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5 Reasons to have a Road Trip in Turkey
Other | Wednesday 22nd January 2014 | Sukaina
When people talk about visiting Turkey they usually mean Istanbul; the capital city heaving with people, architecture and clothes. Yet what people don't consider is that you can find those three things in practically any city around the world. If you feel like it’s time for a spontaneous, where you can really escape and abandon that stress, then a visit to Istanbul would be missing the point.
East Turkey on the other hand is where the real culture is hiding. Small towns such as Altinkum in Bodrum provide the ultimate starting point for your impromptu holiday. The streets are thriving with fascinating locals rather than the tourists that can be found swarming the capital city. As most of the towns are scattered around the coast, a beach is usually within walking distance. It isn’t too pricy either; with deals as cheap as £250 pounds per person all inclusive for a week.
A small town does not have to correlate with being bored out of your mind either. If the beach isn’t doing it for you, then jump on one of the local coaches which will take you to practically any area of Turkey you wish to visit. The destinations are helpfully posted on the front in English, making the coach system relatively easy to navigate, as well as much cheaper alternative to those provided by holiday companies. Or, if you simply want to head into town to check out the local market, then catch a local bus known as a 'Dolmush' for under £1 per journey. These buses are interestingly named after an Eastern dish known as 'Dolma' (made by stuffing rice into folded vine leaves); a name which hopefully provides you with enough insight to relieve me from having to describe the slightly uncomfortable nature of the journey.
Although spontaneous holidays are always fun, it does help to have some kind of understanding about where you are going. To give you an idea, we've compiled a list of the best places to visit when on a strictly small town tour around Turkey...
1. The Local Markets
These are the perfect places for buying gifts. Filled to the brim with vibrant colours and bustling people local markets can be a treasure trove for interesting finds. You can spend hours traipsing through the maze of clothes, food, bags and people, all buzzing with the excitement of bartering for what you buy.
2. A Hammam
These are traditional baths which basically look like spas. The mud used in some hammams is notoriously known to cleanse your skins but more importantly, hammams are just really fun places to spend the day. You basically get to mess around in baths of mud and call it pampering.
Important Note: Be warned that if using this word when speaking to locals, the more common use of this word is to mean a toilet. Perhaps it would be safer just to go by the name Turkish bath.
3. The Ancient Temples
You will find these all over Turkey. Most of them are the remains of Temples devoted to the ancient Greek god Apollo; god of the sun. As well as being stunningly beautiful, the sites are very cheap to get into and hold artifacts from approximately 500 BC or even earlier in fact. If you’re lucky, you might catch sight of local wildlife in these areas such as tortoises or the Turkish Gecko.
4. A factory… any factory!
Although this may seem an unusual thing to do while on holiday, visiting a factory in another county gives you an unusual insight into another culture. Most factories will do free tours in the hope that you will buy some of their products at the end, they also tend to give out free goodies on the way. I would recommend a visit to a ceramics factory as you can watch the whole process as it happens; a process very different to the systemized one we have in the UK. A Turkish delight factory is also worth visiting, even if only for the fact that you get fed sweets throughout the tour.
5. Ephesus
Okay, although this one overlaps with the tourist route, this ancient site still counts as a small town and is well worth the visit. Situated in a valley under a backdrop of mountains, the ancient site is just of the coast of Ionia and is as old as 10BC. The city features the second biggest library in the ancient world, as well as a number of enormous amphitheaters and statues. Even if you’re not a fan of architecture, simply being in a city that is so secluded from the rest of the world makes you almost feel transported back in time, to be more specific, approximately three thousand and fourteen years back in time.
Sukaina Kadhum
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