Turkey Travel Guide

Spring (April to May) and autumn (September to October) are the best times to visit, since the climate will be perfect for sightseeing in %u0130stanbul and on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, and it will be cool in central Anatolia, but not unpleasantly so. Visiting before mid-June or after August may also help you avoid mosquitoes. If your primary drive is for beach-bumming, mid-May to September is perfect for the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, if a little steamy out of the water. The Black Sea coast is best visited between April and September -there will still be rain but not so much of it. Head to eastern Turkey from late June to September, but not before May or after mid-October unless you're prepared for snow, road closures and bone-chilling temperatures.
With the exception of %u0130stanbul, Turkey doesn't really have a winter tourism
season (see p20 for more details). Most accommodation along the Aegean,
Mediterranean and Black Sea and in some parts of Cappadocia is closed from
mid-October until late April. These dates are not set in stone and depend on
how the season is going. High season is from July to mid-September, and prices are at their peak.Anticipate crowds along all coastal areas from mid-June until early September. You will need to plan ahead when travelling during the four- or five-day
Kurban Bayram%u0131, as banks shut and ATMs may run out of cash (for more details
see p660 ). Also, try not to visit the Gallipoli Peninsula around Anzac Day (25
April) unless it's particularly important for you to be there at that time.

Turkey is no longer Europe's bargain-basement destination, but it still offers
good value for money. Costs are lowest in eastern Anatolia, and Cappadocia, Selçuk, Pamukkale and Olympos still offer bargain prices. Prices are highest in %u0130stanbul, %u0130zmir, Ankara and the touristy coastal cities and towns. In these places you can get by on %u20AC30 to %u20AC40 per person per day, provided you use public transport, stay in pensions, share bathrooms and eat out at a basic eatery once a day (add extra for entry to sights). Away from %u0130stanbul, and the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, budget travellers can travel
on as little as %u20AC25 to %u20AC35 per day. Throughout the country for %u20AC35 to %u20AC55 per day you can upgrade to midrange hotels with private bathrooms and eat most meals in restaurants. On more than %u20AC55 per day you can enjoy Turkey's boutique hotels, take occasional flights,and wine and dine out every day.We quote all costs in this guidebook in euros. Although inflation has dropped from the stratospheric levels of the 1990s to around 9%, ifwe quoted Turkish new lira, prices would probably be out of date before the book even
emerged from the printers.

Just as the person who asks ' How are you?' in the street expects you to reply with 'Fine' rather than give a blow-by-blow account of your health and relationship problems, so the Turk who asks 'How is Turkey?' expects the answer 'Çok güzel!' (Wonderful!) rather than a detailed critique. Turks may grumble and criticise aspects of the country themselves, but they certainly don't want outsiders to do the same thing.Turkish chauvinism is the ugly side of the national psyche. When Atatürk salvaged a nation from the wreck of theOttoman Empire, the price for national unity was an ideology in which minorities and outsiders were regarded with suspicion, even hostility. An official veil was drawn over Turkey's cosmopoli-tan past, and the saying went about: 'A Turk's only friend is another Turk.' Outsiders are frequently dismayed to find that their fluent English-speaking and apparently intelligent new Turkish friend turns out to harbour all sorts of conspiracy theories about how the world plans to do Turkey in.Happily, there are signs this situation is giving way to a new openness and pluralism. In the streets, hip-hop artists are giving the global phenomenon a very Turkish twist. In the universities, it is common to meet students
of Ottoman language and Byzantine history. Crumbling churches dotted throughout the countryside are being restored. And from Ankara to Van, an increasing number of people feel there is no contradiction in being both Turkish and Kurdish. Eight hundred years of Ottoman empire-building, followed by a century of fighting for survival, forged a people who respect authority and toughness. But it also endowed them with the ability to laugh in the face of adversity, to enjoy the here-and-now, and to show generosity to strangers and the less well off. It's that unique combination of traits that make the Turks, for all their insularity, some of the most warm-hearted and hospitable people in the world.

