Mar 11, 2013 - Antalya

We stayed the weekend at Orkinos Camping, taking a long walk into town and back along the beach on Saturday. Most of the shops are closed, or being refitted, until summer comes, and most of the many hotels are closed also. On the beach, I was “picked up” by Ünal, a Turk who worked in a nearby 5-star hotel (it was his day off) and he invited us to have a çay with him back at a local café. Despite having a husband in tow, it was obvious that he was only interested in talking to me and afterwards he presented me with a box of Turkish Delight...

Jun 10, 2012 - Antalya (45kms)

Saturday 9/6/12 Antalya 45kms Wow it feels like the tent is a sauna at 7.30am. We move it round to some shade to pack up. Our host is sitting at the door of his caravan sorting through huge piles of papers, he screws them up and throws them out the door on the ground and then he sets fire to them!! Barely 5 mins later a police officer drives up, the host takes him to the caravan and presents him with some papers. Interesting, wonder what evidence he burned?. 150m , from camp we ride into a municipal picnic area, not many people, a good spot...

Jun 8, 2012 - to Antalya by bus, 40ks

Friday 8/6/12 to Antalya by bus, 40ks on bikes Woke to a lovely sunrise. Pete has trouble with fuel blockage in the stove, so no coffee! On the road at 7.15, our quickest packup. Cover the 13 ks into Manavgat city in 20mins! And stop at the first café. It happens that no buses can take us and bikes to Denizli til Monday, weekend buses are full already, so we take the 10am bus to Antalya, maybe we can see Mt Olimpos. Rugged mountains appear. Anyalya is a sprawling city along the coastline, very clean and tidy, topiary trees and colourful...

May 22, 2012 - Antalya

This morning the rest of the group went on a 4-hour "cruise" on the Mediterranean. I opted out of that when Alp said the boat was a little longer and wider than our bus...too small for me! I was getting nauseous just thinking about it...so...I had 6 hours of free time (a rare commodity on this tour). I got my journaling caught up, got ready and ventured back down to the wharf and the shops we had passed on our walking tour yesterday. Any of you who have traveled with me know that I have no sense of direction...so this was a major stretch!...

May 21, 2012 - Travel to Antalya

I was too tired and relaxed to journal last night. 9 of us women and 4 of the men went to a Turkish bath (details to follow). Began our journey from Konya to Antalya around 9:00. The drive took us through agricultural and industrial regions, over the mountain range...about the height of our Cascades...and down into the Mediterranean, tropical area. Beautiful scenery with lots of road construction. Turkey's economy is booming so we see lots of work on improving the infrastructure and the outskirts of the cities have fields full of new high...

May 12, 2012 - Fethiye....Kas..

Merhaba! Un séjour de 3 nuits à Fethiye. Une magnifique destination. Un must! Une petite ville d’environ 70 000 habitants. Ici c’est le calme, le repos. Je prends quand même en considération que je voyage hors saiso. C’est un paradis pour les sportifs.(Parapente, voile, plongée, kayak de mer, etc.) Là, je suis coté méditerranée, l’eau est bonne pour la baignade, et elle est d’un bleu cristal. Le sommet des montagnes portent encore la neige malgré les températures oscillant entre 25 et 30 degré. J’ai fait 2 excursions d’une journée chacune :...

Apr 20, 2012 - A Day in Antalya

It was great to have a free day. Although there was a boat tour organized we opted out and caught the bus down to city centre and then wandered the entire day. As we got to the city centre we saw masses of people including many children. Apparently they were practising for the big day on April 20 which is Children's Day. We wandered down to the harbour with the group and waved them off. The harbour was beautiful. The ancient city of Antalya has the walls remaining with the only remaining entrance gate, Hadrain's Gate, still standing and...

Apr 19, 2012 - Konya to Antalya

Today was an interesting and quite fun day. Although we thought the weather would continue to be bad it turned out to be a very nice day - just the right temperature and no rain or wind. We left this morning to drive through the Taurus mountains and climbed to the pass at 1835 metres. From there it was downhill with lots of windy roads until we reached the flat land of the Mediterranean. The drive through the mountains was much prettier than yesterday's drive and we saw some very rugged land with interesting tree locations (out of solid...

Nov 6, 2011 - Antalya

We left the little village of Kusliica, went up around Lake Beysehir, on west to Isparta, then south on HW 685 to the port city of Antalya on the Mediterranean Sea. Like most of the port cities on Turkey’s Coast, its population has increased rapidly since tourism began in the late 1980s. In addition to visiting the city we were able to tour the Archaeological Museum, and the ancient cities of Perge and Aspenndos. The drive from Isparta to Antalya was nice - down a deep valley through green forest and spectacular scenery. Analya is an old...

Nov 1, 2011 - just ask

Antalya is a tourist city of about one million inhabitants. Many northern European visitors stay at the resorts on the edges of town and sun bathe during the day and come to the center of town to shop at night. We are staying in a lovely hotel in the old town area that used to be a private home/mansion. The rooms are dispersed throughout two buildings interspersed with little restaurants. The lavish decor makes me feel like I am living in the kasbah. Just outside our doors the shops begin and seem to go on forever down narrow lanes that...

Oct 31, 2011 - Santa Claus' home town

Feeling a little bit sad about saying good bye to the crew of the Nirvana, we got on a bus for a day of mostly driving. The route took us along the Mediterranean coast past massive quantities of green houses growing fruits and vegetables. We had seen a similar set up in Peru growing flowers for export, but we saw them for more than half of the 200 miles we drove today. The coastline was as beautiful as the part we had sailed past on the gulet and every so often we passed a touristy looking resort town. In the summer it appears that much of...

Oct 20, 2011 - Antalya

I just spent two nice days in the coastal city of Antalya, which is a bit touristy, but still very nice. It's much warmer here down on the coast then it was in Cappadocia, but Autumn has arrived. The days are warm, but there's a slight chill in the air and it gets pretty cold at night. All the Turks are bundled up in sweaters and jackets, while us tourists walk around in t-shirts and shorts. Yesterday we drove to the nearby Roman Amphitheater of Aspendos, one of the best preserved Roman theaters anywhere. On the way, as we drove through...