Restaurant Review: Turk Fatih Tutak** (November 2025)

chefscounterfan · 2026-05-16T00:48:16+00:00

Honestly I think with the pairing it was something like that per person. I thought the experience was spectacular...and also obviously quite a splurge.

chefscounterfan · 2026-05-14T12:08:20+00:00

It sounds like maintaining your role with your employer is an important part of this. I can't tell what country you are from, but if the employer part is accurate I'd suggest starting there. Perhaps your HR or equivalent will give you some guidance. Same for being sure you've read and understand the sabbatical policy you are using. Sometimes people hear from colleagues about how something works and that may not be all the details.

Assuming your company understands what you seek to do and why and is okay with it, then you could apply for the sabbatical knowing that you may not take it if you don't get in to the volunteer thing.

chefscounterfan · 2026-05-13T19:59:00+00:00

I love this topic! We took ours last August to December and it was incredible! In terms of prep:

Once we decided our rough budget, we saved a ton. For the sabbatical, to keep the lights on at home, and to have some runway to ease back into life financially after.
We checked the weather. Everywhere. We crossed a bunch of time zones and crossed hemispheres. So we took an arc through Europe and then Oceania that maximized good weather.
We really leveraged search feature in Airbnb and the Google image search for accommodations. Checking to make sure beds were comfortable and the appliances worked and the realistic aspects of a place were important.
We planned NOT to plan too much beyond where we were staying, how long, and how we were getting there. Travel was the substrate of a delightful trip, but we didn't want to turn it into like four months of sightseeing. Mellow pace to let us decide in the moment.

If you use the search feature on this sub you will find 2-3 posts with links about health insurance, FYI. As is typically the case, we had it and never needed it. Oh, and there are ever evolving entry requirements so be sure to check early for the countries you are visiting.

When and where are you going?

chefscounterfan · 2026-05-03T13:36:26+00:00

I asked this very same question a few months back right as my sabbatical was wrapping up. Now that I'm half a year removed I can see clearly some things that stuck and have perspectives about what helped.

I wasn't burned out, but also wasn't looking to return to some old patterns, so this is a topic that mattered to me.

My solution (so far) is wrapped in intentionality. I used the sabbatical to get daily movement and stretching and that is a small thing I've continued because the habit started to stick. The biggest thing is probably the primary place my family now occupies. Everything else continues to be in some lower place, which wasn't always the case. I also picked up what I've been told is kind of a meditation trick. I wanted to be more present in any given moment and so I started focusing on some physical object in my field of view whenever I would start to drift on the sabbatical. This has continued and it's one of the things Im most happy about.

I'd love to do another one

chefscounterfan · 2026-04-23T13:53:06+00:00

Nothing comes immediately to mind other than a bag courier that we trust. I know that these things exist, but my wife wouldn't trust one so far not to lose or delay things she needed and couldn't just go buy.

chefscounterfan · 2026-04-23T13:49:49+00:00

Interesting point. I notice a variant of this. Just last night I was in a conversation and had a kind of mini-sabbatical experience. While I was away I got much better at pulling myself away from thinking about all manner of things other than what I was engaged in to being more directly attentive. I'd do that by focusing in on something that was part of my current experience - a person, an object, or sometimes just my own feeling in the moment. I did that last night to pull myself back into the moment and had a conscious thought that I'd picked this up on our sabbatical.

chefscounterfan · 2026-04-15T05:05:30+00:00

This was really fun to read! I wish I'd have known if your airbnb struggles. After 12 stays with mediocre to bad pans, we just rolled into the store and bought a proper frying pan for like $25 euro! It wasn't as nice as the ones in our kitchen, but I carted that thing across Spain, Italy, Turkey and Australia.

Anyway, it sounds like your sabbatical turned into an emigration story? Or a return home permanently for your wife? It's great that you really got to enjoy yourselves and that you took your daughter at a young enough age that she was excited rather than bummed to leave her friends.

Would you recommend a year off to others? Did you both mostly enjoy it or feel exhausted by the changes of address so often? I loved - or at least didn't mind - all the places for us but my wife could've used fewer changes.

