TRAVEL | TURKEY | BUCKET LIST | TRAVEL PLANNING

Reasons Why Turkey Should Definitely Be On Your Bucket List

After three trips to Turkey, we already can’t wait to come back.

In our 5 years of full-time travel, we haven’t tended to return to places. I won’t say that it never happened, but typically we have our experiences, then we move on because we know that the world is a very big place with so much to see.

But not Turkey! We have now been to Turkey three times, and we honestly can’t wait to come back again!

The first time

We traveled to Istanbul from Morocco in 2020. We had been mostly locked down in Morocco for 9 months, and Istanbul was one of the only places that we could freely fly to as many other borders in Europe were still closed.

I don’t know why but I had visions of Istanbul being a big dusty and underdeveloped city.

“There will probably be donkeys and carts on the roads and it might be a bit chaotic,” I told Chris as a bit of a forewarning of what to expect. Somehow I had it in my head that it would be less developed than what we had encountered in Morocco and I was thinking more in line with Kathmandu (the last time I was there was 1996).

In all honestly, I think my brain was stuck in the 1950s because it couldn’t have been farther off base.

You can imagine my shock and awe when we arrived around midnight, got in a taxi, and started driving into the thriving metropolis that is Istanbul.

“Wow, this is a modern city!” I exclaimed from the back seat of the taxi as I stared out the window, my eyes as wide as saucers.

Now you may ask why I hadn’t researched Istanbul before going there. The truth is that we never do. I like to be surprised and in awe when I travel, and I find that flooding my brain with images and other people’s experiences, ruins the thrill of travel for me.

I much prefer being surprised and enlightened by what I encounter, and this certainly happened in Istanbul.

Before arriving, we figured that we would just spend 3–4 days in the city before we would get our bearings and then head out to the quiet countryside somewhere. But after spending 9 months in Morocco, the fast pace and steady beat of this huge city seemed to be just the medicine that we didn’t know we needed.

We quickly decided that we wanted to stick around for a while, so we found a mural painting gig at a hostel near Taksim Square and then hunkered down.

One thing led to the other and we spent almost our whole 90-day visa JUST in Istanbul!

Now, I will say that this was in late 2020 during Covid. While Turkey had no travel restrictions at all when we arrived, they did institute a curfew at some point and masks became mandatory. With it also being winter, Istanbul was a very quiet city. Despite that there are 16–19 million people living in the city, we somehow felt like we had the place to ourselves.

I will admit that we took this entirely for granted.

We didn’t get around to seeing all the important sights around Istanbul while we were there (none of which had any lineups and barely any people at all), and we later regretted it when we returned this past summer to absolutely insane throngs of people blanketing every corner of the city.

In Istanbul, we fell in love with the great food, the affordable transit, and the lovely Turkish culture. Plus, after standing out as foreigners in Morocco for the previous 9 months, we were finally in a place where we fit in and it felt great.

We also took great pleasure in meeting travelers from around the world in our hostel, many of which came from cultures that we knew nothing about. We hadn’t spoken to other travelers in quite some time, and we made great friends and built a beautiful hostel family over our time spent there.

The second time

In August of 2022, we returned to Istanbul.

We had spent the previous year and a half traveling around and living in parts of Africa. We spent the most time in Uganda where we fell in love with a local village, and decided to try and help them pull themselves out of a crisis.

In 2021 we spent 7 months in Uganda, and after leaving to go and do a housesit in Botswana, we returned for another 5 months in 2022.

We started dreaming about Istanbul a few months before we were meant to leave Uganda. We had been getting increasingly tired of standing out like the westerners that we are and we wanted to again get to a place where we felt like we fit in a little better. I wrote about our frustrations in this article:

We also started imagining the food we could eat. Our taste buds would salivate at the thought of pidé, kofta, baklava, doners, and Turkish delights.

“Oh man, I am going to eat and eat and eat when we get there.” I said one day.

Of course, we were eating well in Africa, but the food was quite basic and there wasn’t much variety. We couldn’t wait to soothe our taste buds with Turkey’s incredible food.

Thankfully we were able to fly there direct from Uganda. We had no incidents at all and everything went smoothly. Well, that is until we realized that our Turkish visa was more expensive than we were told online and we didn’t have enough USD at the airport when we arrived.

My Dad gifted us a week's stay in a nice hotel when we got there, thanks to hotel points. We spent the week mostly resting and relaxing in our room while we enjoyed the luxuries of hot water, good wifi, and some peace and quiet.

We were a bit embarrassed about arriving at this beautiful hotel. We were straight out of Africa and boy oh boy could you tell. Thanks to our extensive travels on buses, our bags were covered in red dirt, and we had to walk past the entire pool deck to get to our room when we arrived. Lucky for us we arrived at the peak hour for the fancy hotel patrons to witness us parade past with our dirty bags, I’m sure leaving a trail of dust behind us.

We could not have felt more out of place had we tried.

