hi Sue:

We took the Regent tour and thought it was very good - there were only 6 of us plus our terrific guide was Muge Akat, who is the daughter of the former head of Turkish Art & Antiquities and was literally raised in Topkapi during part of her childhood. She was so knowledgeable, and took us to great restaurants in Istanbul and Cappadocia and had some great insider connections in addition to being charming and fun.

Our only issue was that the hotel that Regent booked in Cappadocia, the Lykia Lodge, was pretty bad - the rooms were very spartan and stuffy and the staff unhelpful at best. After we checked in we all asked if there were better rooms and what about air conditioning? We were literally the only people there, but the staff told us that all the air conditioned rooms were taken.

Since it had been a long day we all agreed to stick it out for one night but our guide immediately got on the phone to her headquarters and we were relocated to the Museum Hotel for the next night, where Andi and Doug had stayed, which was fabulous.

I asked Muge why Regent didn't just book the Museum Hotel from the start and she said that Crystal, who she also guides for, does book that hotel but that Regent worries about passengers with mobility issues staying there since there are lots of steps as it is built into caves.

So I'd check the itinerary and see where they plan to stay; if they are still using the Lykia Lodge I'd go the independent route - I think we were very lucky to have been able to switch hotels.

here's a link to our
Cappadocia pictures

works best in slideshow.