The Rough Guide to Turkey - Edition 6 - Marc S. Dubin, Rosie Ayliffe, John Gawthrop, Terry Richardson

Having just returned from my first visit to Turkey I can only agree with the negative comments voiced by other reviewers. The general tone veers between sneering at the reality of turkish society and derision of anything that remotely relates to the general tourist. All this would be bad enough were the text not hopelessly out of date. Selecting a couple of examples at random from an extraordinary list of errors; Descriptions of the Bodrum penisula include references to sailing schools in Bitez. Guys! - all the schools moved further round the peninsua at least 3 years ago. For Ephesus the visitor is instructed to walk from the lower to upper gates (insane if you've ever been there), no warning of the extreme heat everyone will experience - even in Spring. Riddled with factual inaccuracies and so superficial as to be useless. I threw my copy away and just asked the locals, who are amazing people (not that you'd ever expect that if you read this book).

Not the best (4/4 people found this helpful)

Not a bad guide, but not great either. There are only colour pictures in the introductory 'highlights' section - the rest of the images are black and white, and not very clear, which is a shame. There are colour insert sections on food, sports and architecture, but these would have been better used for a collection of a wider range of images.

The maps are not particularly easy to follow and miss off streets. The layout is the same as in other Rough Guides, which at least makes it familiar to those who've used other books from the series. The separation of practical information (in the front), and more academic information (e.g. history) (in the back), from the sections on regions and places can make it quite hard to follow and involves a lot of leafing through.

I didn't rely on it too much for factual information (e.g. prices), but I did notice that quite often the information pertaining to the sights e.g. buildings, or to history were at odds with the information given by my (highly qualified) Turkish guide. Later checks against other sources backed up the tour guide rather than this book.

Particularly frustrating is the language section, which lacks any phoenetic spellings for even the commonest words. This makes it useless for practical purposes. I suppose the aim is to make you buy the separate phrasebook - but that's not much use when you're backpacking and the brick-like size of the guide alone is weighing you down.

Overall, I didn't find this the most user friendly or helpful of guidebooks to the region.

Useful In Parts But Subtley Islamophobic (8/13 people found this helpful)

Beware: this Rough Guide has a distinct anti-Ottoman and anti-Muslim undercurrent which runs through the book. If you want a factual book about where thnigs are in Turkey -this book suffices. However every opportunity is taken to introduce ahistorical and lurid tales of Ottoman barbarism. Every chance to denigrate and belittle Turkey's Islamic culture and history is availed of. For example the magnificent Sultan Ahmet mosque in Turkey is just dismissed as a pedestrian attempt to rival the Hagia Sophia, Rumi's encompassing poetry of Muslim compassion is dismissed as an anomaly in Muslim religiousity.

Handy, but ANZACs beware (5/10 people found this helpful)

I bought this book for the purpose of planning my journey through Turkey for ANZAC day as is done by thousands of Australians and New Zealanders each year. Unfortunately details regarding the area and ANZAC day itself were not useful and some comments made reagrding Australians and New Zealanders were insulting.

Fine for the rest of the my travels however with some insiteful historical information. Just avoid if you are gong to ANZAC COVE.

Fantastic (17/19 people found this helpful)

I used this book on holiday in Turkey last year and I found it had all the vital information required to make my holiday a greater experience. Every detail beaches, restaurants, customs, food and what to watch out for were all explained very clearly. On the subject of food, I was advised NEVER to eat mussels sold by locals on the beach, but unfortunately I read the book 1 day too late! You can work the rest out for yourself!

The Rough Guide to Turkey - Edition 6

Marc S. Dubin, Rosie Ayliffe, John Gawthrop, Terry Richardson

Reader Reviews:

Do yourself a favour choose another book (1/1 people found this helpful)

Not the best (4/4 people found this helpful)

Useful In Parts But Subtley Islamophobic (8/13 people found this helpful)

Handy, but ANZACs beware (5/10 people found this helpful)

Fantastic (17/19 people found this helpful)

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