On planning my first trip to Turkey this past September I initially bought Turkey (Eyewitness Travel Guides). Having bought other books in the series (Egypt, India) I had a general idea of what to expect. The Eyewitness series typically offers a broad overview of a country or area, complete with a lot of pictures, some "cultural awareness" sections, and a little bit less history than I personally like. However, being as I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to see in Istanbul, I figured it was a good place to start.
As expected, Eyewitness: Turkey provided a broad overview of the country complete with gorgeous photos and a nice regional breakdown. The book covered most if not all of the major cities and historical sites and offered a bit of background on the history of the sites themselves. In early vacation planning mode, this book seemed to work well, offering me pictures of sites that I wanted to see and suggesting various accommodations. However, once I had decided that I wanted to go to Ephesus, the book offered me nothing for logistics and I was left to figure it out on my own.
Overall I didn't really use this book much after the initially planning phase and didn't even bother bringing it with me on vacation since I had purchased Rick Steves' Istanbul for my three days in the capitol and then ended up booking a private tour of Ephesus and the surrounding areas.
Eyewitness: Turkey had a small section up front that focused on Istanbul, which was sufficient and provided a list of the usual historical sites, a picture guided tour of the Hagia Sofia and Topkapi palace as well as a list of accommodations. Some of the other sections, like Ankara, had more details of what to see and do but nothing about getting there and not a lot about the history.
I really can't hate on Eyewitness: Turkey too much though, because I knew what I was getting when I ordered it and that's exactly what I got. I actually think this was one of the more in-depth Eyewitness books, but after getting the Rick Steves' Istanbul I didn't even touch it.
This book is best suited to early vacation planning, and if you're taking a guided tour of Turkey as a whole. This is not for those who are looking for the how-to's of getting around and other concerns of "do-it-yourself" travelers.
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