Turkey has a population of approximately 70 million, the great majority of whom are Turks. The Kurds form the largest minority, and there are also small groups of Laz and Hem%u015Fin people along the Black Sea coast, and Yörüks and Tahtac%u0131s along the eastern Mediterranean coast.Since the 1950s there has been a steady movement of people away from the countryside and into the towns, so that today some 66% of Turks live in cities. This process was speeded up by the years of fighting in the southeast when villagers were either forcibly relocated or decided for themselves that the grass was greener elsewhere (predominantly in Turkey's largest cities of %u0130stanbul, Ankara, Bursa and Adana, but also in eastern towns such as Gaziantep and Malatya). The result is that cities such as %u0130stanbul have turned into sprawling monsters, their historic hearts padded out with ring after ring of largely unplanned new neighbourhoods inhabited by the poor from all around the country.

Turkey is infamous for a galloping inflation rate that tipped 77.5% in the 1990s, with somany zeros regularly added to the currency that having a tea for 1,000,000 Turkish lira no longer seemed a joke.An economic collapse in early 2001 compounded the country's woes. Inflation skyrocketed and the value of the Turkish lira plummeted. Kemal Dervi%u015F, a newly appointed Minister of the Economy, succeeded in sweettalking the IMF for loans and made much-needed economic reforms, thus avoiding a potentially disastrous downward spiral.By January 2005, under the direction of the Justice and Development
Party (AKP), the economy was considered robust enough to introduce the new Turkish lira (Yeni Türk Liras%u0131) and finally do away with six zeroes on each and every banknote. For a year or so the yeni lira looked fairly stable, but in early 2006 a global downturn saw an exodus of international money and the currency lost some 18% of its value. Investors were left feeling shaky, sadly reminded of Turkey's vulnerability due to its high debt and current-
account deficit. While the AKP had been boasting about bettering their IMF repayments, they were left red-faced. With the aid of the Central Bank the currency is back on track - for now.In 1984 Abdullah Öcalan formed the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which proved to be the most enduring - and bloodthirsty - Kurdish organisation that Turkey had seen. Many Kurds, while not necessarily supporting the early demands of the PKK for a separate state, wanted to be able to read newspapers in their own language, have their children taught in their own language and watch Kurdish TV.From the mid-1980s the separatist strife escalated until the southeast was in a permanent state of emergency. After 15 years of fighting during the 1980s and '90s, and the deaths of some 30,000 people, Abdullah Öcalan was caught in Kenya in 1999. The 21st century started on a more promising note for relations between the Turks and Kurds when Öcalan urged his followers to lay down their weapons and a ceasefire was called.The best hope for speedy change lies in Turkey's eagerness to join the EU , which champions the rights of cultural and ethnic minorities. In 2002 the Turkish government approved broadcasts in Kurdish and the go-ahead was given for Kurdish to be taught in language schools. Emergency rule
was lifted in the southeast. The government started compensating villagers displaced in the troubles and a conference entitled 'The Kurdish Question in Turkey: Ways for a Democratic Settlement' was held in %u0130stanbul in 2006. Life for Kurds in the southeast has become considerably easier: the press of harsh military rule and censorship has largely been lifted, and optimism has been fuelled by the outlook of accession with the EU. Many Kurds have been delighted with the development of the quasi-independent Kurdish
state over the border in northern Iraq, but prefer to see their future with a country tied to the EU.However, despite the positive accomplishments, this road will not be easy. Some Kurdish activists maintain reforms are inadequate and want an amnesty for PKK militants. The ceasefire was broken in June 2004 and since then low-level fighting has resumed in the southeast. A group believed to be a front for the PKK, the TAK (Kurdistan Freedom Falcons), claims responsibility for the unrest and the sporadic bombings throughout the
country. But few feel that these events spell a return to the terror of the 1980s and '90s.

Women in Turkey live in polar opposite worlds. Many women in %u0130stanbul and other big coastal cities live a life not unlike their sisters in the West, free to come and go pretty much as they choose, to go out to work and to dress as they wish. But for the majority of Turkish women, especially those in villages out east, no such freedom exists and their lives continue to be ruled by the need to maintain their modesty and the honour of their family for fear of retribution.Honour killings are an ongoing headache for the country. Over 2000 women were allegedly murdered for 'honour' in the country during thwe six years since 2000, and police believe these figures are just the tip of the iceberg. In most honour killings the 'dishonoured' family chooses a male family member to murder the woman accused of dishonouring the family, usually by having a child outside marriage or an extra-marital affair. Traditionally the murderers have received reduced sentences due to pleas of provocation, but the government's recent law amendments have increased penalties. However, social ideals also have to change - especially out east - before this tradition is stamped out. A recent parliamentary commission into honour killings found some 37% of respondents thought women who commit adultery should be killed. Ongoing 'suicide epidemics' of young women out east, as described in Orhan Pamuk's Snow, is an ongoing interrelated issue. Activists think the clampdown on honour killings may be partly responsible for encouraging families to push 'dishonourable' women in the family to dispose of themselves. So it goes without saying that equality for women is a long way off in Turkey. Despite the country granting key rights such as the right to vote and
be elected in the 1930s, long before some Western countries did, women still get a raw deal. Studies show women earn an average 40% less than their male equivalents, thatwomen make up only 4.4% of parliamentary representatives, and that 45% of men think they have a right to beat their wives.