We spent two additional weeks in Istanbul, staying at a friend's hostel, then decided that we wanted to make our way up to Bulgaria for a bit. Because we had 90 days (3 months) on our visa, and we had only used three weeks of it, we knew that we could come back to Turkey in the winter.

The Third Time

We spent the entirety of our 90-day visa in Bulgaria and made our way back to Turkey at the beginning of December 2022. We figured that southern Turkey would be warmer and we could while away the winter months without freezing our wimpy tropically-acclimated tushies off.

This time we were determined to see more of the country. We loved Istanbul, but we craved to learn more and understand Turkey in a broader sense. So we booked a bus from Varna that would take us to a small border city called Edirne. From there we knew that we could take a bus down the coastline of Turkey, and avoid Istanbul altogether.

We were afraid that if we went back to Istanbul, we would get stuck there again, plus we wanted to see the scenery along the coast.

Our bus trip down to Izmir was all that I could have hoped for. We wound our way along the coastline, veering away from it occasionally, then dipping back into it to catch glimpses of the fantastic vistas. We also crossed the Dardanelles Strait which connects the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean Sea and eventually the Mediterranean Sea.

I find it fascinating to understand these routes of passage and to know how goods are carried around the world and brought to the places that they need to get to. We spent a lot of time watching the ships pass through the Bosphorous Strait in Istanbul, and I could only dream of where they were headed once they arrived into the Black Sea.

As usual, we had no idea of what to expect in Izmir. For some reason, I had it in my mind that it would be a small seaside city like Varna, with a population of around 300 000 people. You can imagine my surprise when we arrived to a city of 4 million people! We were both flabbergasted.

It was then that we realized that Turkey isn’t just Istanbul! There are thriving metropolises all over the country!

We knew that we didn’t want to stay in a city as large as Izmir, so we only stayed a few days then we made our way to Antalya, which is where we are now.

For now, we must say that Antalya is our favorite Turkish city. With a population of fewer than 2 million people, it somehow feels just right.

It has all the amenities of Istanbul — quality transit, good food, good shops, a great central market, lots of waterfront space — but is much more peaceful.

The city sits atop cliffs that extend to the northwest and southeast of the city, and is flanked in the west by huge mountains, some of which are snow-capped. Antalya still has lots of quiet corners where you can get peace and quiet from the bustling city. Joining the locals to watch the sun dip behind the mountains is certainly a treat we have enjoyed often.

Being down by the Mediterranean Sea means that we enjoyed temperatures of 20C (68F), most days, through the month of December. In fact, it only just started raining a few days ago, but even it is relatively warm rain. Currently, it is raining and the temperature is 16C (61F).

I think it is fair to say that we have fallen in love with Turkey and it certainly finds itself at the top of our favorite countries list.

Here are all of the reasons why:

Peaceful

The people in Turkey must be some of the most peaceful people that we have encountered in the world. While here, we have not witnessed one show of aggression in the streets. Well, there was one old lady that was muttering to herself as she walked down the street, then hit a baby on the head at a bus stop. Yes, a weird thing to witness, but the only time we have seen something like that in the almost 6 months that we have been in the country.

People turn off their loud music at night and respect their neighbors. They seem to look out for one another as a culture, and we are not hassled at all to purchase anything, or bothered much at all for being foreigners.

Safety

This leads to safety. Turkey has a Muslim-majority population which means that it is very safe. Muslims, in general, are very non-aggressive, non-violent people. They respect each other and tend to treat others with patience and kindness. They are very hospitable and always try to put their best foot forward for guests in their homes, cities, and even their country.

We have not once felt threatened in any way at all over the course of our different times in Turkey. We walk the streets at all hours of the day and night, without one fear.

It really is a very safe and peaceful country, despite the bad press it gets occasionally.

Diversity

Turkey may likely be the most secular country in the world. Despite its Muslim majority, the Turkish people are free to express themselves in whatever fashion they deem necessary. This means that while there are many women that cover themselves from head to toe, there are also many that wear midriff shirts and very short shorts.

We also love the representation of different cultures that live in the country. It is a meeting place of Asia, Europe and Africa, and it is really demonstrated by the diversity of the people here.

Truly, everyone fits in in Turkey.

Food

Food in Turkey is generally very healthy and made with real ingredients. Wednesday is market day and in each city we have visited we found sprawling fruit and vegetable markets set up that sell all sorts of goodies. From honey to cheese, olives to spices, you can literally find anything you need in their beautiful displays.

We are also in love with Turkish Pidés, a pizza-like dish that is their specialty, the delicious Turkish deserts, the creamy salep and the fabulous cheeses. Turkish food is quite Mediterranean, but they certainly do have their own twist on it.

Plus, being such a diverse country means that there are restaurants to suit any taste bud. From Japanese, to Indian and even Mexican food, you will find lots to eat here!

Modern Amenities

I feel like Turkey couldn’t get more modern if it tried. It has great wifi, cell phone service, limited power cuts, and a good solid base of rules and regulations that keeps the country functioning in an easy and peaceful way.

