Affiliate disclosure

Ithaka carries no affiliate links, no sponsored posts and no advertising. Nothing on this site earns money when you click it, and nobody pays to appear here.

Because the honest answer to “how does this site make money” is worth stating even when the answer is “it does not”. It also means you can read a recommendation here without wondering which link paid for it.

Chiefly accommodation, ferries and boat trips, dive courses, and the activities that dominate these places - balloon flights in Cappadocia, paragliding at Oludeniz, desert safaris out of Dubai. If commercial links are ever added, this page will say so before they appear, every such link will go through a /go/ redirect tagged as sponsored, and the pages carrying them will show a notice next to the links rather than only in the footer.

Dive schools and boat operators are judged on safety record and group size rather than price, because on Koh Tao and the Turquoise Coast those are the two things that differ and the price mostly does not. Balloon and paraglide operators are assessed on their cancellation policy, since the flight is weather-dependent and the refund terms are the part that actually varies.

If anything here is unclear, ask: [email protected].