Think Turkish food and you may conjure up a vertically roasting döner kebap, spitting-revolving-spitting-revolving while meat is deftly sliced off and stuffed into a hunk of pide (Turkish-style bread), soaked in a garlicky yogurt, and topped with salad sprinkled with sumak (ground purple-red berries). Salivating already? You haven't tasted anything yet. Food from the Turkish homeland is so much tastier and so much more diverse than its most famous exports. It's down to the crunchy-fresh ingredients, the regional specialities, and the tender loving care taken to plan the flavours of every meal. But most importantly, food in Turkey is not merely fuel but a celebration of community. Meals unfurl with great ceremony - they are joyful, boisterous and always communal. Turks eat because they're celebrating a circumcision, crunching on a handful of green plums heralding the start of spring, or savouring a shared leisurely breakfast with the family before the day begins. Turks drink for community too: endless cups of tea to foster new or old friendships; nightsspent drinking rak%u0131 (grape spirit infused with
aniseed) while debating the merits of Gaziantep's f%u0131st%u0131ks (pistachios) over
Giresun's hazelnuts. The basics of Turkish cooking may have evolved on the steppes of Central Asia, but as the Ottoman Empire grew it swallowed up the ingredients of Greece, Persia, Arabia and the Balkans, creating a deliciously diverse cuisine you can enjoy every meal. Afiyet olsun! (Good appetite!)

Outdoor- activity aficionados have started to take notice of Turkey. Water sports abound,
be it thrashing the white-water in Yusufeli, paddling over submerged ruins near Ka%u015F or
blissfully doing nothing on the sundeck of a gület (wooden yacht). Up high you can rec-
onnoitre the best place for your towel while paragliding over Ölüdeniz, catch the breeze
over Cappadocia in a hot-air balloon or tackle the wind at famous Alaçat%u0131. In the mountains, Turkey has two way-marked long-distance
trails, which are popular with trekkers and abseiling, skiing and mountaineering are options as well. All of these activities you can organise yourself, through your hotel, or check out the tour operators offering activity-based tours on Other tour operators are listed in the various destination chapters.

Those troglodytes sure knew what they were doing when they decided to lay down their
hats and call Cappadocia home. Deep in the heart of the country, they settled within the
lunar-like landscape and burrowed their houses and churches into stone cliffs and their
cities underground. In so doing, they provided a still-cogent example of the simplicity and
sense of living at one with nature rather than imposing upon it.
These days the cave dwellers are predominantly tourists staying in cave hotels who have
been drawn to this part of Turkey by its surreal scenery, wealth of ancient churches and
unparalleled opportunities for adventure activities. Where else can you float over the fairy
chimneys in a hot-air balloon in the morning, admire Byzantine frescoes in the afternoon and sample fine food and wine at night? Let alone take a spectacular hike through a rose-tinted gorge, indulge in a frenzy of shopping at a covered bazaar dating from Ottoman times and see dervishes whirl in an atmospheric caravanserai. It's this mix of attractions that makes Cappadocia such a compelling tourist destination - there truly is something here for everyone.Let's be clear, though. The true joy of Cappadocia doesn't comecourtesy of its wealth of boutique hotels, its spectacular sunsets, its world-class hiking or its warm and welcoming locals. Instead, it stems from the fact that life still follows a village rhythm here, far removed from the wannabe jet-set lifestyle of the Mediterranean tourist resorts or the marvellous mayhem of %u0130stanbul. This is a place to enjoy at your own pace.

