Travel Information on Turkey

Geography
Turkey's land mass is 774.815 sq km. Anatolia is a high plateau region rising progressively towards the East, and is broken by the valleys of about fifteen rivers. There are numerous lakes; and the greatest lake Van is larger than some inland seas. In the North, the Eastern Black Sea Mountain chain runs parallel to the Black Sea; in the South, The Taurus Mountains sweep down almost to the narrow, fertile coastal plain along the sae coast.

The coastline of Turkey's four seas is over 8333 km. long .

Climate
Turkey enjoys a variety of climates changing from the temperate and rainy climate of Black Sea to the continental climate of the interior, then , to the Meditarenean climate of the Agean and the Meditarenean Coastal regions.

Summers are hot, springs are warm and winters are usually are cold or cool. Autumn is nice for the entire duration of September and October. Then the wheather starts to cool down.

The above is what you should expect normally. However global climate changes, as you may have noticed in your own country. So there may be small changes in the climate descriptions given above.

Government & Policies
The Turkish Republic is based on a secular, democratic, pluralist and parliamentary system, where human rights are protected by law.

Economy
Agriculture plays an important role in Turkish economy. Turkey is the one of the most important food exporters in the world. The main crops are wheat, rice, cotton, tea, tobacco, hazelnuts and fruits. Sheeps are Turkey's most important live-stock, Turkey is one of the greatest wool and cotton producers in Europe.

Industial goods have also come to play an important role in the economy bringing the economic growth to a higher ratio, from white goods to cars.

Turkey has become a major touristic destination in Europe. With the rapid development of summer & winter tourism facilities, people from all over the world are able to enjoy the cultural, historical and natural sites of Turkey.Population & People
Turkey has 66 millions of inhabitants. 99% of the population are Muslim. Istanbul is the greatest city having over 10 millions of inhabitants.

Turkish society have modernized after the revolutions and reforms of Ataturk-the founder of Turkey. Westernization is high at cities but traditions of Turkey are different from West. The people at the country side are more conservative and traditional.

Hospitality is one of the cornerstones of the Turkish way of life. Every Turkish people feels bound to honour his guest in the best possible manner.

Money
The national monetary unit is Turkish Lira (TL). Inflation of 100% per annum is an important problem for Turkish people. But prices do not change in terms of stable foreign exchange like USD or DM. Exchange rates for foreign currencies are published daily.

Shopping
Turkish Carpets - Carpet weaving is traditional in Turkey. Turkish Carpets are famous for their beauty and durability. That's because they are the most important shopping products for foreign people. Also carpets from other countries such as Iran, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan are widespread at the shops.

Ceramics - Ceramics made in Kutahya and Iznik are unique and well-known. There are also handmade tiles, plates, cups, bowls which are very decorative and interest taking.

Copper Vessels - They are one of the most purchased antique-like decorative goods by foreigners. Being a coppersmith was traditional in Ottoman Empire.

Jewellry - Gold and silver are well found.

Leather - It is a big industry in Turkey. You can find many Leather shoes, bags, cushions, jackets, hats, trousers are attractive.

Meerschaum - It is a hydrous magnesium silicate-a clay-like material which is carved into a pipe. It is a unique material found in Eskisehir. The beautiful pipes carved out of this stone are recommended highly for usage and decorative purchases.

Turkey Tourist Information

Facts for the Traveler
Passport and Visas
The following is the information from the travel guide of the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Turkey. The information is subject to change. You should check with your nearest consulate for up-to-date info.

1) Nationals of the following countries can enter Turkey with a valid passport; a visa not required:

a) Up to 3 Months
Germany, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Marocco, Fiji, Finland, France, Granada, South Korea, The Netherlands, Iran, Switzerland, Iceland, Jamaica, Japan, Canada, Qatar, Kenya, Kuwait, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Monaco, Norway, Oman, St. Lucia, San Marino, Seychelles, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Chili, Trinidad-Tobago, Tunisia, Vatican City, New Zealand, Greece, Ecuador, Sweden.

b) Up to 2 Months
The Republic of Croatia, The Republic of Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania, Macedonia

c) Up to 1 Month
Bolivia, Kazakhistan, Kyrgyzistan, The Republic of South Africa.

2) For the countries mentioned in above Clauses, and Bulgaria, a transit visa is not required.

