Kos to Turkey in a day?

davidlizard

No probs! It will be interesting to find out exactly what the current situation with this is. It appears that as the text in the links all says the same thing, they are quoting off the same source, which may no longer be valid. And of course you do not want to not do something on holiday when you could have done it but used out of date information!

I asked one of my friends who used to be a travel agent, and she was not sure what the current status was! A bit like the rough guide!

At least if you get an email from TC saying its OK, and you find yourself denied boarding, you will at least have something useful to claim compensation with!

It might be worth asking the Greek Embassy in London for their take on it? I cannot see anything on the official greek tourist pages (but then again, there is not much on them to see!).

Diamond78

I was a rep in Bodrum and I never came across this situation. I am going back a long time now but tbh I would definatly say to you go for a day trip. You can get pusy sales assistants everywhere.The market is so cheap and you can get good quality stuff.
Maybe the law and rules have changed about staying overnight but its worth going for a day trip.Ignore and walk away if anyone wishes to try and sell you anything that you do not want. All the best and have a lovely holiday.

garom_2

Spamreported wrote: »

god we went to bdrum on an organised day boat from Kos. left at 5am and took bleeding hours. Bodrum was terrible,very pushy sales, and when i tried to buy with a cardit card they marched me to the bank. couldnt stand it. dirty and rough. stick with greece and save your money

I couldn't agree more....we felt that we had wasted alot of time and money going to Turkey from Rhodes.

Wish we had spent it snorkelling ...

AuntAlice

davidlizard wrote: »

No probs! It will be interesting to find out exactly what the current situation with this is. It appears that as the text in the links all says the same thing, they are quoting off the same source, which may no longer be valid. And of course you do not want to not do something on holiday when you could have done it but used out of date information!

I asked one of my friends who used to be a travel agent, and she was not sure what the current status was! A bit like the rough guide!

At least if you get an email from TC saying its OK, and you find yourself denied boarding, you will at least have something useful to claim compensation with!

It might be worth asking the Greek Embassy in London for their take on it? I cannot see anything on the official Greek tourist pages (but then again, there is not much on them to see!).

Just had a reply from Thomas Cook.......
Dear

---

Thank you for contacting thomascook.com
I have checked the information we have here in the office but cannot find anything relating to this scenario.
The best advise is to contact the relevant embassy or consulate in London for further information. You can find contact details on the Foreign Office website at www.fco.gov.uk
Kind Regards
Winnie
Customer Support

E-mailed the Greek Embassy in London yesterday and am awaiting a reply.

Think I'll contact the above British Foreign office too, it won't be the end of the world if we don't stay in Turkey for a couple of nights but curiosity is getting the better of me now.

Diamond78

AuntAlice wrote: »

Just had a reply from Thomas Cook.......
Dear

---

Thank you for contacting thomascook.com
I have checked the information we have here in the office but cannot find anything relating to this scenario.
The best advise is to contact the relevant embassy or consulate in London for further information. You can find contact details on the Foreign Office website at www.fco.gov.uk
Kind Regards
Winnie
Customer Support

E-mailed the Greek Embassy in London yesterday and am awaiting a reply.

Think I'll contact the above British Foreign office too, it won't be the end of the world if we don't stay in Turkey for a couple of nights but curiosity is getting the better of me now.

Did you say you had friends over in turkey?If so, they could try and find out for you from the consulate in turkey.

AuntAlice

Diamond78 wrote: »

Did you say you had friends over in turkey?If so, they could try and find out for you from the consulate in turkey.

They live in the UK at the moment but have an apartment in Turkey and will be over there the same time as us.

davidlizard

Could also be worth asking First Choice to see what they say out of interest, as this warning appears on their website. Perhaps pose as a customer wanting to go to Kos, say you would like to hop into Turkey for a few nights and would this be a problem?

Thinking about this a bit more, Kos and Rhodes are popular tourist destinations, where the majority of holiday makers arrive by charter flight, and are both situated within an easy hop from Turkey and its attractions. As many tourists would be tempted by an extended visit to Turkey, if the problem with charter flights was enforced then it would be made a lot more prominent than it actually is.

It sounds like it is either something that is no longer applied, or is only applied very rarely/sporadically. As Thomas Cook cannot find anything about it (and they are professional travel agents!), so unless you hear anything to the contrary from the Greek Embassy (I have emailed them in the past and not had a reply) I would assume this is OK, but perhaps do a final double check with the resort rep when you get there, as they tend to have a bit more resort specific knowledge (but not always!). You can do no more!

Re Turkey being a bit of a dump, etc. Depends what you like. It is different from Greece - some people love it, some hate it, some indifferent. You won't know until you have tried it!

AuntAlice

davidlizard wrote: »

Could also be worth asking First Choice to see what they say out of interest, as this warning appears on their website. Perhaps pose as a customer wanting to go to Kos, say you would like to hop into Turkey for a few nights and would this be a problem?

Thinking about this a bit more, Kos and Rhodes are popular tourist destinations, where the majority of holiday makers arrive by charter flight, and are both situated within an easy hop from Turkey and its attractions. As many tourists would be tempted by an extended visit to Turkey, if the problem with charter flights was enforced then it would be made a lot more prominent than it actually is.

It sounds like it is either something that is no longer applied, or is only applied very rarely/sporadically. As Thomas Cook cannot find anything about it (and they are professional travel agents!), so unless you hear anything to the contrary from the Greek Embassy (I have emailed them in the past and not had a reply) I would assume this is OK, but perhaps do a final double check with the resort rep when you get there, as they tend to have a bit more resort specific knowledge (but not always!). You can do no more!

Re Turkey being a bit of a dump, etc. Depends what you like. It is different from Greece - some people love it, some hate it, some indifferent. You won't know until you have tried it!

I was thinking about contacting 1st Choice, I've not had a reply from the Greek embassy yet.......

I have visited Turkey many years ago, stopped off in Istanbul while on a school cruise on the SS Uganda and I thought it was amazing. Not been back since though as we love Greece.

AuntAlice

Just had reply from First Choice...

Thank you for your email.
I can advise it would be best to speak to our Reservation team who will be able to advise the best information 0871 200 7799.
I hope that this information has answered any questions you have raised and if you require any further help, please do not hesitate to contact us on [EMAIL="Clerical@firstchoice.co.uk"]Clerical@firstchoice.co.uk[/EMAIL]

I rang them but the lady at 1st choice just said that she had gone to Turkey from Rhodes and stayed overnight. Even though the information is in their contract she didn't know anything about it and couldn't help.

Just the Greek Embassy to go, still not had a reply.

AuntAlice

AuntAlice wrote: »

Just had reply from First Choice...

Thank you for your email.
I can advise it would be best to speak to our Reservation team who will be able to advise the best information 0871 200 7799.
I hope that this information has answered any questions you have raised and if you require any further help, please do not hesitate to contact us on [EMAIL="Clerical@firstchoice.co.uk"]Clerical@firstchoice.co.uk[/EMAIL]

I rang them but the lady at 1st choice just said that she had gone to Turkey from Rhodes and stayed overnight. Even though the information is in their contract she didn't know anything about it and couldn't help.

Just the Greek Embassy to go, still not had a reply.

Update...

Ended up phoning the Greek Embassy and the Greek Tourist Board, they can't see a problem with us staying overnight in Turkey so we were planning to go, unfortunately it now looks as though the friends we were going to visit won't be there the same weeks as us now so we won't be staying anyway . Will probably go over to Bodrum for a day trip instead.