Our budget

3 332,9 EUR in total or 49 EUR/day for the three of us.

You can definitely get by with a lot less in this country but we really treated ourselves. We ate out so many times because it was so cheap. We treated ourselves to a full Hammam/massage package…and we drove a lot!

Our itinerary

68 days (8 September – 15 November  2022)

The start of our trip in Turkey was a bit chaotic. We waited four and a half hours to cross the border, arrived at a spot in the middle of the night which was really noisy, couldn’t find were to buy a sticker for the motorways and didn’t have any internet to get information.

Luckily, as soon as we arrived at the coast, we were under the charm of this country.

We started our stay at Çanakkale and went down stopping at all the nice spots we could find: Ezine, Akçay, Ayvalik, Cumhuriyet. We also made a stop at the Archeological Site of Troy. Lilia loved hearing all about the legend of Troy (I had to tell her the story about 20 times during the following week) and seeing the horse.

Sunset in Çanakkale

Sunset in Çanakkale

The ancient city of Troy

The famous horse of Troy

The first week, we could already tell you our favourite and least favourite things about Turkey.

I always prefer to start with bad news: what we really loathed in Turkey was the amount of rubbish thrown everywhere! Some places would have felt like paradise were it not for the plastic bags, beer cans and other junk. Even when we decided to clean up the beaches around us, it was the same the next day.

Our favourite part was how kind the Turks are. The first week, a lovely family already invited us for lunch at their house. This happened many times throughout our stay and we shared numerous teas and meals with locals.

We felt so welcomed by this kind family

More sunsets

More sunsets

School of life

Izmir was the first big city we visited in Turkey. We found a (very noisy) parking under a motorway to stay…Van life is not always super exotic. We met a lovely couple of French retirees who had been traveling for 5 years. We had very inspiring conversations with them and us beginners learnt a lot about living on the roads.

In the city, we visited the sights – the clock tower, the mosque and the Bazaar – and ate the local specialty: mussels stuffed with rice, delicious!

Izmir’s clock tower

Tea in the Bazaar – a grand total of 83 cents for both

Delicious food

Laila and Patrice (La retraite vagabonde)

Then we explored the Çeşme Peninsula.

We met a friend of a friend: Tuğçe, who was the most precious guide and host for this region. She took us to Alaçati which turned out to be one of our favourite places in Turkey. We had dinner at Urla marina, where everybody ate fish, mezzes and the raki was flowing.

We spent a couple of days relaxing at her house and chatting with her and her friend Tamer about everything and nothing. I must say we learnt a lot about life in Turkey by listening to their experiences.

Tuğçe recommended some amazing beaches, far from the masses. The crystal clear water on our nearly private beach was crazy!

Akmak beach with Tuğçe

Alaçati

Alaçati

Alaçati

Happy faces in Alaçati

Alaçati

Alaçati

Sunset on our “private” beach

Ephesus was next on our list. We spent hours exploring the archeological site, one of our favourites so far.

Celsus library

Celsus library

The Great Theatre

Ephesus was a big hit

We then relaxed for a couple of days at Yali Çiftlik beach near Bodrum but far from the masses of tourists.

Yali Çiftlik beach

Yali Çiftlik beach

Yali Çiftlik beach

Yali Çiftlik beach

 We spent the next three days in Dalyan. We had a drink with a nice French couple we met, Annie and Eric; we took the public taxi boat to Iztuzu beach aka turtle beach a couple of times. The 40 minute ride on the water is very impressive, you get a great view on the Kings’ tombs. We were even lucky enough to see some turtles in the water.

Drinking apple tea in Dalyan

Yes! 

Local fisherwoman

On the boat to Iztuzu beach

The Kings’ Tombs

Turtles

Iztuzu beach

At last my parents arrived. We spent a few days with them at a hotel in Fethiye, a nice town on the coast. We took Lilia to the biggest playground we have ever seen, relaxed at the swimming pool, we walked along the water, went to many restaurants, visited the old town, the fish market. We walked to Çalis beach which did not impress us that much. We also climbed up to the tombs and had an amazing view of the city. Majid and I also had a couple of date nights and even went for a full hammam and massage experience.

The tombs in Fethiye

We made it to the top! 

View from the tombs

Sunset in Fethiye

We also took a day trip to Olüdeniz. We had a swim at the beach and went up the cable car to 1700m and the chair lift to 1800m. The view from the top was spectacular and we spent hours watching the paragliders take off.

After saying goodbye to my parents we set off to Kaş, our last stop along the Southern coast. We loved the vibe in this town. During the day it was quite quiet as it was very hot but in the evening, everybody seems to come out and there is lots of atmosphere.

The cute town of Kaş

The port

The port

Sunset in Kaş

Our highlights

What we didn’t like so much