SAINT PAUL 
TOUR HANDBOOK
Group Leader for the following tour
 Deacon Pam and Jan Schmaling  
Sept 19, 2004 - Oct. 03,2004

ANSWERS TO FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

CLIMATE

In September The heat of the Summer will fade out but the sky will be cloudless for except in Istanbul
Istanbul might have a rainy day but generally it rains at night and clears in the morning 
In Cappadocia , the days will be nice and warm. The  evenings will be cold. The Altitude in Central Anatolia determins the climate. We might even see snow on the mountains but a thin jacket will be sufficient at night. Evenings will be 45/50 F Once we get down to South Tarsus and Antakya we will find out selves once again in summer. Mid day you might need to go down to only a t-shirt.
                          Average Temperatures for Major Regions (IN CELSIUS)

 

Aug

Sep

Oct

ANTALYA (South)

28

25

20

IZMIR (West)

27

23

18

ISTANBUL (Northeast)

23

20

16

Central Turkey Cappadocia

20

15

9

WHAT TO WEAR
 Don’t forget your swimming suits. A scarf for mosque visits will be handy, also since we take our shoes 
when we enter the mosques and people's homes and easy slip on and off type of a shoe will be more 
comfortable. The women will need to wear a long skirt or long pants in the mosque .
Through out the tour shorts are O.K.

LAUNDRY
You can have laundry done in all the hotels where we have more than one night stay. We generally 
arrange for a laundry for the group upon arrival to Cappadocia .

MEALS
 Turkish food has enough variety to meet every one’s need. Vegetarian menus are available. 
If special diet food is required we can arrange for that easily.

EXTRA EXPENSES
 Virtually everything on the tour is included except for your drinks. Your daily average expenditure 
while on the tour will be about US $20 a day per person (mostly for drinks and souvenirs), though 
your actual expenditure could be far lower. People on shoe string budgets have spent as a little as 
$100 during the entire tour, while others have spent thousands of dollars ( usually on carpets.)

PERSONAL CHECKS
 If you want to make a purchase over $100 you can pay with your traveler's checks . But cashing traveler's checks in a bank is expensive and not always easy. Do not rely on traveler's checks for cash.

ATMs are available. US$ currency can be used through out the country. If you need to change US$ to Turkish Lira, .you can do it at the airport very easily. The rates almost all the same. Personal Checks are honored if you should do a big purchase and are treated like cash.

CREDIT CARDS
Yes you can use your credit card in many places in Turkey but please remind your bank or credit card organization that you are going to be in Turkey for a while. Because for some reason the banks or credit card companies block the card when they see purchase is made in Turkey

SHOPPING INFORMATION
This tour is quite hectic. So you will have very little time for shopping. But amazingly people find enough time to shop .One of my groups had shopped so much in the seconds that we had time for shopping we had a garage sale at the end of the tour.

If you are interested in buying kilims and or carpets make sure you have your dimentions and colors with you. Very few leave Turkey with out a Kilim or a Carpet on these tours

KILIM, CARPET, TOWELS, FELT
However, the Turkish Carpets are so inviting it is very difficult to resist the temptation. If you already have the bug for the Turkish,Kurdish and Central Asian KILIMS you will find your self in heaven. If you have not yet developed a taste ,this might be the place to get aquatinted with that incurable bug.

PESTEMAL
In the Turkish Bath, the pestamal is used like a wrap around the body. We will be able to buy the pestemals off from a loom

WOODWORK IMBEDDED WITH MOTHER OF PEARL
Gaziantep is known for this craft which used to be favorite art/craft of the Ottoman Sultans. Mirrors, jewelery boxes, shelves, chairs and many more tempting and easy to carry pieces hand made in Gaziantep are available in the souvenier shops.

BRASS WORKS
Very delicately carved trays, pots and shish kebab scewers and statuetts will be nice Christmas gifts.

MINIATURE PAINTINGS
Replicas of Ottoman paintings are favorite shopping theme for most of Melitour tour members. They are available only out side the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul

SILVER JEWELERY
Authentic or replicas of old jewelery are available at few places along the tour. Especially the jeweler at Ephesus has excellent examples of old jewelry.

TEXTILES
 Material with wood block prints, scarves with OYA,  lace, suzanis

Literature to Read
The Bible
" The Big Game" by Peter Hopkirk
Step by Step Ephesus" by Mehlika Seval
"Crescent and Star - Turkey Betweem Two Worlds" By Stephen Kinzer
Order Meli's CD s  from http://www.melitour.com/media.htm 

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