5 week honeymoon in Turkey by car
 

Hi travel lovers,

My wife and I are thinking about a 5-week honeymoon in Turkey in the summer of 2012. I’m from Denizli, Turkey and live in the US. My wife is American. We already had a US wedding with her family and will have a traditional Turkish wedding with my hordes of relatives :) I haven’t been in Turkey since 2008 due to graduate school and we will be staying for over 2 months. After 2 weeks of staying with my family and taking care of wedding process, we will be on the road! I love beaches more but my wife is into historical and cultural places. Both of us are not fans of touristy-all inclusive resort hotels. Our goal is to balance each other’s interests. We will be renting a car for a month. Below is the route information:

Denizli to Konya (2 nights)
Konya to Cappadocia (3 nights)
Cappadocia to Ankara (3 nights)
Ankara to Iznik (1 night)
Iznik to Canakkale (4 nights)
Canakkale to Ayvalik (2 nights)
Ayvalik to Cesme (3 nights)
Cesme to Gulluk (1 night)
Gulluk to Dalyan (2 nights)
Dalyan to Kalkan (4 nights)
Kalkan to Cirali (3 nights)
Cirali to Denizli

Step1 (Night #2): Denizli to Konya (stay in Konya for 2 nights)
We will pass Isparta and Lake Egirdir. Our goal is to have lunch near Lake Egirdir and arrive Konya in the afternoon.

Step 2 (Night #5): Konya to Cappadocia (stay in Cappadocia for 3 nights)
We will definitely stay in a cave hotel and visit Goreme and Urgup.

Step 3 (Night #8): Cappadocia to Ankara (Stay in Ankara for 3 nights)
I went to college at Bilkent and am very familiar with Ankara. I don’t like the Ulus area, so our goal is to stay close to Kizilay. We want to see the archeological museum, the castle, Bilkent, AOC, etc.

Step 4 (Night #9): Ankara to Iznik (Stay in Iznik for 1 night)
We would like to stay in Iznik Cini Vakfi houses to experience traditional tile making. My wife wants to buy all of the Iznik tiles. :)

Step 5 (Night #13): Iznik to Canakkale (Stay in Canakkale for 4 nights)
Our goal is to visit Gallipoli, Troy, Assos, Gokceada and Bozcaada.

Step 6 (Night #15): Canakkale to Ayvalik (Stay in Ayvalik for 2 nights)
We want to stay in Cunda or Ayvalik. Especially Cunda looks like heaven!

Step 7 (Night #18): Ayvalik to Cesme (Stay in Cesme for 3 nights)
On our way to Cesme, we will stop at Bergama for a couple of hours. We can always drive to Alacati, which is very close to Cesme.

Step 8 (Night #19): Cesme to Gulluk (Stay in Gulluk for 1 night)
The last time I was in Bodrum area, I couldn’t stand the loud music and over-crowded tourist area. But I believe that my wife would enjoy the Bodrum Castle.

Step 9 (Night #21): Gulluk to Dalyan (Stay in Dalyan for 2 nights)
Dalyan is very unique. I wish we could see some sea turtles!

Step 10 (Night #25): Dalyan to Kalkan (Stay in Kalkan for 4 nights)
From Kalkan, we will visit Patara, Kekova, Demre, Oludeniz and Kayakoy.

Step 11 (Night #28): Kalkan to Cirali (Stay in Cirali for 3 nights)
Cirali and Olympos are very close. I heard that Cirali has one of the best beaches in Antalya region.

Step 12: Go home (Denizli) from Cirali

After these four weeks, we will stay with my parents for 2 more weeks; then we will fly to Istanbul. Our goal is to stay over 6 nights in Istanbul. We will visit Buyukada and Kucukada during that time as well.

Our budget is $11,000 without the flights from the US. We will have a total of 4 weeks and 6 days of traveling outside of my hometown. Does it look feasible? I look forward to any help or suggestions during our planning over the next year. Thanks!

Ismail

Does anyone have opinions about the budget for this length of time? Does it seem reasonable?

