In August 2002, we backpacked around Turkey for 9 days. During this time we visited Kusadasi/ Ephsesus, Pammukale, Goreme and Cappadocia, Ankara, and Istanbul. We were never part of a tour group, we backpacked and arranged all our own travel.

We got around using public transportation. This worked well most of time, except when we wanted to get a bit funky in where we were going.Inside the towns, privately-run dolmus (minibus) ferry locals and tourists around. The way these things work is that you look for a bus with your destination written on the front. They do not run on a set schedule, and will stop wherever, whenever to pick (more...)

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 attached, no attempt to get us into a carpet shop. People seemed very happy to (more...)

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, although it is recommended to be up to date on your MMR and Hep. A. Drinking the tap water is not recommended. Bottled water is everywhere and cheap (although make sure you dont get ripped off - walking 10 feet down the road can save you 50%). We chose to brush our teeth with bottled water, as well. (We never realized just how much water you use brushing your teeth!)

We visited Turkey after one week in Greece. We arrived by ferry from Samos. We started that day in Mikonos, and planned to go from Mikonos to Samos to Turkey. Getting information on the trip was nearly impossible from Greece - relations aren’t terribly good. The 6am ferry arrived at 9:30am in Mikonos - it certainly didn’t bode well for the rest of the journey. By the time we hit Samos we were 4.5 hours late for the ferry to Turkey which, fortunately, was waiting for us. After going through customs in Samos (complete and utter chaos), we packed into the ferry and headed to Turkey. Upon our arrival, we had to buy a very expensive visa ($60) (for Canadians - Americans don’t need a visa), and we finally entered the country.

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 combination/zipper pants came in very handy). In the mosques, we took off our shoes and “recombined” to wearing pants. Shorts are not (more...)

Kusadasi is a small town with high prices and one main attraction: Ephesus. The town is very expensive (by Turkish standards) because of the number of tourists that roll through every day: It’s a stop for many cruise boats, as they shuttle their passengers back and forth to Ephesus. To this extent, it is not very typical of Turkish towns.

We didn’t really see much of the sights in Kusadasi, as there really isn’t much, except for the “Pigeon Island”, which is an old closed off building at the end of the harbour. It’s not worth it, except for the nice view of the town and ocean. Other than that, we wandered around the market areas - they were nice, but overpriced.

We stayed at the Liman Hotel pension that was #1 on both Let’s Go and Lonely Planet’s list, with good reason. ‘Mr. Happy’ met us right as we came through immigation, and walked us 2 minutes to the hotel. His English was almost better then ours. We shelled out the big $ ($50 a night) for a room with an amazing view of the (more...)

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 Shrine, and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Yadda yadda, enough tour brochure speak. The most striking thing to us was how quickly I felt lost in this world. There are so many details that are still intact - right down to the graffitti pointing the way to the brothel - that you can’t help but be taken in by it all. Especially the brothel. Apart from that, the site highlights for us were the two story Celsius library, the 2200 seat Odeon, and the magnificent Curetes Way.

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. There are two entrances to the ruins. We were dropped off by our shuttle at the Magnesian Gate, which means we were walking down through the site (not that the climb was that steep - but on a hot day…) If not taking a shuttle from your hotel, a minibus ride will drop you off about a 10 minute walk from the lower entrance. 

On the way back, we took a dolmus instead of the hotel transport, since we were not sure what time we’d be finished at the site.  This worked out well.