3) Nationals of the following countries require a visa:

a) USA, Austria, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Israel, and Portugal, can obtain a sticker visa at border gates (Up to 3 Months).

b) Nationals of the Commonwealth of Independent States (except Kazakhistan and Kyrgyzistan) Hungary, Poland, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia can obtain a sticker visa at border gates (Up to 1 month)

c) Nationals of Guatemala and Sri Lanka can obtain a visa for up to 15 days at border gates,Nationals of Jordan, up to 30 days.
Nationals of Indonesia can enter the country for two months by obtaining a visa at no charge at the border gates.

d) Nationals of all other countries require a visa, which can be obtained from the nearest Turkish embassy or consulate.

Health risks : While no vaccinations are legally required, polio, tetanus, diptheria, typhoid, hepatitis A & B, rabies and TB are all present in Turkey: vaccinations should be considered. Travellers to Turkey's steamy regions (Marmara and the Black Sea Coast) should also stock up on their favourite anti-malarial gear. It's also worth mentioning that thousands of people die in traffic accidents in Turkey each year

Time : GMT/UTC plus two hours

Electricity : 220V, 50 Hz

Weights & measures : Metric

When to Go
Spring (April to June) and autumn (September to November) are best. The climate is perfect on the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts then, as well as in Istanbul. In high summer the coastal resorts are stinking hot: your body may like to do as the locals do and take a siesta during the heat of the day. From late October to early April, the beach scene more or less shuts down. There's little rain between May and October except along the Black Sea coast, but from about mid-June, the mosquitoes come out in plague proportions in some areas. Eastern Turkey should really be visited from late June to September, as snow may close roads and mountain passes in the colder months.

Festivals & Events
The dates for Muslim religious festivals are celebrated according to a lunar calendar; the dates are locked in every few years by Muslim authorities. Only two religious holidays are public holidays: Seker Bayrami, a 3-day festival at the end of Ramazan (30 days in December-January when a good Muslim lets nothing pass the lips during daylight hours), and Kurban Bayrami (March-April) which commemorates Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac on Mt Moriah. In commemoration of God permitting Abraham to sacrifice a ram instead of his son, every Turkish household who can afford a sheep buys one, takes it home and slits its throat right after the early morning prayers on the actual day of Bayram. Family and friends immediately cook up a feast. You must plan for Kurban Bayrami: most banks close for a full week, transportation will be packed and hotel rooms will be scarce and expensive.

Secular festivities include camel-wrestling in mid-January, in the village of Sel?uk, south of Izmir; National Sovereignty Day, April 23, a big holiday to celebrate the first meeting of the republican parliament in 1920. Celebrations abound in summer: there's a sloppy oiled wrestling festival in early June at Sarayi?i, near Edirne; the country Kafkas?r Festival near Artvin in north-eastern Turkey in the 3rd week of June; the International Istanbul Festival of the Arts (late June to mid-July); Bursa's Folklore and Music Festival in mid-July and Diyarbakir's Watermelon Festival in mid or late September. The whole country stops, just for a moment, at 9.05 am November 10, the time of Atat?rk's death in 1938.

back to top

Turkey Transportation

There are plenty of ways to get into and out of Turkey by air, sea, rail and bus, across the borders of seven countries. There are international airports at Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and some of the Mediterranean resorts. Turkish Airlines has direct flights from Istanbul to two dozen European cities and New York, as well as the Middle East, North Africa, Bangkok, Karachi, Singapore and Tokyo. Departure tax is about US$12.

By train, the daily Istanbul Express links Munich, Slovenia, Croatia, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria to Istanbul. Major European cities such as Frankfurt and Vienna are also well serviced by Turkish bus lines. There are daily train and bus connections between Athens and Istanbul via Thessaloniki. The bus is much faster than the train. You can also travel by bus to Syria, Georgia and Iran, and by train to Armenia. Turkish Maritime Lines runs car ferries from Antalya, Marmaris and Izmir to Venice weekly from May to mid-October. Private ferries run between Turkey's Aegean coast and the Greek islands.

back to top

Getting Around
Turkish airlines link all major cities, including the busy Istanbul-Ankara corridor. Buses go everywhere in Turkey frequently, cheaply and usually comfortably. Trains have a hard time competing with long-distance buses for speed and comfort, but the sleeping-car trains linking Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara are good value. If you're driving around Turkey, you'll find mechanical service easy to find and relatively cheap but dealing with psycho drivers may be more of a problem. Driving in cities should be altogether avoided - traffic is terrible and parking impossible. Private dolmuses (shared taxis) are a good option for short trips. Car ferries can save you days of driving and offer the opportunity to take a mini-cruise along the Turkish coasts. Ferries operate from Istanbul to Izmir, from Istanbul to Trabzon (June to September only) and there's a hydrofoil from Istanbul to Bursa.