Thanks,
Ismail

Ismail, if you do not stay at the more expensive hotels and have expensive wine and fish with all your meals, your budget should be more than enough. Half board at hotels is always a good idea because it is cheaper than B&B plus lunch and dinner elsewhere even if you pay extra for your drinks.

Moving too much is always a hassle. Much better to have a few locations as base and sightsee from there.

Oludeniz will be a madhouse in the summer and the lagoon probably rather dirty. If you must go to the area consider Villa Rhapsody in Kayakoy. Give my regards to Atilla and Jean. I would actually recommend Kas as a nice scenic and lively town or Ucagiz as a cheaper and laid back alternative to Fethiye area. Both have good car and boat access to good beaches and lots of antique sites plus hikes, safaris, etc.

Thanks, otherchelebi. Your suggestions are very helpful!

Ismail

You might want to read my trip report; just click on my name to find it. Our time was much more limited and you are covering more territory, but some things might apply to your trip.

Congratulations Ismail;
Plan looks good to me a bit criss crossing but you cover great places. Kalkan is my fav. spot in that area.
Cappadocia, Kalkan, Cesme, Cirali are the places where you can splurge and rest stay at nice spots and your budget is good to enjoy the places fully. A basic calculation; 28 days x roughly 200 USD per night takes half of your budget and as said above at some places you will pay half and some places double up, rest of your budget for wining & dining, rental car. Add an early morning ballooning to your todo list while in Cappadocia, a memory for lifetimes....

Happy travelling,
Murat

Michael:
We really enjoyed your trip report and took some notes about hotels and restaurants.

Murat:
Thank you for your suggestions. We will think about the balloon ride in Cappadocia.

We spent three weeks in Turkey last October and November. And drove much of the time when not in Istanbul. I am surprised you are not spending any time in Istanbul. Three days in Cesme is a lot unless you want to lounge about.

There is one hotel to recommend Esbelli Evi in Urgup. It is a cave hotel. Suha the owner makes everyone feel comfortable and welcome. He also does not allow people who he thinks are rude or nasty as guests. In the four days we were there, we become friendly with Suha and his assissant to the point where his assisstant may stay with us in NYC before going to school upstate. He is understated as his the elegance of his establishment.

Here are a few of our photos from the trip. A couple were taken on Chios.

http://www.esbelli.com/aboutus.php?ID=10

https://picasaweb.google.com/Aduchamp1/WATurkey#

https://picasaweb.google.com/Aducham...M2u9MTp0p3BGg#

I wrote a trip report which is short on details and long on impressions.

Aduchamp1: We will spend 6 days in Istanbul right before our return to the US. We have to spend at least a week with my parents in Denizli before we continue traveling :)

I read your trip report and loved your pictures, especially "Walking on the Edge". The village below that "Edge" is where my grandparents and extended relatives live. By the way, could you please tells me what kind of camera did you use? Your photos are excellent!

He used his cell phone, as he admitted as much at another post.

Not a cell phone according to the information given on Picasa:

Oct 18, 2010
1600×1071 pixels – 342KB
Filename: Cappadocia landscape.jpg
Camera: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D200
ISO: 100

Adu, so you have managed to fool Picasa also. -:)

But Cold and I will not fall for these subterfuges, even if Stuart will support you as long as you agree to edit his books.

For a moment, I thought Michael worked for the CIA. I also have compromsing photos of Other on my phone/camera. I showed them to my lawyer and he fell asleep.

Michael shhhhhh, please do not tell anyone I own a real camera, it will ruin my reputation

Other-you and Cold have fallen for many of my other deceits and facades, so do not get excited that you detected one of them. (I'm afraid of Stu.)
__________________________

Thank you Ismail. That is a wonderful coincidence about your grandparents. It is a stunning and surprising vista and well worth the trip to see it.

Like all photos, it is as much the camera body as it is the lens. That lens was a Sigma 50-150 but Michael already knew that.

We loved Turkey and the people were universally and genuinely gracious and welcoming. (We also loved the food.)

Car rental and fuel are expensive; we spent about US$100 per day for both car and fuel with a slightly up-sized vehicle.