Istanbul or Athens

[pdstsp]

Morning all - I am after a bit of knowledge and advice.

I appear to have negotiated a pass for late May early June next year and am looking at a ride back to UK from either Istanbul or Athens. Istanbul was the original idea as it seemed to have a clarity - edge of Asia back to home, but I have read a few articles on CGOAB about the horrors of riding out of Istanbul, and the sheer size of the place. However I assume that Athens is just as dangerous?

Athens has also started to appeal as I quite fancy seeing Albania, Croatia etc as this is an area I have never visited.

The idea is to fly out and then ride home. I have done a few 10 day to 12 day tours in the past and have always done them on road bike, with a carradice saddle bag and small bar bag, travelling very light and staying in hotels, and I would prefer to do this trip in the same way so not really interested in the camping side of things, though there may be some scope for this depending on the availability of small cheapish hotels.

So I am after a little bit of advice regarding what to expect from either Istanbul or Athens and the merits of the routes back - I normally look at averaging 80 odd miles per day and, like all of us, would prefer quiet roads with beautiful scenery!!

Thanks in advance, Paul

[iviehoff]

However I assume that Athens is just as dangerous?

Athens Airport is outside the Athens conurbation, and thus accessible by moderately sized road (except possibly the last mile or two) without trespassing into the Athens conurbation, provided you don't mind accessing it from the north. Coming from the west, it is difficult to avoid Athens, or those areas around Athens which lack alternative quieter routes. In particular the region between Athens and the Corinth Canal lacks suitable through routes on minor roads to avoid the major roads. But Athens Airport is also connected by suburban railway that will take you and your bike to places like Corinth, possibly with a change. (Athens airport also has the metro on which no bikes, both use the same station). It is even possible to access central athens using the suburban railway, though the services are infrequent.

So if you plan carefully, there are ways for the cyclist to access Athens Airport and avoid the terrors of cycling in Athens and western Attika.

I have cycled in Athens, including back and forth to the former airport which was within the city, and with a bit of care and route design it wasn't too terrible. However I really wouldn't want to be trying to cycle into and out of the city, especially to the SW, because you end up being forced to use the busy main roads clogged with trucks and buses, as there aren't quieter avoiding routes as you try to leave the city in many directions.

[borisface]

I only have experience of Athens from when I toured the Peloponnese a couple of years ago. The airport is east of the city. The roads from the airport west should be avoided as they are big and busy and would be dangerous on a bike. You can do a big loop east then north, but it'll probably be a bit tricky to navigate and it may still be busy. We arrived at Athens airport and took the train to Corinth and started there. It was dead easy as the train goes from the airport. We got stranded by the volcano eruption and ended up back in Athens, which was horrible. Really quite scary, terrible to cycle in and we left after a day. We ended up getting the train towards Corinth and detraining at Megara then headed north. The problem with going to Corinth would be that you have to either a) backtrack east before going north or head along the Gulf of Corinth to Patras and then cross the gulf at Patras. IIRC it isn't that easy to make the crossing. Having said that it would be a lovely (read hard) ride if you rode inland through the mountains from Corinth to Patras.

[pdstsp]

Thanks to both of you - I think if Athens is chosen it'll be the train to Corinth - sounds much nicer than dicing with death round the airport.

[kawa9999]

We cycled around istanbul year, actually a little bit different route. We came from anatolia to bursa by bus ( pretty busy road there and no many alternatives as we remember), and then cycled a bit and took the ferry which brings you from bursa to istanbul.
In istanbul we rode from the center to the airport, road was busy but not too bad, still some cycle paths in the beginning, just in the end quite big road, like a highway. Much worse was the mostar sarajevo route, many tunnels and truck drivers eating sandwiches while driving. So every time we had to pass a tunnel it was like the final sprint of a tour de france stage.
I think most of the people ride over to the border at edirne and then head to istanbul. But we were warned by a cycling couple some timea ago, that they found that piece of road really horrible, crossing istanbul was like 80 km on very dangerous roads. They took the bus at the end. Still no direct experience from us, but we did follow that advice and avoided that piece.
Istanbul is very nice, but also very touristic. The same for cappadocia. For us, if you want to experience real turkey head to anatolia, and outside of main roads. That is quite a different experience.
Balcan was very nice and very cheap, if you plan good you do not need a tent a all, so we never used ours. But do not expect hotels every km, you have to plan in advance a little bit. Greece also quite nice, but we just saw mainly thessaloniki.
The coastal road in croatia is stunnng, plenty of hotels there, but keep an eye open. It can get very busy in sommer.
We did croatia, bosnia, serbia, greece and than took aferry to turkey to cycle anatolia.
If you need some specific infos feel free to ask.