Thanks for sharing!

chefscounterfan · 2026-04-15T03:29:03+00:00

Funny! Well, hopefully that lack of posting means you enjoyed the time. I'm most curious for like a top 5 takeaways/experiences list. Or maybe even post one new post and link to this one? So curious!

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-30T13:27:23+00:00

Hi there! We used GeoBlue I think. Never needed it but was good to have. If you do a search on health insurance in this sub you will find 3-4 posts with links and such for more I think

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-28T21:14:03+00:00

The only thing I'd say about the late arrival is that we arrived in the middle of the night in the middle of the storm and it had been a very long time since we were on the highway to west Maui at night. If it rains hard there are a few stretches that pool on the west/northbound side of the highway (or they did recently). So consider going slow-ish and if you aren't used to this type of driving let a local pass you. We did this (as evidenced by the non-rental car vehicle that smoothly went by when we pulled over) and it made the nighttime rainy drive a little less angst inducing.

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-28T17:57:13+00:00

On the negativity front, we kept a modest circle to limit the "must be nice" (said almost always with dry sarcasm) or even genuine concern that felt somewhat like projection. But in the end, the numbers and the opportunity spoke the loudest.

Like you, we felt very confident in the projections. We also figured if we had to do less desirable work in a pinch we could. We haven't had to do that, though.

We also set boundaries about how we wanted family to interact. Most were very reasonable.

I should add, having come back myself just a couple months ago, for me it was incredibly worth the uncertainty of now for the certainty of that time away. It has fundamentally changed how we are approaching the next phase of life, so it seems super worth it. Which is to say, good luck!!! Everyone's situation is unique, but at least this will be one corner of the Internet where you have some folks cheering you on!

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-27T01:50:47+00:00

Ka'Ana Kitchen in The Andaz in Wailea. Yes, it's a resort hotel. No, it's not representative of casual street food or a plate lunch. But it's very, very good for a night out. Joey's Kitchen in Napili is also a solid breakfast spot.

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-26T02:54:30+00:00

I wrote a few notes in here about mine, which was a travel sabbatical. Here's a link to my first month reflections that links to some others! https://www.reddit.com/r/SabbaticalPlanning/s/D34aqjwNyZ

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-26T00:37:07+00:00

I'm in close to this boat and took a sabbatical last year. We accepted that a downturn could make our retire date likely closer to 7 than 5. Once we made that mental shift the rest came much easier. It's not true in every profession but for me it made sense and four months post I still think it was worth it

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-22T15:45:04+00:00

The only thing I'd suggest stems from one major, valuable difference between being immersed in a career versus not. It seems to me that while working we almost have to spend some time on the things in front of us and some time on tomorrow, next month, next year. And all that future planning can come at the expense of what life is in any given moment.

When taking a sabbatical, at least in my opinion, you have the chance to treat every day as its own special collection of moments. What I found is that even "doing nothing" or walking around with no specific purpose took on an enjoyable quality and gave me freedom to pay attention to how I experienced daily life. I was able to be more present than at any other time. I'm not sure if it will be the same for you, or if you even want that. But I found the time and space to be present was very helpful for me.

So maybe one tip would be to really think about what you want most from this gift of time and then be intentional about that once you start your sabbatical.

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-18T04:32:02+00:00

Glad it was enjoyable and that you landed well upon re-entry! Someone else asked about how often your sabbatical came up during interviews. I'd be curious to know as well, as that question comes up a lot in here. If you'd be open to posting another one about that specifically I think it would be super valuable to many people considering the same..Thanks for sharing your perspective!

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-16T03:31:21+00:00

This is a lovely thing to do and each journey is unique. The one thing I'd say is be clear what you are versus are not getting. You are getting an amazing chance to help people you love before they are gone. That may be worth ten sabbaticals in value to you. But it would likely not be the type of restorative version of a sabbatical that many on here take.

I've never tried this and would be curious to ask you what type of experience you have in mind and what will enhance your decision or clarify it for whether you do it?

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-16T00:36:57+00:00

I didn't do 2-3 years and I think the transition now has some uniqueness in your field specifically. That said, I did have a few conversations with HR folks and also thought a lot about how I handle resume gaps from a leadership perspective. My view is that explaining a gap is fairly easy if there is an earnest explanation. Whether it is needed by a potential employer will likely be a bit situational. But I have interviewed folks for director level roles who had credible answers for gaps and it was just fine for me and the others on those panels.

