This information is only applies the nationals of the countries who need a visa to visit Turkey.

There are to be some important changes in the way that Tourist Visas are issued this year. Unfortunately there is some confusion as to exactly when the full changeover will happen. Below we give 1. what was the official position and 2. what seems to be a last minute revision. (Our guess is that either pressure from Foreign Consulates and/or a failure to get the infrastructure completed has led to a last-minute change of heart as to the final date but we cannot find definitive information in Turkish or English).

Please visit the website of Ministry for Foreign Affairs for more information about your country’s visa requirements to visit Turkey.

In any case it is important for tour operators, group organisers and travel agents to start including the instructions for obtaining an e-visa in their pre-tour information documents as this will become the quickest and cheapest (the Govt have promised) way to get a Tourist Visa.

1. Please note that the old “sticker” Entry Visa to Turkey which was issued upon at airports & other border crossings will no longer be available as of 10 April 2014. Instead Turkey is changing to an e-visa (online application system).

There will be e-visa kiosks for online visa application at the airports, but we strongly recommend that clients do this at home before their journey.

In order to apply for an e-visa clients need to log on to Electronic Visa Application. On that site applicants provide the requested information and after the application is approved they pay online and download their e-Visa.

Here is a link to the Press Release on this subject.

For tour operators this statement is of interest.
“- Tour operators will be able to apply for group e-Visas and make lump sum payments for them.”
But we have not yet been given any information as to how this might work.

2. According to a Press Release issued 5th February published on the Consulate General of the Republic of Turkey in London website…

There is also a later statement which seems to contradict the above information and suggests that the old system will run parallel with the new for 2014.

“However, border authorities will maintain existing procedures for a certain transitional period, to include the 2014 tourism season”

by Alex Smith

Since I last wrote in this place Ramadan (or Ramazan as the Turks call it) has come and gone. This year the monthly fast has coincided with some of the hottest and longest daylight hours, so for anyone working and observing the fast it was surely no easy task. In my experience the period of Ramazan has coincided with a falling off of the numbers of Turkish tourists in town because, for even those not observing, it has not been seen as the done thing to be obviously enjoying oneself. I made confident predictions to guests we had staying with us the week before Ramazan began that they would certainly see numbers thinning out in the following week. I got that one wrong, this year the town appears to have been ever more populated with tourists during the period of denial. Whether this has anything to do with the recent events here which have served to polarise the Turkish people I really don’t know but for sure the masses did not dissipate and fun was still very much being had. Anyway Şeker Bayram (the celebration at the end of Ramazan) came and went and we were inundated by local children coming to our door here in Gökseki to be given sweets (a good stash is always advisable at this time of year).

Every now and again I try and get out of the office to lead one of our long tours. It’s good for me to see what’s changed and to look at new hotels as well as meet up with old colleagues and friends.

This year I led a group of 4 New Zealanders on an 18 day ​trip starting and ending in Istanbul.

​By co-incidence the day we all met up at Istanbul Airport was the first day of the recent protests. I joked that the Kiwis’ arrival had caused a riot in Turkey’s biggest city. But as we flew to Kayseri I was already writing e-mails to concerned foreign partner agencies.

by Alex Smith

Having just completed a week’s guiding working with a walking group I have some observations I would like to share.
1) Working full time is not for me, seven days on the trot although extremely pleasurable and good for my fitness levels need not necessarily be repeated week in week out as temperatures rise and there are other distractions.
2) People coming here from the UK on a walking trip towards the end of May take a little time to acclimatise and certainly need to ease themselves into the activity gently.
3) People living in the UK have literally been sun-starved for far too long now and are genuinely deprived of even half-decent weather. SAD syndrome abounds, it is real and present and I have witnessed it at first hand.
4) This area of Turkey lends itself so well to the kind of tour I have just led and there are more than enough trails, ancient sites, shops, beaches, bars and restaurants to keep everyone happy for a lot longer than the seven days allocated. Guiding in this environment is made all the more easy by the stage that is already set.
5) Women like to buy handbags.