The last time we were in Turkey we purchased five carpets. Three of them were huge and the sellers arranged for them to be shipped from Turkey to our home in the US. I was a bit worried about ever seeing them again. However, four days after purchasing them they arrived at our home in Florida. They beat us by a full three weeks. If you decide to ship your carpet I suggest you take good close up photos of the carpet. I also sign my name to the back of the carpet. While it does not happen often, there are stories of people who purchase one carpet and receive an inferior carpet when their shipment arrives. We also like a photo of the carpet with the seller just to establish a provenance for the rug.

We carried our two smaller carpets home with us in a suitcase that we brought with us exclusively for the purpose of bringing home purchases. We were a few pounds over the limit and were prepared to pay the fine, but my husband chatted to the pleasant lady checking in our luggage in her native language and she just winked and checked us through.

It is quite amazing how they are able to fold the carpets into tiny packages, and they usually give you a bag to check on the plane. We did not use the bag because I was afraid it would be easily identified and possibly stolen. We did, however, carry the bag around as we shopped so carpet dealers could see that we had already purchased.