On an afternoon stroll through %u0130stanbul you can marvel at the greatest examples of Byzantine art and architecture in the world, submerge yourself in the mystique of the seraglio or lose yourself in the labyrinthine Grand Bazaar - a bustling marketplace borne of ancient trade outes. The exquisite legacies of the Ottoman Empire, its mosques, hamams (bathhouses), palaces and fountains, are on almost every corner. You can join the throng at a meyhane (tavern) heaving with rak%u0131-fuelled song and dance, dine alongside Prada-clad locals enjoying fusion cuisine, wind down in a çay bahçesi (tea garden) alongside Anatolian gents puffing nargilehs and witness the ablutions of the faithful summoned by the melodious call to prayer. Peer beneath the surface and you find a city of immense disparity, a sprawling, heaving metropolis battling the fuelling tensions between the ever-widening haves and have-nots and between those with eyes to the West and those with eyes to the East. A city splitting at the seams as it struggles to deal with a constant influx of migrants from Anatolia and beyond. The life lived by those with wealth alongside the Bosphorus, its romantic hubbub the daily rhythm of their life, couldn't be further from most %u0130stanbullus, whose homes are in airless concrete suburbs far from the coast. For them %u0130stanbul's jewels are forgotten for the working week,
only to be reunited on Sunday when the family might picnic under trees at theHippodrome.
These energies and tensions make %u0130stanbul all the more vital and beguiling.
The social challenges facing %u0130stanbul, almost a microcosm of the world's tensions, are
played out in one of the world's most historically rich and breathtakingly beautiful and
vibrant cities. There simply is no other city like it.

Emperor Justinian (r 527-65) had the Aya Sofya built as part of his effort to restore
the greatness of the Roman Empire. It was completed in 537 and reigned as the greatest
church in Christendom until the Conquest in 1453. Mehmet the Conqueror had it converted into a mosque and so it remained until 1935,
when Atatürk proclaimed it a museum. Ongoing restoration work (partly Unesco funded)
means that the dome is always filled with scaffolding, but not even this can detract from
the experience of visiting one of the world's truly great buildings.On entering his great creation for the first time almost 1500 years ago, Justinian exclaimed, 'Glory to God that I have been judged worthy of such a work. Oh Solomon! I have outdone you!' Entering the building today, it is easy to excuse Justinian's selfcongratulatory tone. The interior, with its magnificent domed ceiling soaring heavenward, is so sublimely beautiful that many seeing it for the first time are quite literally stunned into silence. As you walk into the inner narthex, look up to see a brilliant mosaic of Christ as Pantocrator (Ruler of All) above the third and largest door (the Imperial Door). Once through this door the magnificent main dome soars above you. This, the greatest of all domes, is supported by 40 massive ribs, constructed of special hollow bricks made in Rhodes from a unique light, porous clay, resting on huge pillars concealed in the interior walls. (Compare the Blue Mosque's four huge 'elephant's feet' pillars to appreciate the genius of Aya Sofya.)
The curious elevated kiosk screened from public view is the Sultan's loge. Ahmet III (r 1703-30) had it built so he could come in, pray and leave again unseen, thus preservingthe imperial mystique. The ornate library, on the west wall, was built by SultanMahmut I in 1739.In the side aisle to the northeast of the im-perial door is the weeping column, with a worn copper facing pierced by a hole. Legend has it that the pillar is that of St Gregory the Miracle Worker and that putting one's finger in
the hole can lead to ailments being healed if the finger emerges moist.
The large 19th-century medallions inscribed with gilt Arabic letters are the work of master
calligrapher Mustafa %u0130zzet Efendi, and give the names of God (Allah), Mohammed and the
early caliphs Ali and Abu Bakr.

The Kaçkar Mountains (Kaçkar Da%u011Flar%u0131) form a rugged range bordered by the Black Sea
coast to the north and the Çoruh River to the south. The range stretches for about 30km,
from south of Rize almost to Artvin at its northeastern end. Dense forest covers the
lower valleys, but above 2100m grasslands carpet the passes and plateaus, and the jag-
ged ranges are studded with lakes and alpine summer yayla (villages).
The Kaçkars are becoming increasinglyvisited for their trekking opportunities. The
highest point, Mt Kaçkar ( Kaçkar Da%u011F%u0131; 3937m), with a glacier on its northern face, is popular with trekkers, but the northeastern ranges around the peak of Alt%u0131parmak (3310m) are also popular. You could visit the Kaçkars on a day trip, but you'll get much more from it if you allow at least three days to explore.