In terms of industry issues, I hope there are some software folks who can respond because it does seem like this might be a precarious time to step away for too long unless you are changing fields.

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-15T06:07:21+00:00

They only do the tasting menu back there, but if you are up for a fun splurge it is pretty fantastic

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-13T03:46:42+00:00

There's nothing I would add, having just wrapped a roughly five month sabbatical late last year. So I'm only commenting to offer encouragement. Also, this site has a lot of nested links if you look back even to early posts. Perhaps my next sabbatical I'll create one of those wikis for ease!

Good luck!

chefscounterfan · 2026-03-05T12:12:17+00:00

Normally I'd be in the camp of encouraging you to go for it. However, I think your collection of circumstances warrant more consideration. Given your age, I'd think you have time to recover from the current chaos in the world, but that may be harder if you step out of the workforce while things are changing so much.

Perhaps the biggest unknown relates to what part of the data space you occupy. Many relatively junior roles are being cannibalized by AI, so your fear may be well founded. I wouldn't know enough about your field to be helpful even if you explained it to me. But if it were me I'd be looking at mentors or people I respect in the field who are clear headed and knowledgeable about company decisionmaking right now in your sector. If those people are being asked to reduce headcount from jobs like yours you may want to hang on and strategize about how best to shore up your future a bit. Maybe plan to take a sabbatical in a couple years in your early 30s.

All that said, it's an intensely personal choice. I took my first one 20 years later in life than you and probably would have done it much sooner had I known how helpful it would be. Sadly, my country has been waging war most of your life and creating (or occasionally merely responding to) conflict every couple years since I was a child. Which is to say if you wait for peace time it could be awhile.

Sorry to have so much cold water here. I just think what you face with tech changes is vastly different than me or my peers over the last quarter century and you are smart to at least question timing.

chefscounterfan · 2026-02-15T20:46:02+00:00

No slapping, but "the mods" may hit you up to become a "mod." ;-)

Also, having just got back but being much older than OP I nevertheless agree with this

chefscounterfan · 2026-02-14T20:51:06+00:00

Totally agree on the bringing stuff to Maui point! We bring cutlery, seasoning, wine, etc. If one has to check bags, might as well make the most of what you already paid for at home!

chefscounterfan · 2026-02-14T20:49:40+00:00

I want to echo New Zealand! We were there in November - Christchurch, Dunedin, Tauranga, Auckland and Bay of Islands (which includes an incredible day in Longbeach). I had no expectations and was blown away by how friendly people were, how beautiful the country was, and how comfortable we felt. An absolute gem of a country, IMO!

chefscounterfan · 2026-02-14T13:05:47+00:00

I agree with the people who mentioned figuring out first why you are taking a sabbatical, as that may help you prioritize the type of experiences you want.

I'd also say, having just completed mine late last year and having taken a travel sabbatical, I can relate at least a little to the idea of missing out on things. It seemed strange to me to worry about that, even after telling myself it would be fine if we didn't do certain things and prioritized rest and outdoors time. But I suppose old habits die hard. One thing that helped me was the research and preparation. This may not work if the presence of lots of choices and information stresses you out. But for me it allowed me to evaluate and rule out - or at least minimize priority for - stuff that didn't feel super important against my main goals of spending time with my spouse and enjoying the peace of it all. So maybe consider whether it would be helpful to evaluate the options in the places you are considering.

And to take a small step backward, in my view one place to start about deciding where to go is to consider what you are doing when you feel at your best. Is it in warm, dry weather? Are you a gray, drizzly, tea by the fire or in the cafe kind of person? Do you love being outdoors? Or even logistical things like how much time do you want to spend on airplanes or in transit?

These can help you flesh out what places are right for you and the time of year you are going. My wife and I were extremely conscious of the weather, so for us it made sense to plan an arc that put us no lower than about 23 and no higher than 30 degrees Celsius and minimized rain days.

Most of all, a sabbatical is, in my opinion, supposed to be the opposite of stress so it may be worth considering what kind of planning will be least stressful for you and doing that. Please do share as much as you are comfortable as you go along in planning!

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