Turkey

We spent 3 days in Istanbul to finish up a 3 week vacation to Iceland, Greece, and Turkey. It was a great way to finish off our vacation. We were backpacking and not part of a tour group.…

Ankara, the capital of Turkey (not Istanbul – surprise!) is a busy, smoggy city. Most tourists give it a miss, but there’s a few sights worth checking out if you’re passing through.…

It’s pretty warm and there is not much shade – although we were able to hide behind some walls for shade. However, there’s no need to weigh yourself down with gallons of water – there are snack stands spread throughout the site!…

Ephesus, close to KusadasiWhen you approach the site, many guides will offer to tour you around. We took the advice of our guidebook and passed on their offer, and we are glad we did.…

In August, the crowds were pretty thick. It was the busiest / most popular sight we saw in Turkey. We suppose it is also so popular because it is a cruise boat excursion.…

Our hotel arranged transport there. This seemed to be the easiest way to get there, and allows you to walk down through the ruins and be picked up at the other end.…

Ephesus, Turkey Ephesus is *the* reason to go to Kusadasi. It bills itself as “the best-preserved classical city on the Mediterranean”, and in our experience, is second only to Pompei. It grew to be the second largest city in the Roman Empire, the site of a Christian Sh

Clothing: All of our guidebooks seemed to disagree on what was appropriate wear, so here are our observations. Ian was ok in shorts/tshirt almost everywhere we went in Turkey. Only in ultra-conservative Konya did we feel it was necessary for Ian to wear long pants (this is where combi

In Turkey, we never felt threatened or unsafe – even when we were completely lost in the slums of Ankara. We took the usual traveller precautions of not prominently displaying a wallet or expensive jewelery, and this was sufficient.Turkey doesn’t require immunizations, alt

Turks are some of the kindest people we have met in the world. Day after day we were astounded by how truly nice these people are. Every time we were lost, someone would immediately offer to walk us to where were trying to go – not just direct us – and there was no strings