Everyone loves a ‘free trip’ but I would happily have paid for the experiences we had throughout our recent tour of Turkiye.
Now I can also see more clearly the value we provide as travel agents in recommending the right tour to fit the right client.
Experiencing first hand the exceptional quality of communication from start to finish, the knowledge and experience of our tour guide, bus driver (try driving in Istanbul and you will know what I mean!) and every person involved along the journey just left you feeling blessed to have been a part of the whole experience.
Add to that greater confidence that when we promote and book our valued clients with Bunnik, they will become part of their family and be treated as we were.
Seeing the same sites, going on the same buses and eating at the same places just gives peace of mind knowing they will come back and be ready to book their next tour with you.
You could tell this was the kind of quality delivered by Bunnik and that it would be replicated in every destination in which they provide tours.
“The Bunnik Experience”
Istanbul is a wonderful destination with an incredible history and vibrancy. It is an amalgam of Europe and Asia, making it unique in so many ways, which it should be as the only city in the world traversing two continents.
Travelling on an included cruise across the Bosphorus Strait, you can easily picture the importance of trade and commerce throughout the centuries while also being mesmerised by its old and new architecture and captivated visually by the fusion of cultures.
Included guide-led experiences such as a tour of the Basilica Cistern, the Hagia Sophia, the incredible Blue Mosque and the seemingly never ending 4,000 plus stalls at the bustling Grand Bazaar just enhance your experience by gloriously overloading your senses with history, colour, sights and smells.
The incredible historical knowledge added by a wonderfully intelligent, experienced guide to the visual and physical experience provided yet another great reason to recommend a tour as opposed to just doing it yourself.
We also got to experience a hauntingly solemn visit to Gallipoli, plus some incredibly important and historical sites like Ephesus, where we explored ancient gymnasiums, bathhouses, the impressive Library of Celsus and remains of the Temple of Artemis, which is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Visits like this leave you feeling connected to past centuries and in awe of what was achieved by ancient civilisations without TV, Internet and all the ‘luxuries’ we have today.
Sirince, Kusadasi, Pamukkale and Hierapolis – an ancient spa town which is a UNESCO World Heritage listed site revered for its striking natural formations – the list goes on.
You can barely believe how much you can see and take in over such a short period of time, yet without feeling rushed at all.
Like almost every country we visit and send our clients to, there is just so much to see and do and take in in Turkiye that it becomes obvious that the best way to maximise your time is with experienced operators who really help you get the very most out of your visit, especially when they know where the great food experiences are!
Breakfast and dinner included daily provided so many wonderful tastes and delights on their own, but then we also visited an olive museum, a fantastic hands-on cooking class experience with a delightful mother and daughter team in picturesque hills that made us all question why we weren’t staying there for the next three months.
So difficult to leave…..until we got to the immersive wine tasting and dinner at a world class winery and then we questioned why we weren’t staying there for three months!
This really was a common theme almost daily, which means you are travelling just right in my humble opinion.
As we discovered, sharing small group tours allows our clients to connect with like-minded travellers and creates lifelong memories of shared travel experiences, made all the deeper and richer with an amazingly kind, supportive and knowledgeable tour guide who felt more like a wonderful friend we have now left behind.
Main image: Pamukkale. Mark (third from right, back row)
