Countdown!

14 days until I fly off to Istanbul to start my 30 day trip around Turkey and Greece. I’m so unbelievably excited I finally finished buying things I need for my trip like travel sized body lotion, and I will start sorting and packing my stuff next week to make sure I have a very thing sorted. Nothing worse than the night before a flight racing around trying to get things organised!

Turkey & Greece flights changed

Being spontaneous has become an art of mine. I spontaneously booked flights to Turkey and Greece last year, having no way of knowing if I could actually go and now I have spontaneously changed the date of my flights and booked a Greek Island Hopping Tour…

Last night I came across a website called MedExperience that do tours around Europe, including a 11 day Greek Island Hopping Tour. Immediately I wished I had more time during my trip in Greece to be able to do this tour knowing I already could afford it. To make matters more unbearable there was a tour that fit perfectly into my itinerary, starting on the 3rd September the same day as my “Spotlight on Greece” tour finishes. I immediately regretted not staying longer in Greece. Then after a few hours of procrastinating and feeling sorry for myself, it hit me that I can go if I want as I’m unemployed with nothing holding me back from staying longer.

So today I called up my travel agent and asked her to give me a quote on changing my flight home from the 4th Spetember to around the 14th. She came back and said it was fine, I could keep the same time flights just leaving 2 weeks later on the 15th September for $683. Now both the new flight home and Greek Island Tour have been booked and paid for.

Within the space of 18 hours I have gone from a 21 day trip and only staying in Greece for 5 days to a 32 day trip and visiting the places I have always wanted visit and have been on my bucket list for years.

Winning!!

Turkey & Greece Budget

Now that everything is booked and paid for, I can start getting a clearer idea of what my budget is going to look like for my trip in August. I defiantly want to try and budget a lot more than I did in Europe and the UK as I spent and splurged quite a lot. After my tours and accommodation are paid for, I want to budget around $70-$80 a day for food and shopping.

$1560: RT Flights PAID

$480: Internal FLights (2) PAID

$946: Contiki “Turkish Sailing” PAID

$879: Contiki “Spotlight on Greece” PAID

$369: Accommodation (1 hotel, 2 hostels- 9 nights)

$1600: Food/Shopping/miscellaneous (1600 ÷ 20 days = $80 per day)

$200: Travel/Public Transport (Mum)

$6034: TOTAL

$2169: LEFT TO PAY/TAKE

 

Accommodation- Turkey and Greece

Now that I have finalised, where I’m going in Turkey and Greece and my dates. I have planned and booked all my accommodation in Istanbul, Bodrum and Athens. I booked all my accommodation through the website Booking.com.

Istanbul

Istanbul is such a busy city with a lot of different areas/suburbs within the city and where you stay depends on the experience you want in Istanbul. I was stuck between two areas Faith and Taksim. Faith is in the old town part of Istanbul near all the mosques and sights, but I have researched and found that it is a very busy tourist area to stay. Where’s Taksim is more of an urban local area with a lot of bars and restaurants and where locals live giving you a more authentic experience.

At the end, I decided on Taksim because hostels were a lot cheaper and the public transport between Taksim and the rest of Istanbul is good. The hostel I chose for Istanbul is rather expensive, but I choose based on good location near public transport, quality of hostel and ratings.

Bunk Taksim is costing me $155 for 4 nights between the 16th-20th August, staying in a 6 bed female dorm with en-suite and balcony. Breakfast costs $8 per day, which is quite expensive, so I’m not sure yet if I will pay for breakfast at the hostel. The hostel has great reviews with 8.8/10 from 915 reviews.

 

Bodrum

Bodrum is quite a small town so there wasn’t much to choose from but the prices did vary from dirt cheap to expensive. I ended up finding this adorable small family run hotel called Mavi Ada Pension only 20m from the beach and right in the town centre the reviews for this hotel were incredible with 8.9/10 from 100 reviews. The room itself is quite basic but what sold me was the location, view from the roof balcony and the reviews. For 3 nights between 20th-22nd August and the 29th August its only costing me $144 which is incredible for the location. The room is a single bedroom with en-suite and balcony and includes free Turkish breakfast.

