Turkey At Its Best

What one remembers the most from his/her travels are the friendships they form with the locals. We at Turkey At Its Best try to create these memories for guests, like enjoying a home-cooked meal in a 150-year old stone village house with a Turkish family! Great food, great Turkish wines and new friendships! #turkey #turkishfood #turkishwines #friendship #travel #memories #turkishvillage #lpnar #sustainability #sustainabletravel #turkeyatitsbest

There are many reasons to travel to Turkey this year or anytime!! Here are some of them!

Here is a Soanl Doll from Cappadocia! You might want to learn how to make them! #soanl #soanldolls #womensupportingwomen

When you visit Turkey, you should also meet the local people. We try to encourage that person-to-person contact and also support local communities, especially women! Our lovely ladies from Guatemala have visited the village of Soanl in Cappadocia and learned how to make Soanl Dolls which local women make to support their families. Dolls have similar clothing as the women wear! These memories stay with you!! #cappadocia #soanl #soanldolls #humantouch #sustainability #sustainabletourism #turkey #turkeyatitsbest

Do you want to have your fortune read like Marlon Brando did? It is fun, and Turkish coffee is good! Come to Turkey! #turkishcoffee #fortunetelling #fortuneteller #istanbul #marlonbrando #turkey #turkeyatitsbest

The Grand Bazaar, or the Covered Bazaar of Istanbul with thousands of stores selling eveything under the sun! What an adventure!

Daffodil growers in Turkey! A most wonderful time of the year, as they will be slowly filling our markets. In Turkey, they are alled Nergis, from Narcissus of the Greek mythology. Narcissus was a hunter who was known for his beauty. He fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water and when he died, a flower sprouted bearing his name. You can almost smell these just by looking at them!

Winter in Datca, Southern coast of Turkey. One can be creative when there is no snow, right? Time to travel to Turkey?

As we are still at home and have more time in our hands, we wanted to share the recipe of one of the most popular desserts in Turkey, called the "Mosaic Cake". Enjoy! #cooking # recipe #turkey #turkeyatitsbest

Dolmabahce Palace, the last main residence of the Ottoman Sultans is right on the Bosphorus and worth a visit. In this video, you can see the world's largest Bohemian crystal chandelier with 750 lamps and weighing 4.5 tons.

In Turkish cuisine we have many dishes with names that have meanings, like "Hunkar Begendi" which means "The Majesty liked it". It is a very old dish from the Ottoman Palace cuisine which has a very interesting story: According to the story, which may very well have some truth to it, is about a secret love between the Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz and the wife of Napoelon III, Eugenie. Abdulaziz visited Paris in 1867 as the invited guest of the French King and met Eugenie, with ...whom he fell in love. Two years later, Eugenie came to Istanbul (Constantinople at the time), and the two of them got together again. It is thought that Eugenie brought her French chef with her. As the French chef was preparing a Bechamel sauce, the Turkish chef saw that and created the eggplant dish using that sauce and topped it with cubes of meat. Abdulaziz (Hunkar=Majesty) loved it and so did Eugenie! The end of the story is a little sad: A little later, Abdulaziz was dethroned, and Napeoleon III and Eugenie were banished from France. Many years later, Eugenie stopped in Istanbul again and asked the current Sultan (Resad) if she could see the son of Abdulaziz, Yusuf Izzettin! So, from the sad love story, we have this lovely recipe! This could be made into a movie!!!!

Turkish connections to world's critical vaccinations are interesting! By the time Edward Jenner, widely known as the Father of Vaccine had discovered the smallpox vaccine, Turks had been using a method of inoculation against smallpox for quite some time. Lady Montagu, wife of the British Ambassador in Istanbul in 1718, realized the that smallpox was not a problem there due to their "Variolation" (inoculation) method. She went back to England and wrote about it and even help...ed the Royal Family get inoculated. Fast forward to year 2020 - Two Turkish scientists living in Germany have discovered one of the Covid vaccines at Biontec. http://www.t-vine.com/an-ottoman-history-of-vaccination/

Here is our most recent video straight from current travelers in Turkey. (Don't mind the wind!) https://vimeo.com/464587515

This is indeed a very interesting read, at the time we are going through the Covid-19 pandemic! Hittites lived in Central Anatolia; their capital, Hattusa, is very close to Ankara and is worth a visit. Most of the clay tablets are housed in the Museum of Ancient Anatolian Civilizations. Read the whole plague prayer below. Most intresting! History is so fascinating!

It is so nice to see our cats and dogs in many of our ancient cities! Let us take care of our animals! #Worldanimalday (And, Nysa is one amazing city!)

One of top museums in Turkey is the Museum of Ancient Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. It is worth to go to Ankara even just for that! And, a bonus is the Ataturk Mausoleum!

Turks originated in Central Asia; there are many Turkic countries that speak the same language. Here are the Kyrgyz women singing a very popular Turkish song, called "Under the Stars". https://twitter.com/i/status/1335331205995241472

When it comes to natural hot springs, Pamukkale will always be on a list!

Get yourself to Turkey! And Turkey At Its Best will do the rest for you! We have all the information you need and can set you up with a great itinerary. You can visit Turkey now and see all the famous monuments without crowds!

Tomorrow the big race on the Bosphorus!

There are so many famous sites around the Hippodrome Square in Istanbul, like the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, etc. you might just walk by this beauty! It is German Fountain that was gifted by Germany to the Ottoman Empire as a sign of friendship!

Good Morning Everybody! Here is to a lovely day with morning sounds from Turkey!

If you are interested in learning about Gobeklitepe, the oldest religious structure in the world, we will have a Zoom Webinar (can we call it Zoominar??) on Sunday, September 27. Come join us!

Turkey is open to tourism! Come visit all the famous sites, but take precautions like the God of Medicine, Aesculapios, does by wearing a mask.

Babies always needed a baby bottle to be fed - even those from 5,000 - 6,000 years ago.

What a lovely carpet showing the Golden Horn and Bosphorus Museum of Islamic and Turkish Arts, Istanbul18th Century

Gobeklitepe in Southeastern Turkey is a site that one has to see in their life time! Oldest temple in the world, built by hunters/gatherers! https://sanalmuze.gov.tr//gobeklitepe-orenyeri---sanliurfa