Turkey

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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roberts8
Posts: 547
Joined: 20 May 2011, 9:14pm
Location: Surrey

Turkey

Post by roberts8 »

Just coming to the end of 3 weeks in Dalyan,Turkey. Not able hire or ride due to recovering from surgery but it looks an interesting country to cycle in and well serviced by planes from uk.
Met a few cycle tourist from German and dare I say it Russian who sang the praises and prices so may well consider it for next year. Is it fine or am I missing something?
rotavator
Posts: 987
Joined: 6 Jun 2016, 9:50pm
Location: North Wales

Re: Turkey

Post by rotavator »

I remember that Turkey was voted the best country in the world for cycle touring may be a year or two ago on one of the world touring forums so it must have some good things going for it....
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MrsHJ
Posts: 1823
Joined: 19 Aug 2010, 1:03pm
Location: Dartmouth, Devon.

Re: Turkey

Post by MrsHJ »

Plenty of choices- helsonwheels covered a lot of it last year I think (she’s just left Iran this year).

I also think for a more gentle preplanned approach there’s a segment of EV8 in Turkey (see the eurovelo map) that a few people on the FB Eurovelo forum have ridden. It’s more developed than EV8 in Italy per the map key (not difficult!).
GideonReade
Posts: 410
Joined: 4 Jul 2010, 10:46pm

Re: Turkey

Post by GideonReade »

We rode from Bulgaria to Georgia in 2016. Turkey was great. We took a central route, rather than coastal. July was a bit hot, but other factors dictated that.

The end of our trip was disrupted by the coup, or possibly "coup", so we started evacuating eastwards by bus, but stopped that when the instability fizzled out. Resumed cycling but ex-bus ended up a bit too close to the Iran border for the local authorities comfort, so they put us, briefly, on another bus.

So a few areas best avoided. Also some areas very mountainous.

Locals great, food great, accommodation great, roads great mostly, one can stumble over amazing archeology that you've never heard of.
geocycle
Posts: 2177
Joined: 11 Jan 2007, 9:46am

Re: Turkey

Post by geocycle »

Lovely country and people. Great food and so much to see. On the down side, the driving is bonkers in places and the dogs are a nightmare. Be very careful around the so called sheep dogs bred to deter wolves. Istanbul and Konya were really interesting, less so Ankara except for the museums. I’ve not been to the east but I imagine it is still impacted by the Syrian war.
GideonReade
Posts: 410
Joined: 4 Jul 2010, 10:46pm

Re: Turkey

Post by GideonReade »

I think the issues in the south east were the longstanding issues relating to Kurdistan, non-existence of, and not the more recent Syrian war. Although for sure the two are entangled.

Right about the dogs. Ugh. Carry an accessible big stick in the eastern hills. But we were never actually attacked by them, occasionally severely harrassed. I seem to recall that was associated with very junior shephards. Ah how quaint, a 7 year old minding the flock. But if you ignore his begging he sets the dogs off.
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