years ago we were offering Tulip tours Donkey tours and Rose petal tours let alone all sorts of other specialities. If you want just ask and we can probably do it.

Tom

IAH Ltd

http://www.iah-holidays.co.uk

flightholiday


Joined: 19/07/2007
Posts: 3217

Message Posted:
12/12/2010 17:42

I have just looked at some of petens tours they are nice but very, very expensive - I wish I could be so greedy.

niftyduo


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 230

Message Posted:
13/12/2010 09:57

You are right Tom, they are expensive but on the other hand, they are not mass tourism. These are high quality tours with small groups. Each group has an English speaking Turkish guide, paid above the average to get the best and a top academic specialist flown in from around the world. All meals are included, there is a dedicated bus with fridge filled with fruit juice and water freely available to the clients and all gratuities are included. The only cost to the clients is their own personal drinks.



If you look at special interest tours out of the UK you may well be surprised at the cost of these just to European destinations so greedy.. no Peten would have gone under years back if they did not live up to the price they charge, instead they have a dedicated client base of peolpe who want the best.

flightholiday


Joined: 19/07/2007
Posts: 3217

Message Posted:
13/12/2010 12:18

Brian - IAH have some of the best suppliers and can offer tours for groups of two upward can. We have a dedicated tailor made facility - to give a sample of a tour (like the one mentioned below) call me.

Suffice to say that we have clients from the states currently doing a tour 15 nights 3 passengers sharing The tour is 11 in Turkey 4 in Jordan not including flights at GBP 2,321 each The tour is as they specified not as we might have suggested but hopefully they are very happy.

niftyduo


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 230

Message Posted:
13/12/2010 19:10

Tom we don't get involved in the organisation, except for discussions on suitable botanical areas. We just get ourselves primed up, do a quick refresher to get back up to speed on all those latin names, then turn up smiling and try hard to give clients the best holiday possible. We do our level best to enjoy the tour and infect the others with our enthusiasm and enjoyment.