Turkey - any reason not to?

[aturnick54]

djc206 said:

There’s transit security for connecting flights.

So are you telling me that if I fly from Turkey to the UK via a connecting flight in Germany, I will go through the same search at the gate as I would if I were flying direct from Turkey to the UK?

[Radec]

Southerner said:

Has anyone done Land of Legends theme park in Antalya? We’re off shortly and just pondering whether it’s worth a visit (I strongly hope so!), and if so whether to pay Jet2’s seemingly rather inflated prices for the organised trip or just book our own tickets and then try and sort out a taxi there & back.

Yeah went a few months back.

Buy tickets here online on their website not while you're out there.
We paid around £35 a ticket, may cost more when you go but you can easily check on the website now and see how much it is.

Off season half the park is closed as it's a water park as well, mind you some of the main rides were closed as well for maintenance, again check their website.

I'd say it's like a mid tier theme park with only a few white knuckle rides.
We have much better parks here.

They have a dolphin show like SeaWorld which was decent.
They are building a Nickelodeon area at the moment so some work going on.

Depending on where you are staying just get a taxi as it's not that expensive and we were going from Lara beach area and there's a taxi rank outside to come back or your hotel will sort you a shared minibus

They have a separate area which is where the knock off Disney castle is, with lots of shopping and restaurant which has a fountain /light show in the evening. This is free to get into as it's on the side of the theme park.
It's quite nice to walk about in the evening.

It's worth a visit if you are there and have kids that are into it.

[aturnick54]

Rumdoodle said:

There are multiple layers of monitoring what goes on in airports. It's silly to say that the UK government is relying on a single contractor for national security, whoever they are. Why don't you try taking some dope through and see what happens?

Yeah you're right. In Turkey you go through multiple layers of security and in my experience it never takes longer than 15 minutes to complete. They effectively do rely on a single contractor called Gözen Security who manages security at all major Turkish airports.

Meanwhile at Stansted the other week my bag got pulled aside twice and I had to wait for 25 minutes for someone to check my bag. They were baffled as to why and eventually just let me go as they couldn't be bothered anymore. I got to my destination and found a stick of deodorant in one of the side pockets (which I didn't know was in there). It seemed very disorganised, and my experience at other UK airports is not really much better.

[Rumdoodle]

aturnick54 said:

djc206 said:

There’s transit security for connecting flights.

So are you telling me that if I fly from Turkey to the UK via a connecting flight in Germany, I will go through the same search at the gate as I would if I were flying direct from Turkey to the UK?

Checks at departure gates are one very small part of a much bigger process. You're looking at this in a very simplistic way. How many mass casualty terrorist attacks have there been at transport hubs in Germany in past decade compared to Turkey? The risk profile is different. Those departure gate checks were introduced after the Istanbul airport massacre. Those guys walked in through the front door. What was the additional threat from people boarding planes? There wasn't one. I'm just about to board a flight out of Istanbul now and there isn't any check ar the departure gate. Maybe, like the UK, they have stopped caring?

[Rumdoodle]

aturnick54 said:

Yeah you're right. In Turkey you go through multiple layers of security and in my experience it never takes longer than 15 minutes to complete. They effectively do rely on a single contractor called Gözen Security who manages security at all major Turkish airports.

Meanwhile at Stansted the other week my bag got pulled aside twice and I had to wait for 25 minutes for someone to check my bag. They were baffled as to why and eventually just let me go as they couldn't be bothered anymore. I got to my destination and found a stick of deodorant in one of the side pockets (which I didn't know was in there). It seemed very disorganised, and my experience at other UK airports is not really much better.

I know I am. Obviously it doesn't take 25 minutes to check everyone's bags. And you're only referring to a procedural issue relating to security measures you can see. Most of the work is behind the scenes.

[Rumdoodle]

jbailey114 said:

Visited Antakya two years ago. Wow, what a place. We had dinner at this gorgeous restaurant that was in an old Ottoman house, fountain in the centre, trees, courtyard, etc. I saw their Instagram a few months after the earthquake. Nothing left!

Mardin is another absolutely spectacular place to visit. Built on a rock overlooking the Mesopotamian plains. You can see for miles - it's unlike anywhere else I've ever been (and barely any tourists!).

I was there when it happened and have been back a few times since. Absolute tragedy.

[Rumdoodle]

Sitting on the plane now. The only additional measure compared to a UK airport was the baggage scan just inside the terminal entrance. Last time someone tried to bust an airport entrance in the UK, he set fire to himself and got kicked in the balls by an angry Scotsman.

[djc206]

aturnick54 said:

djc206 said:

There’s transit security for connecting flights.

So are you telling me that if I fly from Turkey to the UK via a connecting flight in Germany, I will go through the same search at the gate as I would if I were flying direct from Turkey to the UK?

No. I’m saying the single layer of security in Germany is trusted to do a proper job. It’s not unusual in places where the initial security process is considered lacklustre to have additional layers.

[Southerner]

Radec said:

Southerner said:

Has anyone done Land of Legends theme park in Antalya? We’re off shortly and just pondering whether it’s worth a visit (I strongly hope so!), and if so whether to pay Jet2’s seemingly rather inflated prices for the organised trip or just book our own tickets and then try and sort out a taxi there & back.

