Traveling around Turkey in a rental car.

• It turns out that Turkey is a mountainous country. The mountains here are in many ways similar to the Crimean ones, but unlike them, they are not completely trampled by me, which urgently needs to be corrected. I have already got the idea to organize several hikes in the mountains of Turkey. First of all, along the Lycian Way (a rather long route from Fethiye to Antalya along the Mediterranean coast).
• there is a huge selection of historical and natural attractions, and not just the beach (as is commonly thought). It was with great pleasure that I dived into the world of antiquity – the ruins of Greek cities, the traces of the apostles and the mythical, but completely real Chimera.
• To feel free, you need to understand at least a little Turkish. On the other hand, we knew only 4 words in Turkish and did not die. In tourist places, almost everyone understands English, and many Turks also understand Russian. In the outback, things are more complicated with foreign languages, but there is always sign language.
• it’s quite a European country, with a friendly hardworking population, clean streets and fairly high standards (the phrase standard of living, I don’t really like it). Native Ukraine is still very far from the level of Turkey.
• Quite European prices were found in a completely European country. A liter of gasoline costs a little less than 2 Euros. Paid toilet – 0.5 Euro. Shawarma on the street in a non-tourist quarter – 1.5 Euro. A liter of milk in a supermarket is 1 Euro.
• Drive around Turkey is easy and pleasant. The roads are excellent, the signs are clear, the traffic on the highway is light. Fines are high (hundreds of lire) – it is better not to violate (90 km/h on the highway, 50 in the city).

Preparation.

Information intelligence (reading reports) showed that everything is fine in Turkey (people, roads, trade, weather, attractions), except for prices. I was somewhat embarrassed by the prospect of paying $60 a night in a modest guesthouse, plus another $30 for dinner. This is only 10 times more than what we paid when traveling Nepal and India.Therefore, in order to save money, for a trip to Turkey, a tent, rugs and a cauldron with a primus stove were included in the gentleman’s set of a tourist. It was planned to take sleeping bags initially and, I must say, not in vain – even when spending the night in hotels, we slept in them, because. the hotel blankets were too thin.The weather forecast promised +20 during the day, +10 at night and +15 if you climb into the Mediterranean Sea. They took few clothes, but it could have been even less.Considering the automotive specifics of the trip, in addition to the traditional tourist GPS navigator that accompanies me, I also took a car one (together with a mount and a power supply). Pre-installed GPS maps of Turkey on them for Garmin and Igo 8 respectively.In addition, I captured a car transformer capable of extracting real 220 V from the cigarette lighter. We recharged the laptop and photo batteries from the transformer. The laptop was stuffed with reports and a couple of travel guides for Turkey. As always, only Lonely Planet came in handy. I printed one of his chapters and regretted not printing more. It is not very convenient to run around the city with an open laptop.The preparations took place in a wild time trouble and, as always, the informational part of the preparation suffered the most. I did not have time to collect maps of all visited cities, I did not fully work out the list of attractions. But I didn’t forget to enter the coordinates of the key points of the route into the navigator, which helps a lot even with a vector map.

Trip budget.

1 dollar = 1.5 Turkish lira. 1 Euro = 2 Turkish Lira.Flight + visa. As I said, for 200 dollars per person we got plane tickets and the right to live in a 3-star hotel in Kemer. A visa is given at the airport in exchange for $30.Automobile. Renting a car (gasoline Hyundai Getz, 2010, mileage 5,000, with air conditioning and other electric meat) for 6 days with full insurance cost $200. Gasoline (for 1100 km) cost 360 lire. Travel on toll highways – 4 lira. Paid parking (in Ephesus, Aphrodisias and Antalya) – 17 lira.Accommodation. 10 lira for camping in the Valley of the Butterflies, 40 lira for a hotel in Selcuk, 35 lira for a hotel in Pamukkale. Total – 85 lire.Food. We spent about 50 lira in local supermarkets on yoghurts, cheese, bread, fruit and water. Another 60 lira cost three modest dinners in Turkish restaurants.Sights. 6 lire – Olympos, 7 lire – Chimera, 20 lire – Myra, 40 lire – Ephesus, 16 lire museum in Selcuk, 40 lire – Aphrodisias, 40 lire – Pamukkale. Total 150 lire.Total, 8 days of spring cost us $660 + 726 lira = $1131. I remind you that “we” are two people, me and my wife. All costs (museums, housing, food) are for two people.During our stay in Turkey, we only paid once in dollars (for car rental). All other payments are in Turkish Lira only. And not because it was impossible, but simply did not want to tempt good people (round 1 lira to 1 dollar, 1 dollar to 1 euro, 1 euro to 1 pound). At gas stations a couple of times paid by credit card. Lira was taken from an ATM or changed currency in banks.

Travel diary.

1. Airplane Kyiv-Antalya, Kemer.
2. Around Mount Tahtali, Olympos, Chimaera
3. Finike, Demre, Saint Nicholas, Mira, Kas, Patara beach.
4. Xanthos, Saklikent Gorge, Tloss, Fethiye, Kayakoy, Oludeniz, Butterfly Valley
5. March, Turkish Demerdzhi, toll highway, Ephesus, Selcuk
6. Temple of Artemis of Ephesus, Aphrodisias, Pamukkale.
7. Travertines and Hierapolis, Denizli, cold plateau, Antalya, Kemer
8. Airplane Antalya – Kyiv.

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