18 Days, Monumental Antiquities

Turkey is a great country to visit. The Turks are mostly overwhelmingly friendly to foreign visitors, the cuisine is frequently excellent, the cities are dotted with majestic old buildings and the countryside is often worth a good old-fashioned gasp. There’s an enormous variety of things to see and do ranging from water sports to mountain trekking, archaeology to night-clubbing and river rafting to raki drinking. Whether you leave Turkey with magnificent carpets, amulets to ward off evil, belly-dancing tips, an appreciation of its history, or just a tan, you’re likely to want to go back for more.

The famous city of Istanbul stands where Europe meets Asia and where East meets West, with all its magnificence, and signs from its far-reaching past. It has such a location that it constitutes not only a city of history, but also one of natural beauty beyond example. Extending on the two sides of the Bosphorus bordered by green groves, it also possesses beautiful shores along the internal Marmara Sea. Facing the city there exists small, pretty islands, adorning this big sea, Iying in the middle of the region. The sea features the land in that the climatic characteristics of the Black Sea influencing the north of it, is separated from the typical Mediterranean climate prevailing in its south. Rainfall is high enough to facilitate growing a variety of fruits, while snowfall enlivens the winter holidays. Indeed, it is Istanbul’s variety that fascinates its visitors. The museums, churches, palaces, great mosques, bazaars and sights of natural beauty seem inexhaustilbe.

Istanbul is also an international art and cultural center. In fact whatever intrigues your heart and mind can be discovered in this city where time lives on.

In classic rags-to-riches fashion, Bombay grew from mud flats and marshland to the richest industral center in the country. Ten million people bustle through her streets daily. A study in contrasts, Bombay embraces Western-style skyscrapers at Nariman Point, historic building from the last century’s “Golden Period” around Bombay Fort, the festival atmosphere of contortionists and vendors at Chowpatty Beach and the reverence of numerous cultures and creeds. Bombay is India’s Hollywood–don’t miss a tour of the movie studios.