Yeah went a few months back.

Buy tickets here online on their website not while you're out there.
We paid around £35 a ticket, may cost more when you go but you can easily check on the website now and see how much it is.

Off season half the park is closed as it's a water park as well, mind you some of the main rides were closed as well for maintenance, again check their website.

I'd say it's like a mid tier theme park with only a few white knuckle rides.
We have much better parks here.

They have a dolphin show like SeaWorld which was decent.
They are building a Nickelodeon area at the moment so some work going on.

Depending on where you are staying just get a taxi as it's not that expensive and we were going from Lara beach area and there's a taxi rank outside to come back or your hotel will sort you a shared minibus

They have a separate area which is where the knock off Disney castle is, with lots of shopping and restaurant which has a fountain /light show in the evening. This is free to get into as it's on the side of the theme park.
It's quite nice to walk about in the evening.

It's worth a visit if you are there and have kids that are into it.

That’s excellent! Thanks chap - appreciated

[aturnick54]

Rumdoodle said:

Checks at departure gates are one very small part of a much bigger process. You're looking at this in a very simplistic way. How many mass casualty terrorist attacks have there been at transport hubs in Germany in past decade compared to Turkey? The risk profile is different. Those departure gate checks were introduced after the Istanbul airport massacre. Those guys walked in through the front door. What was the additional threat from people boarding planes? There wasn't one. I'm just about to board a flight out of Istanbul now and there isn't any check ar the departure gate. Maybe, like the UK, they have stopped caring?

Yeah the guy barged in and shot straight through the initial security checkpoint which was in place to protect the check in area. And he was dead before he had the chance to get to departures.

Walk into any UK airport and you're greeted with a huge open space that often has crowds of people trying to check in for their flight, absolutely no security at this point. I think I know which countries airports feel more secure.

[aturnick54]

djc206 said:

No. I’m saying the single layer of security in Germany is trusted to do a proper job. It’s not unusual in places where the initial security process is considered lacklustre to have additional layers.

And that's the thing. These measures are purely ignorance (and maybe a bit of paranoia) by the UK government, whose airports are less secure than those in Turkey.

Turkey has more security in place than most European airports as required by law, yet you don't see the same restrictions in place for other European destinations.

[Rumdoodle]

aturnick54 said:

Yeah the guy barged in and shot straight through the initial security checkpoint which was in place to protect the check in area. And he was dead before he had the chance to get to departures.

Walk into any UK airport and you're greeted with a huge open space that often has crowds of people trying to check in for their flight, absolutely no security at this point. I think I know which countries airports feel more secure.

In the Istanbul attack in 2016? There were three attackers and nearly 300 casualties. The objective wasn't to reach the departures area, it was just to hit as many people as possible. My point was that the subsequently added extra check at the departure gate just before boarding is a strange one. It's either because, as the other poster pointed out, the previous layers of security are deficient (i.e. incompetent, understaffed or bent), or because you don't trust the airport staff between those layers of security (i.e. someone bent will hand a device to a passenger between check-in and departure) or because you want to reassure/intimidate the general public who don't really understand how security works and who think that having a few extra guards visible makes a difference.

But, anything to do with departures assumes that someone is trying to board a plane and attack it mid-flight. The measures in place globally mean that hijackings and bombings hardly ever happen these days. I think the last time was the Metrojet flight from Cairo to St Petersburg in 2015. If there were holes in the security process, people would be getting through them, and they don't seem to be - in Europe or elsewhere.

Venue security is different to flight security, though. All that a group of suicide attackers looks for is the biggest, softest target. In the case of the Manchester arena bombing, the guy walked into an open foyer, where people were milling around as they would in the airport example you give. But, all you do by adding an extra security check just inside the entrance to the building is move that crowd outside. It might slightly deter someone from bombing a crowd at an airport, so they'll just go and do it somewhere else, like Manchester, or the 7/7 bombings or the Boston marathon.

There are significant differences which mean that the number of mass casualty terrorist attacks in the past ten years, for example, is clearly lower in the UK. It is virtually impossible to stockpile the sort of firearms required for an attack like at Istanbul airport. The UK doesn't have an armed separatist movement backed by the US on its doorstep. The UK doesn't have on its borders a failed state that is the region's biggest narcotics producer, another state that was the birthplace of Daesh, and another state that is currently the number one enemy of the US and which is waging proxy wars in Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza. That's because the UK is an island in northern Europe. Unfortunately, Turkey is in a very dangerous neighbourhood. (Without wishing to deter the OP, who has probably given up at this point....)

[Rumdoodle]

aturnick54 said:

And that's the thing. These measures are purely ignorance (and maybe a bit of paranoia) by the UK government, whose airports are less secure than those in Turkey.

Turkey has more security in place than most European airports as required by law, yet you don't see the same restrictions in place for other European destinations.

What do you mean by less secure? Which security incidents are you referring to?

I'll add that in the past fortnight I did 3 domestic flights and 1 international flight out of three different Turkish airports, and the only additional security compared to a UK airport was a quick baggage scan just inside the entrance of the terminal. That's it.

Edited by Rumdoodle on Tuesday 2nd April 14:12