Turkey is a place of history. If you love to read books, it is the home of the Byzantine empire, Constantinopole who spread Christianity, Roman empire and the longest reigning empire called Ottoman. It is also close to Europe and Asia because it is located in the middle of Europe and Asia. Since I was not able to reach Europe yet, I think this is a great place for me to start my journey.If you already have Schengen, UK or US visa, you don't need to go to any travel agency to fix your papers. Instead, you can apply for an e-visa.
Unlike the other embassies, you need to take an appointment and visit their embassy directly. However, in applying for a Turkish visa, the embassy will refer you to an agency. They will just get your name and number and wait for one to two days until one agency calls you. Amaani Travel and Tours is the agency who fixed our papers. It is located in Askan Kuwaiti, Dhabab Street, Building 14, near Lulu Murabba.
Requirements for Turkish Visa through Amaani Travels:
Payment is 500SR. This includes 150SR of insurance, which is a requirement in traveling to Turkey.
After payment and requirements has been settled, wait for their call after 2 weeks to get your stamped passport. Tip: If in case they were not able to print your insurance, wait until they print you a copy. In my case, they told me that they will send the copy of insurance in my e-mail but after 2 months of calling them almost everyday, no copy was sent until I came back from Turkey to Riyadh. Luckily, nothing terrible happened to me. My friend though was able to get an insurance immediately after getting the stamped passport.
Overall expenses (in SR) in 7days:
2075 - plane ticket to Ataturk Airport (Gulf Air). Because the dates were covering Hajj vacation, it is more expensive than the normal dates. The common fare, however, is only around 1000+ SR.
200 - bus fare from Istanbul to Cappadocia
617 - Cappadocia tours (Rose Valley, Hot air balloon ride, and the Green Valley Tour)
2000 (est.) - souvenirs, food and hotel, trains and taxi fare
TOTAL: 4817SR
Tip: If you want to save from hotel accommodation, better ride a night bus to Cappadocia. It will save you a lot of money since traveling will take 12 hours. Therefore, we chose to use the time at night in sleeping on a bus rather than a hotel. Overall, our stay were only 3 days in three different hotels.
Generally, my visit to Turkey was an amazing and breath-taking experience with its stunning views and amazing culture combined with a mixture of both Muslim and Christian religion. This is also a must for people who want to see the UNESCO World Heritage sites in Cappadocia. I want to visit this country again in the future because there are other places that I was not able to see due to the lack of time and the long travel. FYI, there is a ferry ride to Greece from Turkey, which will take 2 hours. Therefore, you can apply for both Schengen and Turkish visa in Riyadh at the same time.
