Conclusion
Ferry across the Dardanelles
We chose to leave Turkey by a different route and so drove west along the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara (along a main road which the Garmin didn’t know) and then got the ferry at Canakkale for the 30 minute trip across the Dardanelles to Eceabat (35TL) on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Blogs had suggested that access to the dock and embarkation could be a bit chaotic but we saw all the signs, and drove through almost empty streets straight on to the boat. Perhaps things are less busy on a Saturday.
Back in ‘Europe’ for the first time in five weeks, we drove to Kum Hotel and Camping which is a fairly big site with decent facilities (though no locks on the toilet doors) and a free washing machine (we had two goes of this and got up-to-date). It is 30TL per night, but 7.50TL per day extra for the swimming pool. The restaurant looks a bit expensive (main courses up to 20TL) but we watched Argentina v Nigeria on the big screen at the café for the price of a couple of beers each and a packet of crisps (22TL).
This was a good spot for visiting the battlefields of Gallipoli but the steamingly hot weather kept us home. Some reports suggest that this campsite is not very nice but we think it may have been improved because we found it was fine. It is also a nice stopover spot either coming into or leaving Turkey.
From here we headed north and crossed the border into Greece. Fairly easy at the border once the coach driver in front had cleared a badly parked Iranian truck out of the way. Our trip through Greece was quite a short one, from here we went into Bulgaria and started our journey home through Romania Hungary Austria Germany Luxemburg and France.
Turkey is a great place to visit and is a very sophisticated country however it is not cheap. I know the travel “experts” say visit places out of the eurozone and you will get more for your money but we did not find this was the case. The diesel is much more expensive than in UK where we pride ourselves on suffering highest fuel costs in Europe and as you have seen eating out is not cheap. On the plus side it is very big and there is lots to see and the people are friendly and many speak English.
The only down side was the drive there and next time we will be taking the ferry to Greece.
Back in ‘Europe’ for the first time in five weeks, we drove to Kum Hotel and Camping which is a fairly big site with decent facilities (though no locks on the toilet doors) and a free washing machine (we had two goes of this and got up-to-date). It is 30TL per night, but 7.50TL per day extra for the swimming pool. The restaurant looks a bit expensive (main courses up to 20TL) but we watched Argentina v Nigeria on the big screen at the café for the price of a couple of beers each and a packet of crisps (22TL).
This was a good spot for visiting the battlefields of Gallipoli but the steamingly hot weather kept us home. Some reports suggest that this campsite is not very nice but we think it may have been improved because we found it was fine. It is also a nice stopover spot either coming into or leaving Turkey.
From here we headed north and crossed the border into Greece. Fairly easy at the border once the coach driver in front had cleared a badly parked Iranian truck out of the way. Our trip through Greece was quite a short one, from here we went into Bulgaria and started our journey home through Romania Hungary Austria Germany Luxemburg and France.
Turkey is a great place to visit and is a very sophisticated country however it is not cheap. I know the travel “experts” say visit places out of the eurozone and you will get more for your money but we did not find this was the case. The diesel is much more expensive than in UK where we pride ourselves on suffering highest fuel costs in Europe and as you have seen eating out is not cheap. On the plus side it is very big and there is lots to see and the people are friendly and many speak English.
The only down side was the drive there and next time we will be taking the ferry to Greece.
Crossing the Danube - Bulgaria to Romania
