Plate I01
Hagia Sophia, dome against a flat sky.
Sultanahmet, 6:30 AM
İstanbul, the dome
Preface, on two continents, one country
Türkiye is two continents at one airport. And that is the easy part. The hard part is the country itself, which has been the centre of empires for fifteen hundred years and shows it in the layers. Three days for Istanbul, two for Cappadocia, the rest for the Aegean or the further south. Six to nine nights is the right shape; the shorter trip leaves you wanting; the longer needs a designer's hand. Best between April and June, or September into October. August in the city is a known mistake.
Every journey in Türkiye, currently
6 journeys in Türkiye.
Interlude, Plates from the field
Things we
have seen.
Eight plates from the studio's last three years. Hagia Sophia at six, the spice bazaar at three, a Cappadocia balloon morning that almost didn't fly.
Eight plates, drag, swipe, or use the arrows
Colophon
A small note
on how we work.
Tibro has been routing Türkiye since 2014. Eleven years of Istanbul bases, Cappadocia balloon mornings, Ephesus afternoons, and the Aegean coast weeks at the back of the longer trips.
We work with an Istanbul-based partner desk run by Esra (originally a Topkapi-archive researcher) and a separate Cappadocia coordinator out of Göreme who has run the same balloon company for nine years and knows which weather days actually fly.
Hotels in Istanbul are a side-of-the-Golden-Horn problem. Sultanahmet for the first time, Beyoğlu for the second, the Bosphorus boutiques for the third. We pick by trip. In Cappadocia we hold rooms at three cave hotels.
Six routes is what we currently maintain. The five-night Istanbul + Cappadocia is the most-requested. We route the fly-in from Kayseri (not Nevşehir) because the airport transfer is shorter and the road from Kayseri is the prettier one.
11Years of routing Türkiye
6Routes, none repeated
8 / 24Hours we tend to reply within
Warmly,
The Tibro studio , Mumbai, Istanbul (partner), Göreme (Cappadocia liaison)
Letters received
From the studio's folder
What they wrote
when they got home.
Three letters from the last twelve months.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Classics of Türkiye, seven nights, May 2024
Esra at the Istanbul desk had us inside Hagia Sophia at half past six, before the public hour, with a guide who used to teach Byzantine art at Boğaziçi. That morning alone justified the trip. Three Istanbul nights, two Cappadocia, two back in Istanbul for the bazaar afternoons we had missed the first time. The balloon morning flew on the second attempt, which the studio had built a buffer day for.
P. & K. IyerBengaluru, first Türkiye trip
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Mesmerizing Türkiye, nine nights, October 2024
Three nights Istanbul, two Cappadocia, two Pamukkale-Ephesus, two back in Istanbul for the second look. The studio's reasoning. That you should always end in Istanbul, never start and leave. Was correct. The Aegean two nights were not enough but the studio had warned us, and we will go back. A trip that felt like four weeks in nine days.
A. & R. BanerjeeKolkata, returning, third Tibro trip
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Amazing Türkiye Istanbul, three nights, December 2024
Three nights, one city, perfect for a short break. The studio's pick. A Sultanahmet hotel two streets from the Cistern. Meant we walked everywhere and were never short of a view. Esra's restaurant recommendations were the kind a friend gives, not a concierge. A trip that worked in seventy-two hours.
M. & N. JoshiPune, long weekend
4.91 / 5Average from 142 returned travellers
44%Travel with us a second time
8 hrsMean reply time to a first letter
An open letter
Tell us how many
nights, and which season.
Two questions decide a Türkiye trip: how many nights, and which window. Spring tulips or autumn balloons. Esra in Istanbul writes back inside the working day with hotels held on a tentative.
. write back.
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