On Unique Experiences
and How to Make a Sweet Difference.
Travel Design
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Chapter Four
Products
A quick glance at the programs offered to Turkey in the market today reveals that many resemble each other.
Certain paths for constructing tours laid down by pioneers of tourism in Turkey decades ago are used by ‘tour designers’ ubiquitously.
In this climate of unoriginal repetition, how do we create prime programs that will count?
In this picture:
Faces: Zeus/Mithra/Ahuramazda at Mount Nemrud.
What really is it that makes a program truly memorable?
Is a luxury product the sum of luxury amenities, lavish hotels and fancy restaurants?
In this picture:
Faces: unidentified, Zeugma.
We believe that when designing a program, yes - paying attention to detail is important - but discerning and identifying the elusive subtleties and then demonstrating the ability to service those subtleties is what creates a truly luxurious product.
In this picture:
Faces: King Antiouchus. Mount Nemrud.
Amid tedious customization, the touring structure should reflect an embodying weave: every day should build up on the day before and bind the experiences, the impressions and the places together.
In our opinion, if the program fails to stage the interrelations, the whole experience will be just moves and stays without meaningful discoveries or memorable impressions.
In this picture:
Faces: Alexander the Great. Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
In order to facilitate the maximum appreciation of the travel destination in a civilized pace and functional comfort, we take into consideration a myriad of parameters when we start building itineraries, some of which are implicit or concealed to ordinary operators.
In this picture:
Faces: unidentified. Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
In this picture:
Faces: the Constancy of Grief -
Unidentified Tomb.
Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
While constantly exploring unique experiences and possibilities, our ultimate aim remains providing the best return for the money, the time and the effort our clients invest.
In this picture:
Faces: Istanbul Archaeological Museum Pergamon Museum
To set an example, if it is the cultural/historical aspect of the destination that a traveler is particularly interested in, the tour designers should refrain from defining historic wealth only in terms of museums and ancient monuments, ballooning up the itinerary with static impressions.
Among the heaps of treasures Turkey offers, historicity can be a living phenomenon - living among the people of today. This is what makes Turkey an exceptional destination.
In this picture:
Faces: the mystic ritual of ‘Samaa’.
And when we hear the words ‘Troy’ or ‘Iliad’ or ‘Homer’, all products of what is now Turkey, we hear of things that are inside of us.
We hear of the well-spring of the Western literature and the moral code of our ancestors as a whole. Our collective psyche has been built over thousands of generations.
In this picture:
Faces: Sophia Schliemann dressed in the Gold of Troy from ‘Treasure A’.
In this manner, the cheerleaders of Turkey’s leading basketball team, Efes Pilsen, are as much a part of this heritage as the breath-taking artifacts as are the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.
The food of a destination is another ‘serious’ subject. The national cuisine of a country is the fruit of a worldview. The way to cook is like “a language deciphered in the subconscious” by people and reflects history and perception of life just as national costumes do.
Countless travelers have excitedly reported that one can ‘come to Turkey just for food’. Turkey is the inheritor of one of the greatest empires of history, which long embraced a vast geography.
We also understand that each traveler is different at culinary adventures, as every society has their own understanding of ‘normal’.
In this picture:
Faces of Sweet Euphoria: Baklava, emerged from the Royal Kitchens at the Topkapi Palace.
But we are still subject to fascinating discoveries. Likewise, ‘The Turk’ is also a part of this heritage.
Many must be the adventures of the automaton named The Turk, lost, unhappily, to the knowledge of man. A being that kept so much good company. In this age of autobiography, a book on the life and adventures of the Automaton Chess-player would surely be received with proportionate interest.
George Walker, ‘Anatomy of Chess Automaton (1826)’ for Wolfgang von Kempelen, a Hungarian nobleman who built a wooden chess-playing machine in 1771 that cam to be known as ‘The Turk’. The Turk enjoyed an illustrious career in Europe and America in the next eighty five years.
Worthy of special attention among many unique experiences we can offer are: Private Openings of Museums and sites. Our travelers in Turkey privately explore great monuments which makes a world difference, as the lack of multitudes of tourists brings out the true soul of these sights. Everything inside gains new dimensions in the travelers’ hearts and minds.
In this picture:
Face of Holy Wisdom: the Hagia Sophia
Some of the sites where such private visits can be arranged are:
The Topkapi Palace Complex, The Hagia Sophia, The Imperial Palace Mosaics Museum, Chora Church, The Basilica Cistern, The Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum, Istanbul Archaeological Museums, Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology at the Castle of St Peter.
In this picture:
Face of Dignified Splendor:
riding a public ferry in Istanbul.
While the Kangal is often referred to as a sheep dog, it is not a herding dog, but rather a flock guardian that lives with the flock of sheep to actively fend off predators of all sizes. Typically used as protection against wolves, bears, and jackals in its native Turkey, the breed has been exported to African countries like Namibia and Kenya in more recent years due to its intimidating size and capabilities as an effective guardian, where it successfully protects local herds from lions, cheetahs, and similar indigenous big cats.
The Sivas Kangal Dog's protectiveness, loyalty, and gentleness with small children and animals has led to its growing popularity as a guardian for families as well, as it regards people as its "flock" and guards them with extreme devotion.
In this picture:
Face of Fidelity Personified: ‘Kangal’ - the Turkish Shepherd Dog.