Steve

I would think that certain people will choose Turkey due to the exchange rate for the Euro. I have to say though Turkey is not the cheap destination it used to be. I have been going there for some ten years now and seen a dramatic rise in prices. However ... it is still the place to go for me and without doubt still value for money. I am happy to pay for what I get in Turkey and do not think I am being ripped off. Others on this site have posted that they won't be back due to the costs now in Turkey. I would argue they are in the minority and the majority of true Turkey lovers on this forum will tell you there is no place like it.

Wilson

I hope they dont as there may be no vacancies for the holiday makers who love the place.

ive been going to turkey for over 26 years now and i love it despite huge price increases, but the worrying thing for me at the moment is next years flight prices, these are the highest ive ever seen ,july and august seem to average at £350 if these dont come down then this could have an affect on people travelling to turkey, i usually visit turkey up 6 times a year but so far i have nothing booked for next year due to the flight prices, i have to go in school holidays, so even easy jets werent that cheap when they were released last week , i was gutted as expected them to start at around £120-150 ish but was totally wrong, and gatwick is nearly 2 hrs away for us so not worth travelling unless exceptionally cheap , so im hoping there are some last minute deals available !!!

The flights are definitely a problem for us next year too, we normally go a couple of times a year but I think it will just be once next year. We too are tied to school holidays and next summer we have to pay full price for the little one as well now she is 2.

Ellie-Meg, I managed to book Easyjet seats for 16 nights next July (17-3 Aug) and got 3 seats for £420 including 20Kg baggage each and speedy boarding which I thought was pretty good. I had been waiting for Easyjet to release their prices (to the point of refreshing the page every 20 seconds until the flights were actually released!). The flights we had been looking at for the same period with Thomas Cook and Monarch were in the region of £1100-1200 for the three of us. The easyjet seats we bought are now selling for £880 so you need to be quick with them.

We bought a property in Turkey this year with a view to going over 4 or 5 times a year but if the prices stay this high we won't be going as often.

wow how did you manage that i got an email the day they released easy jet flights and looked for around 16th july for 2-3 weeks from gatwick to dalaman and they were coming out about 190 each so didnt think that was worth it and that was without speedy boarding, very odd that you got those prices for same time and for 3 seats like i wanted cant get my head around that as i priced them up immediately and tried for the following days

Ellie-Meg, I had an email from Easyjet to say the Gatwick flights would be released at Midday on 5th Dec. I tried booking at Midday but a pop up box said the seats were only available until 31 Oct 08 on that route. I just spent the next hour and a half refreshing the page until the seats came up - the outbound was about £60 and the return was about £26 plus £24.50 taxes, speedy boarding + luggage. I carried on with the booking immediately and even then a warning screen came up saying the flights had gone up by £5.00 whilst I'd entered my card details As soon as I printed the confirmation, I checked the flights again and they were £125 more. I guess they only have a few seats at the very cheap prices.

I wanted to book a seat for my 18yo son to come sometime whilst we are out there (who wants to go for 5 nights as he couldn't live without his internet connection for any longer) and got a price of about £89 return when they were released. He wasn't sure what date he wanted to go so I couldn't book it and the price is now almost £300.

I think I will be trying my luck with Onur when their prices come out next June for 2010!

that explain things, i didnt get the email until the evening of the 5th so by then i assume loads of people had booked already and pushed the prices up grr , i was well annoyed cos ive got loads of easy jet air miles to use too. i wasnt going to pay £190 from gatwick when i can get a flight from birmingham for £220 , would cost more in petrol and car parking than the difference in flight prices grr, not worth wasting my airmiles either . will keep looking, im sure they will have to come down eventually cant see people paying these prices

Hope you find something. I agree, I don't see that many people will pay £400 for a flight to Dalaman. We had even considered taking an extra week and driving over!

i got my aug 08 flights with onur air and only paid £75 each so these for aug at £400 are really dear , i wont pay those prices so im going to keep an eye out im quite confident that i will get a good price even if i have to wait for last min deal, i only need flights but will even look at packages if cheap lol, there was 1 deal in oct for 590 for 3 of us for 2 weeks on a package but i was a bit concerned about having to take her off school for 7 school days her school is strict so didnt book it now thats £900 lol. its a waiting game !!!

even euro goes stronger than sterling thats the mainly problem for all holiday makers
for example euro and sterling parite over 1 year ago 1-45 and now 1-12
or maybe going 1 euro 1 pound
that will be problem for spent money in turkey
and for flights its expensive now
i would say wait for last minute packages or 1 way flights
from the different airlines and try 1 way also back to uk
safe trips

Couldnt agree with you more Wilson. On the very long countdown already.

the prices have rising in turkey over the last ten years there have also been a great improvement in transport quality and control , roads etc also much hiugher quality shops and restauarants which are what the tourium industry requires from such countries
but for me it is still the place for a relaxing holiday with great people
all the cheap countries have gone now even india prices are going up

give me turkey any day

Because of the exchange rate this year, we decided to go to Turkey instead of Greece. We have been to both before, but had really wanted to go to a Greek island - usually manage to go to at least one every year and this year we only had one holiday.

We went to Olu Deniz in Turkey. We found that the prices there were much more than we thought they would be, we had done research before we booked, and were probably comparable with what we would have paid in Greece (for food, drinks etc...). We did do a few trips out and about while we were in Turkey and did notice that it was cheaper for food and drink in Hisaronu and cheaper still at Calis Beach. However still not as cheap as we were expecting having looked at previous posts on this site.

Whilst we had an OK holiday, we did come home wishing that we had gone to our first choice - a Greek Island - where we had really wanted to go and not chosen to go somewhere based on exchange rates to try to get more for our money.

If you are going somewhere just to get more for your money, it could always be a disappointment. It is something you have to weigh up, the pros and cons. However, having chosen somewhere based on what we thought we would be paying this year, in the future we will stick with going to where we want to go even if that means having to pay a bit more when we are there.

That said, we enjoy Turkey, you can always make a good holiday wherever you are based while you are out there.

Well we'll be trying it for our holidays in 2010,especially with the state that the euro is against the pound at the moment and I can't see it getting any better, we have already booked our holiday for May09 to Benidorm, luckily we are all-inclusive on that one. Other members of my family have been to places in Turkey previously and they've loved it.

many people say turkey will be better value due to the strong euro but its not the euro is strong its the pound is weak.
at present its 2.2 lira to the pound,now normally in the winter the pound is a lot stronger against the lira so this could well mean we will see as low as 1.7 to the pound this summer so with the year on year increases in turkey its probable that it will just as much more expensive in turkey as it will in the eurozone,dont be fooled that the lira is 2.2 now and think thats ok if the pound dont get stronger this will drop by up to .5 lira come summer.
having said that the pound will rise and the euro will drop,but the tricky one is when.
for me i will be booking very late next year this will allow the economy to recover a bit.
i think a late 3 week sept holiday will cost the same all in as a 2 week mid june holiday.
just my opinion.

The pound is weak yes, although at the moment lira is raising slightly and euro is dropping and who can say what will happen next year. I do know that flight prices are dropping a bit but I'm not sure if it will be better to book now or wait. We have to go in school holidays so I don't want to leave it too late.

having read the paper today and reading the travel section the ceo of thomas cook says he thinks turkey will be popular with holidaymakers due to them not being in the euro zone,
so that might be why i cant any bargain as all the people who dont normally go have been booking up

it could also mean that thomas cook want people to just book a holiday they dont care where.
if you think it going to be cheaper them mr cook will not disagree with you.