Turkey Entices Tourists Back With Bargains

A well-traveled associate of mine just back from Turkey reports that the country is very much open for business in the wake of the devastating Aug. 17 earthquake, which struck near Izmit, about 60 miles east of the capital, Istanbul.

Contrary to exaggerated beliefs in some quarters that half the country is flattened, the fact is that, despite this terrible calamity and the aftershocks since, visitors to Istanbul will not notice any damage whatsoever. The severe initial shock has worn off for most locals, and life goes on as before, from the lavish, tourist-popular palaces and mosques of Sultanahmet (Topkapi, Hagia Sofia, etc.) to the night life, shops and restaurants of Taksim.

The quake, along with fears generated by the recent trial of the Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan, constituted a one-two punch to Turkey’s tourism industry. In response, shopkeepers and hotels are wheeling and dealing as never before, making this country that straddles Europe and Asia even more of a budget paradise.

In recent years, many of the mid- and upper-range lodgings have overcome the twin problems of inflation and the precipitous drop in the Turkish lira (just over 210,000 to $1 at the beginning of 1998; now it’s about 460,000) by pricing in dollars and adjusting those prices to keep pace with inflation and devaluation. But recent events have drastically shrunk occupancy rates and forced big discounts, which are likely to hold through the winter and very possibly beyond.

In Istanbul’s Taksim area, for example, deluxe properties like the fancy, high-rise Marmara Hotel, telephone 011-90-212-251-4696, fax 011-90-212-244-0509, are letting $250-a-night rooms go for $150 or less, while just around the corner, smaller but still high-quality boutique hotels like the Savoy, tel. 011-90-212-252-9326, fax 011-90-212-243-2010, are offering $150 rooms for $80, breakfast included. Then, of course, you can always find basic-but-clean digs at the likes of the Hotel As, tel. 011-90-212-252-6525, fax 011-90-212-245-0099, just off the hopping pedestrian thoroughfare called Istiklal Caddesi, for as little as $18 nightly per double with showers down the hall.

Wonderful meals are also available for amazingly little. Along one of Taksim’s “restaurant alleys,” Balik Pazari Nevizade Sokok, our colleague and friends recently enjoyed a savory and filling meal with wine in Sanat Restaurant for about $10 per person. Around the corner, down pedestrian Istiklal, at No. 49, another picturesque bistro called Haci Baba offers similar fare--appetizers, grilled meat, dessert and wine--at similar prices.

For more information, try the Turkish National Tourist Office in New York, tel. (212) 687-2194, fax (212) 599-7568, https://www.turkey.org, or tour operators in the U.S. familiar with Turkey, like Megatrails, tel. (800) 547-1211, https://www.megatrails.com. For lodgings, Internet users might also try https://www.lodgingturkey.com.