Botanical Tours
AUTUMN BOTANICAL TOUR
SOUTHWESTERN TURKEY
With optional extension to Cappadocia
October 11 -22, 2009
Oriental Plane Tree, Platanus orientalis
We’ll conduct only ONE botanical tour in Autumn 2009, so if you’ve any interest in our October program, please let us know as soon as possible. Because we select charming (but very small) boutique hotels and mountain lodges, space on this tour is limited. We plan our itineraries carefully and can gain access to some of Turkey’s most interesting and delicate habitats because our botanical groups are never large.
Autumn crocuses brighten Turkish woodlands
Autumn crocus, heather, and snowdrops will greet us in the forests and valleys along the coast of southwestern Turkey. Because of the season, many of the flowering plants on this tour will be at higher elevations (some above 3,000 feet), so get in shape to botanize with our personable team of local naturalists and professional guides. We’ll hike through overgrown, pre-Christian ruins and explore protected habitats as well as small villages, where the rhythms of ancient agricultural practices and folk culture persist. We’ll stay in charming rural lodges and boutique hotels, savor local produce, and investigate parts of Turkey most visitors never see.
To entice those less botanically-inclined to join their plant-focused friends, our core trip, 11-22 October, includes two days in Istanbul. Throughout the entire tour, we’ll visit food bazaars, museums, monuments, and archeological sites like Ephesus to provide our guests a broader context in which to appreciate Turkey’s botanical riches.
We’ve also prepared an optional four-day Cappadocia extension. From 22–25 October, extension participants will follow caravan routes through the Toros Mountains and onto the vast Anatolian Plateau. There, we’ll visit the old Silk Road towns of Beysehir and Konya, a center of Sufi culture, best known for its Whirling Dervishes. Travelling east, into the valleys of Cappadocia, we’ll spend three full days enjoying the surreal volcanic landscape with its rock-cut dwellings and churches, an area designated as a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Our accommodations will be a small inn whose guest rooms—with all modern amenities—have been cut into the “living” rock.
As always, we’re delighted to design add-on programs for Istanbul and any other region of Turkey, northern Syria, or the Greek Islands.
And keep in mind that in April- May 2010, we’ll be offering another newly-designed Spring Botanical Tour with a team of engaging locals and wild orchid specialists.
Please call for more information about any of these programs. Complete itineraries with costs for the Autumn 2009 Botanical Tour will be available within a few days. To protect the delicate habitats included in our nature tours, we do not publish our itineraries online. Space is limited and complete itineraries will be emailed only upon request.
Please phone 941-330-8738 or email first to tell us of your interest.
Our Botanical Tours: General Info
Join us as we explore Turkey’s rich botanical heritage in the fall of 2009 and spring of 2010. Read on for a general overview of these programs—
Discover Anatolia’s Unique Flora
(Photo by Ceylan Zere)
Somewhere, something’s always blooming in Turkey… and we’re delighted to have a an engaging group of local and international specialists to introduce you to the botanical treasures of the country. Many of our favorite garden plants—tulips, hyacinths, orchids, rhododendrons, lilies, crocuses, and cyclamen—are indigenous to Anatolia. We know it will be exciting to watch our travelling companions meet some of these family members for the first time, on their home turf.
Wild Anatolian tulips
We invite you to share this experience: Join Turkish botanists, taxonomists, archeological guides, culinary wizards, and garden buffs as we explore delicate habitats, monitor endangered species, and deepen our understanding of the people and plants of Asia Minor.
The spring 2009 program (April 26 through May 08) was very well received. We hiked the slopes of legendary Mount Ida soaring above Troy and contemplated the ruins of the Classical sites of Pergamum and Ephesus. We stepped gingerly around miniature orchids in Lycia’s forests and followed the seasonal routes of nomadic Turkmen woodcutters as we read the plant commentaries of Herodotus. Each day’s adventures gave us insights into how climate and geography have shaped this fascinating nation. On one spectacular day, tour members saw over a dozen indigenous terrestrial orchids!
Our 2010 Spring adventure promises to be even better. We’ll cover some of the same general area we explored in 2009. but we have made significant changes—adding additional tour days, appealing accomodations, guest lecturers, and of course, visits to select habitats.
Right now, we are writing the day-by-day itinerary text for our October 2009 excursion and extension to Cappadocia. As in the Spring program, the October focus is on Turkey’s variety of flora and millennia of agriculture.
Nevertheless, you can be sure we’ll give archaeological, folkloric, and gastronomic wonders their due as we hunt for secretive cyclamen or autumn crocuses. Many a shy specimen can be found growing between the stones of a Hellenistic ruin or at the base of an Ottoman bridge… Our guides (art historians, plant-lovers, and archeologists) know just where to look; all of them have led hikes and wilderness tours.
Anchusa barrelieri
Although this tour will be flora-centric it will also have something for those whose interest in plants may not reach beyond the vegetables enjoyed as part of Turkey’s stellar cuisine!
For those of you with more time, we’ll be very happy to help plan customized add-ons so you may indulge your other interests—before or after the botanical program. After all, those tailored programs are what we’re known for.
Whether you are a first-time visitor or a returning Turko-phile, exploring the natural environment with local scientists and plant enthusiasts is sure to be a delight.
We arrange our itineraries to take advantage of weather, bloom times, and the availability of distinctive and very comfortable accommodations (rural lodges and boutique hotels).
Iznik Tile
Any given day may include encounters with nomadic foragers, migratory bee-keepers, and traditional farmers. In autumn, we’re apt to see the harvest of sesame, wild bay-leaves, and the season’s first citrus. Red-pepper paste and melon seeds will be drying on roof-tops. Still in their soft, rosy shells, fresh pistachios appear in the markets. We’ll hike through forest preserves, olive groves, and ancient stream-beds.
Everywhere, we’ll be able to stop and observe native plants in the wild. Whether you are a water-colorist, photographer, gastronomic adventurer, or simply one who enjoys the contemplation of plants, the company of our specialists and their observations will make these trips to Turkey the ones for you.
Accommodations will be on a bed-and-breakfast basis, with half-board in the more remote regions where our overnight lodgings present the best dining option. We do know that plant people are an independent lot, so we want to encourage you to explore Turkey’s culinary diversity.
We’ll try to reduce long bus trips. Instead of trying to cover all the usual archaeological highlights, we’ll select “base-camps” from which you will be able to walk or take short drives to experience Turkey’s varied terrain, ancient artifacts, and contemporary cultures. Professional, bilingual guides and safe, capacious, late-model vehicles with seasoned drivers will be part of the package.
We’ve organized special-interest tours for decades, and we value input from participants. So please email Holly to let us know what else you’d like to have us include for future trips.
Palace ruins, Lake Beysehir
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Space on the Autumn Tour will be limited– as few as 6 participants and no more than 18. It’s another unusual itinerary using the historical sites of Asia Minor to frame our botanical enthusiasms.
For a PDF file with the complete Autumn 2009 program and prices, please phone or email Holly directly. We’ll send you the autumn program as soon as it’s ready.
Need help deciding whether or not to join us? Have a look at the Botanical Tour Reading List.
