Ya'lla Tours USAReviews of yallatours.com

Would have like to spend more time at sites in Istanbul. Dear Pam, I am sorry to report the trip to Turkey was disappointing. It appears Yalla contracts with a tour company in Turkey who n turn contracts with many other tour companies. Naive, I thought Yalla itself was conducting the tour. I realize I am not experienced in tours and the way things work. I would not recommend this tour to anyone. It wasted too much of my vacation time. It resulted in a longer trip and therefore more expensive. One day we drove 7-8 hours in a row! Totally unacceptable, that is way too long to have to ride! Other days there were 3-4 hour rides. I met people in Istanbul, who said thy flew to sites instead of these long tedious rides. I would have preferred spending the extra money to fly between sites instead wasting time with so much driving. I think the travel time and length of time on the bus of should have been communicated up front when signing up for the tour. There were days we had to stop morning and evening to drop off people, who were on different tours, at their hotels, more wasted time. The entire first day was a waste of time and should be eliminated. We went to the Archeology Museum of Anatolia. Our time and experience would have been better served going to the Archeology Museum in Istanbul which is supposed to be one of the best in the world. The afternoon was also a waste, the Mausoleum of Ataturk. It was very boring and not much to see, a war museum really? It would be better to spend an extra day in Istanbul. There were many more sights in Istanbul that would have been nice to see. I did enjoy meeting the lovely people from the Spanish speaking countries. The bilingual tour guide seemed definitely more comfortable speaking Spanish then English. There were four of us who spoke English.The tour guide would speak to the Spanish speaking people for a significantly longer time than English and appeared to be joking with them, jokes not translated for us. It seemed she was only giving us an brief synopsis. It seemed I was also one of the people joining the tour? I did not feel very welcomed by the guide and she didn’t look at me when conversing until the third day after I asked a few questions. She did become friendlier and helpful as the tour progressed. She was very helpful at times helping me navigate precarious stairs. I was surprised and disappointed we did not have our tour guide left the trip upon dropping us off at Istanbul. Then for the tours in Istanbul there were two different guides each day. The places we stayed were comfortable and nice except for the Royal Palace, which seemed tacky. I cleaned part of the bathroom myself to feel comfort there. I felt sorry for them feeling the condition may have been due to the reduction in tourism. I did have view of the water off in the distance. The food was not good. The evening receptionist could not speak any English. We ate buffets everyday some times three times a day. The buffets were nearly all the same every meal except the main dish which frequently NOT very good. The best meal was one where we had a choice of three selections. The fish was wonderful! All the meals I had on my own were very good. One was because I did not want to eat another buffet. In the course of the tour we stopped at six commercial businesses not included on the itinerary. Two were a designer manufacture of leather coats and sliver jewelry. Of the six I only enjoyed one. They had a demonstration on rug making. It was very interesting. I felt some of the merchants were trying to take advantage of us. I wondered too if the guides were getting kickbacks for the sales at the these businesses. This second rug stop significantly cut into my time at the Grand Bazaar. I only had 20 minutes. I liked Istanbul very much and staying in the “old town”. As I stated I would not recommend this tour. Thank you, Mary Harrison