Bigdog1A

Hi, I知 planning a tour of Turkey and If you have any advice I would surely. Appreciate to hear from you. I知 leaving in April 2024 but want to learn about Turkey well before i leave. Thanks,John

Roughstuff

Beautiful country with awesome scenery and obviously, history. I crossed in from Greece and spent a day or two in Istanbul, then rode over to Kastamanou to see the total eclipse (this was fall 1999). When I got back to Istanbul, we had the earthquake!

Details are less informative than just a general description of my ride from this point. I rode counterclockwise, seeing the coastal regions, obviously the old site of Troy. And continued counterclockwise south and then east across the southern coast. I then headed northeast eventually arriving at Erzerum, and crossed into Iran near Mt. Ararat. (Didn't see the Ark!)

People were friendly and helpful. The Turks are MAD for their family life! I was near a bus station and a poor little boy was SCREAMING tears because his grandma was getting back on a bus to go to her home. Many people offered their homes or yards as places to stay and camp. By the way this was part of a 2 year world tour from June 1998 to June 2000.

While security issues I am sure have changed from when I was there, I would say be on your tip top guard as you approach the border with Iran, there is no lack of hostility in the Kurdish regions. In Erzerum there are many young folks who "want to practice their English" and will rob ya blind. Pretty typical stuff. I had rocks thrown at me in some places but most missed except for one guy at point blank range.

Because of the climate the cycling was fun, the scenery was crystal clear. I wrote in my journal that I never had seen roads to soaked in oil on their tarmac, but the bike held up well and many roads were wide.

As a geologist/earth science guy scenery was my priority, not ancient ruins and such. But the latter are everywhere. Some people wanted to give me history books and such, but obviously I couldn't carry them. The food is good but turkish coffee is like slurping coffee grounds.

If yu ask more questions I can go back to my trip journals and fill in more detail.

schnee

If you're going through Istanbul, be prepared to be followed by groups of friendly, but insistent, dogs. They aren't dangerous inside the city - they're basically 'everyone's dogs' and are treated well, some are even fat, but they are also curious and under nobody's control.

I decided to take a day trip down the Bospur to the Black Sea with another tourist I met, and a group of 4-5 dogs followed us for miles. Maybe they smelled the food we had for later and were begging for treats? I don't know, but they only stopped following us when we blundered into another group of dogs, and I guess there was a 'discussion' amongst them about turf, because they all started barking at each other, and us riders slipped away in the chaos.

it was a bit scary at the time - we were wondering how much of their 'chase instinct' we were triggering, and we couldn't get them to stop, even by stopping ourselves and petting them - but I encountered actual angry dogs later in Ireland and realized only then that it was safe in Istanbul.

Roughstuff

I've had dogs or packs off dogs do the same thing. I stop, smile, pet 'em, and they wag their tails after giving you a good sniff. But get back in the saddle and ride off, and WOOF! Off they go barking again. Must be a doggy thing.

CMAW 

I toured in Turkey last year, will add some comments when I'm back home in a few weeks. In the meanwhile, I found this to be a great resource: https://cycloscope.net/cycling-turkey

str

https://theradavist.com/touring-turkeys-lycian-coast/

https://theradavist.com/one-last-tri...lmali-plateau/

https://theradavist.com/the-taurus-m...ion-to-turkey/

https://theradavist.com/the-goat-roa...acking-turkey/