The first trip planned trip that fell victim to the COVID pandemic was a May 2020 Intrepid tour of Georgia (the country, not the state) for which I'd already booked airline tickets on Turkish Airlines.

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So, once things began opening up again, I used credits from both Intrepid and Turkish Airlines to book an 15-day adventure through Turkey that was the closest to 'travel as usual' I'd seen since the Japan trip in 2019.

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Yes, there were masks in most places indoors, along with a 'COVID pass' from the Turkish government that was checked in a few places, but in most of the places we ventured, restaurants and bars and tourist sites seemed to be operating pretty normally.

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It turned out to be a trip that is definitely worth taking. Between the cosmopolitan coolness of Istanbul, the millenia of human history in places like Troy and Ephesus and Selcuk, the beauty of the Mediterranean coast and the spectacular scenery of Cappadocia, Turkey (or Turkiye as it's called now) is something every traveler should experience.

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