Athens

Athens was super easy considering the amount of accommodation available but the first hostel I found was in the most amazing location that I didn’t even bother looking at others. Its about 200m away from the Pantheon and Acropolis of Athens! The hostel is called Athens Studios and I choose a 6 bed mixed dorm room with en-suite and balcony with free breakfast. For 2 nights the 30th August and the 3rd September its $35 per night. Again, it has great reviews of 8.2/10 from 550 reviews.

All up for 9 nights its costing me $369 which is on average $41 per night.

Trip Planning Greece

Now that I have sussed the dates for my sailing tour in Turkey I have only 6 days to spend in Greece before I fly home. That isn’t enough time for Greek Island hopping to Santorini and Mykonos so I have decided to stay in and around Athens.

I did end up finding a great short tour by Contiki called “Spotlight on Greece” its 4 days long and travels from Athens to Delphi and Olympia then back to Greece. I thought this would be the perfect way to fit in as much as possible in the short time I have. The tour is $915 which is very expensive for 4 days, but I booked it anyway, as the tour starts on the 31st August and finishes on the 3rd of September, the day before I fly home so it fits in perfectly.

I also found flights from Bodrum to Athens on the 30th August for $310 with Turkish Airlines leaving Bodrum at 8:15am and arriving in Athens at 2:05pm.

I really happy with how everything has turned out I now have a solid itinerary I just need to sort out accommodation for all 3 places.

Itinerary- Filling in the gaps

As I have randomly booked flight to Istanbul and leaving from Athens I now have to figure out what I am going to do in-between the 15th August to the 3rd September. The good news is I did just that last night I found this amazing sailing tour.

One look at this tour with Contiki and I knew straight away this was the trip for me. I’ve always wanted to a sailing trip and especially sailing around the Mediterranean Sea has always been on my bucket list. This trip is called “Turkish Sailing ” and you sail around the Aegean Sea near the coast of Turkey and Greek Islands for 8 days, starting at Bodrum a small town Mid East of Turkey. The tour dates I’m looking at are between the 22nd August to the 29th August giving me about 6 days in Istanbul before finding my way down to Bodrum.

The bad news is that only gives me 5 days in Greece, which isn’t enough time to visit any of the islands like Mykonos and Santorini. So I have some serious thinking to do. Sailing around the coast of Turkey or Island hopping around Greece?

The Art of Spontaneity

Those who know me know I’m a very organised person who prides myself on always being prepared and having a plan. I enjoy planning and re-planning itineraries and routes for travelling. I have to be in control, knowing what I’m doing and where I’m going each day of my travels otherwise I get very overwhelmed, I’m a perfectionist what can I say.

So something I’ve never been very good at is being spontaneous. Sometimes I’m impulsive and buy clothes or shoes without thinking it through and I usually freak out later on about how much I spent and return it the next day, but that’s about all I can handle.

So last night I did something I don’t ever do.

I booked a multi-stopover flight to Istanbul, Turkey and returning from Athens, Greece for the 15th August 2015 to 4th September… Why, because I don’t know I let my wanderlust take over and in result I spent $2000 on a non-refundable ticket to Turkey and Greece. Now in my own defence, Turkey and Greece have always been on my Bucket List. I have always wanted to travel to Turkey, it is such a beautiful country with amazing culture and incredible food and Greece is also such a beautiful country and I’ve always wanted to see the Pantheon. But was it a smart move? We will soon find out. But I have come to the realisation that there are a lot of things I didn’t think about.

1. It is non-refundable.

2. I need to ask my boss if I can take time off work.

3. I don’t have 3 weeks annual leave at work.

4. Do I actually have enough money saved up in my back account for this trip?

5. What am I going to do over there?

But I am going to persevere and act with total excitement and positivity towards my spontaneous decision. Who knows, maybe this is the new me, travel can do that to do you.