We feel as though it is the perfect combination of over-the-top rules like in Western Europe and North America, and a place with very few rules, as we experienced in Uganda. There is a structure in place, but people are also trusted to make their own decisions to keep themselves safe.

An example of this is that there are high-tech street crossings complete with lights to tell you when to walk or not walk. Of course, when it is green, everyone walks, but if no cars are coming and it is red, you are able to also cross. We have noticed that Police sit and watch people do this with no recriminations.

Cleanliness

Turkey does not boast the top cleanliness of all nations, that is for sure, but on a global scale, I believe it will find itself in the top 25% of nations. At least in the cities. As you can see from our experiences, we haven’t really made it out into the countryside yet, so we can’t speak of what it is like out there, but dirty-ness isn’t something that we noticed while driving on the bus either.

In Antalya, there are very few garbage bins, which is frustrating, but there are an absolute TON of people cleaning the streets. If you have garbage, you can always give it to one of these people and they will be happy to take it away. Conversely, if people do leave garbage around, it will usually be cleaned up at some point that day.

Great Transportation

Transit in the cities that we have been on so far has been world-class and very modern. To top this off, the transit cards are incredibly cheap. These days you can buy a transit card in Antalya for less than a dollar. You top it up with credits in machines around the city, then swipe it on whatever type of transit you get on. Each swipe takes 8 credits with equals less than 50 cents USD, and you can literally ride for more than an hour on it.

We love riding public transit and can see from the people that ride it that it serves all sorts of people in every corner of the population. We have seen high-class businessmen on it and fancy-dressed women as well. Unlike North America, it isn’t just for the people that can’t afford cars.

People make a choice to use it here and it shows.

Of course, like the rest of the country, it is very clean and safe. We were also super impressed in our overland bus from Izmir to Antalya when we had huge seats and seatback screens in front of each of our seats that were filled with free movies and entertainment.

Affordability

While inflation is very real here, and we have seen many prices go up even in the short time we have been here, the prices continue to maintain themselves at an affordable level. Of course, I know this affects the locals more than it affects people like us that make our living from the internet, but you don’t see that. There is no overall visual clue that people are really suffering in Turkey. We haven’t seen very many homeless people, although there certainly are a few.

Again, this is only our perspective from being in the cities, it may be another story altogether in the countryside and I do realize that.

History

I will admit that neither Chris nor I are big history buffs. We are much more fascinated with how people are living on the planet in our current day reality than how they were living on it 6000 years ago. But one can not deny that the structures that are left behind from civilizations long gone are certainly fascinating. In our modern days of building things as fast as possible, it is difficult to wrap our heads around these structures that sometimes took generations of people to build them.

Turkey is CHOCK FULL of history and historical things to see. From Troy to Ephesus, Royal Palaces, and incredible Mosques, you can certainly get your fill, and much more, of these historical masterpieces.

Natural Beauty

While we have only just scratched the surface of this country, we can already see that it boasts world-class natural beauty. From its towering and rugged snow-capped peaks, to its stunning coastlines, there is no doubt that this is a beautiful country.

We swam two times in the Mediterranean Sea right here in Antalya in December. The water was crystal clear, clean and beautiful. If you are an outdoor enthusiast, there is a ton for you to see and do in Turkey.

One Potential Drawback

This may be a drawback to some, but others won’t care as much. There is very little English in Turkey. While we don’t mind traveling in places like this, others may have a harder time. That being said, if you stay on the main tourist track, you will likely encounter more English speakers. Plus, if you book tours and hire local guides, English will be a given.

But don’t expect just anybody to speak English because they mostly don’t. Even in Bulgaria, we encountered much more English than we have in Turkey.

Of course, it always helps to learn a few basic phrases in the local language. Phrases like “Good Morning,” “How are you?”, “How much?”, and some numbers and other greetings plus basic words like “Thank you”, will get you far on the good side of people's graces while visiting any country in the world.

We are so happy that we came back to Turkey and made the effort to not return to Istanbul and to see more of the country. In some places, the major city can be the only part of a country that seems to be put together. But Turkey is a modern and convenient country, in all places that we have visited so far.

The only problem, though, is that it has opened a huge can of worms. With only 90-day limits here, we are going to be forced to see this country in small chunks. Already we can’t wait to come back so that we can explore more places that we wanted to this time, but didn’t get around to. Places like Cappadocia, Pamukkale, Alanya, and more await us on our next journey here.

Plus, did you know that Cyprus is just a short ferry ride off the south coast and half of the island is Turkish? I certainly didn’t.

In the future, we will return in the spring or fall when we hope that there won’t be big crowds of tourists, plus the temperatures will be more forgiving than stifling hot in the summer, and quite cold in the winter (anywhere away from the coast has a much colder winter than where we are now).

I hope this article served to give you a better understanding of Turkey. I know that it gets a lot of bad press, especially in the west, but the people of the country certainly do not fall in line with these gross misconceptions.

Turkey is a fantastic place to visit and I really hope that you consider adding it to your bucket list.

I promise you will not be disappointed.

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