Reader Favorite Turkey

Our annual Top Destinations vote is an excellent way for us to take the temperature of our readers. Paris, the first Reader Favorite in 2010, was simply called the "greatest city in the world" by one of the nominating users. For Top Destinations 2011 readers chose another traditional favorite, Ireland, as they raved about the hospitality and the thrills of exploring the country by car.

Readers made another great choice for Top Destinations 2012 by picking Turkey as their favorite for the coming year. Frommer's has raved about and been thrilled by Turkey since the publication of Turkey on $5 a Day in 1971, and we still love telling people about it (its Cesme Peninsula was an editors' pick on last year's list). Istanbul's position at the crossroads of Europe and Asia makes it one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities as well as one packed with a rich Byzantine history, divine architecture, fantastic street food, and one-of-a-kind shopping. Visitors to Cappadocia can dig into cave dwellings or soar above the earth on a balloon ride. Travelers along the Mediterranean coast -- especially those who've picked a sailboat over a car -- are rewarded with stunning coastlines and remnants of ancient civilizations. But unless you have a month of vacation time, there's too much to take in on one trip. Just plan each visit wisely with the expectation that you'll return.

The 7.6-magnitude earthquake that hit eastern Turkey on Sunday, October 23 and the loss of life that followed doesn't dampen our enthusiasm for what the country has in store for 2012. Modern Turkey and its past incarnations have seen their share of natural and man-made challenges throughout the centuries. Our Frommer's Turkey author Lynn A. Levine writes in the introduction to her book "... there is one undeniable common denominator, and that is that Turkey, and the Turkish people, know how to do hospitality. This from a population in which 20% of the people live below the poverty line and yet the native language has no word for 'bitter.'"

If you want to help the recovery efforts being led by Turkish Red Crescent, you can give to your country's chapter of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The organization suggests that people donate to its general Disaster Relief program at this time. A listing of chapters by country is available here: www.ifrc.org/en/get-involved/donate/.