Turkey Local Expert

I was born and raised in Istanbul, as were my parents, however my family roots are from Trabzon in the Black Sea area. Apart from travel, I also love to sail, and this is something I make sure I do every year. I have been working in travel with the same company since I was a student at university, where I worked part-time as a trainee. I have moved in many different departments; I started as a receptionist and moved to operations, then customer relations, and I’ve even been a tour leader! But I love being a travel consultant and designing new tours and custom itineraries for our travelers. Since I have been working in the same company for the last 15 years, I guess I am doing the right job! I love designing trips for small groups; like family gatherings and friend unions. Every group member has different tastes which makes it a fun challenge to create an itinerary that suits everyone. The key part of a great trip is to have a balance; a trip should include culture, and history but also fun activities like a day trip to Saklikent Gorge or a cruise day. I also love to help visitors get closer to Turkish daily life and culture – especially in rural areas. So I make sure each itinerary includes visits to off-the-beaten places. I also have experience investigating new activities or unique tours like food discovery tours, cooking classes, or golf tours, for example. This allows travelers to do something different than usual tourist activities. I love Turkey as a travel designer, because it is the perfect combination of ancient cities, history and natural beauty such as Pamukkale and Cappadocia. There is also quite nice Mediterranean cities with charming old towns and beautiful water and beaches, and just a short drive away are some incredible ruins.