[.uk] The Rough Guide to Turkey, 4th Edition (Rough Guide ... (ISBN 1858285429)

Very disappointing - Not Recommended:
This is a review of the latest (2007) edition of this book. This was a difficult review for me to write since I have been a fan of "Rough Guides" (and before that, "Real Guides") for some time. While it is a so-so catalog of sights, restaurants, and bars (although disorganized, as others have pointed out), the book is listless and oddly detached in its discussion of Turkey. A quick read of the "basics" can easily convince the reader that it is very difficult to obtain a coffee in Istanbul, the tap water is akin to sewage ("orange"), and a glass of wine? Forget it, the fundamentalists have taken over. Sounds like great fun, eh? Of course all the aforementioned observations are totally untrue. I found the book depressing and sour in tone, if not misleading. Indeed, the book addresses the reader as if he or she were planning a trip to a far off prison farm. For alternatives, try A Hedonist's Guide to Istanbul by Nick Hackworth or the Lonely Planet guide. Although not perfect, both will instill you with the excitement and awe that Turkey can (and does) inspire.

do not rely on this book:
Do not rely on this book. Despite the 2007 copyright, it is way, way out of date and will seriously harm your trip. It certainly harmed out trip. 1) Prices are way off--not just by 10 or 20% but by hundreds of per cent. For example, things listed as $20 sometimes cost $50. 2) The list of hotels is way out of date for every place we went. Some hotels had actually gone out of business years prior to 2007, which is this book's copyright. If you are considering a trip later than 2007, this problem will be still worse. This was true in Marmaris and Bergama and probably many other places. 3) Maps were wrong. Not just inaccurate, but wrong. For example, the location in Marmaris of the ferry to Rhodes was wrong. This was disastrous for us, possibly causing us to miss the ferry. Also, the streets on the map were labelled with names while the actual street signs used numbers instead of names. This may have been due to a renaming of the streets prior to 2007, and the book's map should have reflected the what the signs say. 4) Schedules were wrong. For example, the dolmuses to Troy do NOT leave every 20 minutes as the book says, but every hour, even during peak season. 5) The index is quite incomplete. You should be able to look up a name of a museum, for example in the index and find it in seconds. However, with such an incomplete index, finding information in the book can be a lengthly project--difficult on a busy street corner. I certainly hope they fix this book, but in its present state it should be avoided--there are other books on travelling in Turkey to use in the meantime.

Do not recommend - better off with Lonely Planet:
Highly disappointed in the 2007 edition of the Rough Guide to Turkey. I've used the Rough Guide for several other countries, but will not rely on Rough Guides ever again. Agree with the reviewer below who found the pricing to be completely inaccurate, a dearth of maps, and trip planning using the book unreliable. The recommended hotels turned out to be disastrous for us. We went to a hotel in Izmir that was recommended as a good value at 50 Lira for a double. They charged us 160 Lira. It was also a horrible hotel that should never have been recommended. Found several email addresses for hotels to be non-working. Sirkeci/Gulhane area in Istanbul is a great area to stay in yet there were only 3 hotels in that area listed. Also, there is no tram/metro map for Istanbul which was shocking. The maps in general were not detailed enough. There should have been several more of various Istanbul neighborhoods. No mention of Blue Cruise. No mention of how infrequent train schedules are. No recommended itineraries. Overall: Unreliable and highly UNrecommended.

great background, no so great practical information:
I have to agree with recent reviewers who were dissappointed by the lack of meaningful practical travel information. The most important thing a travel book can do is tell you how to get from point B to C while you're still in point A. Rough Guide fails completely in this area, showing only a small percentage of the connections a typical (or "rough") tourist would make. Also, the pricing is indeed way off, although given Turkey's highly volatile currency and the recent flushing of the US dollar into the global toilet, I can't really blame the authors for failing to predict the future. I'll also add that with a little negotiating, particularly in off-season, you can get the pricing down to a level closer to what the book says. Despite all the above problems I'll give the book a middling rather than terrible review because it has great information on all the major sites once you get there. I found the book's descriptions to be just as good as anything a museum will sell you. And the historical background on Turkey is absolutely first-rate--short, easy-to-read, yet comprehensive and intelligent. Also, I can't say whether you should buy Lonely Planet or another guide. I've been using travel guides for ten years and have concluded that you just can't rely on any trademark--some books are good, some are bad, regardless of the series.

Interesting Text, but Poor in the Field:
I've been traveling to Turkey since the fall of 2005 and currently reside in Istanbul. I've had this edition for a while and was impressed with the quality of the writing and background information. Since I know Istanbul pretty well and have a copy of the Lonely Planet Istanbul guide, I never really paid attention to the Rough Guide's usefulness "in the field." I just came back from Cappadocia and found the Rough Guide to be wholly inadequate. The guide is devoid of maps for important cities and compared to the Lonely Planet this is a major weaknesses. Even in a city like Goreme, which is the base camp for all trips to Cappadocia, the guide contains no maps for restaurants, hotels, etc. The hotel we stayed at was listed as a 7 (out of 8 marks), yet did not even meet basic cleanliness standards or consistent hot water (we finally left for another hotel). Lastly, we were lucky that the Turkish road system is well marked and offers great signs for tourists, because the Rough Guide assumes that everyone will be taking a minibus (a BIG waste of time in rural Turkey) and provides no navigational assistance in the narrative. As I scanned the book from a "in the field" perspective, instead of "from my living room couch" perspective, I realized that this entire book is flawed and I'm hesitant to depend on it as my sole resource in the future. I'll never purchase a Rough Guide again if I can help it.