Attractions in Turkey

Istanbul
For many centuries the capital of the civilised world, Istanbul remains the heartbeat of Turkey. It's a well-worn but still glorious metropolis with about 12 million residents, an impressive setting straddling Europe and Asia, and an unchallenged place in the country's history, folklore, commerce and culture. Although it's packed, pungent and polluted, the Bosphorus Strait, which connects the Black and Marmara Seas, and the Golden Horn, a freshwater estuary, help to maintain a sense of openness and space. For several thousand years before the construction of the Bosphorus Bridge in 1973, the only way to go between the European and Asian parts of the city was by boat. A second bridge was completed in 1988, a third is planned and a metro is being developed.

Attractions in Turkey - Gatala Tower

Istanbul's dateline spans 3000 years, so it's worth boning up your sense of history in order to be able to distinguish a hippodrome from a harem. The Topkapi Palace, residence of the sultans from the 15th century to the early 1800s, is a must see. The palace's harem (imperial family quarters) was much like a small village, housing up to 500 people at any time, including up to 300 concubines. The imperial treasury is another palace highlight. It's stuffed with gold, silver, diamonds and other flashy bits and bobs.

Aya Sofya, the Church of the Divine Wisdom, was built by Justinian in 548 when it was the greatest church in Christendom. A lot can happen to a building in 14 centuries, especially in an earthquake zone, and the church is now cluttered with buttresses, supports, kiosks and outbuildings which hug its massive walls. The interior's immense dome is still impressive, though. The Blue Mosque is a triumph of harmony, proportion and elegance: its exterior elicits the sort of eye-boggling, weak-kneed admiration which Aya Sofya's interior induces.

Attractions in Turkey - Spice Bazaar

There's a serious danger of sightseer-overload in Istanbul but there are plenty of ways to lower the risk. Take a ferry cruise up the Bosphorus or wander the Grand Bazaar, a maze of narrow streets where you can buy a bangle, a carpet, or just browse. Uzun�arsi Caddesi is the less-touristy alternative, where you'll encounter woodturners' shops, hunting equipment and clothing merchants. In the Beyoglu area, north of the bridge, it's always fascinating to take a stroll down Istiklal Caddesi, the main drag. This was where high-class Ottomans and colonial Europeans rubbed shoulders a century ago in a fusty festa of frock-coats and parasols. If you squint a little (okay, a lot), you may be able to imagine this grand street in its heyday.

Attractions in Turkey - Grand Covered Barzaar

Attractions in Turkey - Grand Covered Barzaar

Sultanahmet, in the old city, is the best place to look for a bottom-end or middle-range hotel. Taksim Square has many modern middle to upper-end places. The restaurants along Sultanahmet's Divan Yolu are the most obvious places to eat, but you'll be doing your money belt a favour if you head out of the tourist zone for a meal. There are lots of little places in the Grand Bazaar where you can sit and fill up slowly on a procession of small dishes. Istiklal Caddesi is also full of small grill joints - the nicest are probably up the side streets to the south.

back to top

Ankara
Turkey's capital is a sprawling urban mass in the midst of the Central Anatolian semi-desert. It's very different from the Ottoman town of Angora which preceded it on this site, a quiet place where long-haired goats were raised and their fleece knitted into fluffy jumpers. Since 1920 when Atat�rk set up his provisional government here, Ankara's main business has been government but several significant attractions make it worth a short visit.

Most visitors head straight for Hisar, the Byzantine citadel atop the hill east of the old city, and the nearby Museum of Anatolian Civilsations. A couple of km to the south is Atat�rk's mausoleum, a monumental building, spare but beautiful, and echoing the architecture of several great Anatolian empires. The Presidential Mansion is preserved as Atat�rk used it, with decor and furnishings of the 1930s including billiard table and cigar-and-brandy nook. There's a lot of ancient history around too. Roman Ankara was a city of some importance, and Roman ruins are dotted in amongst the mosques and monuments of Muslim Anatolia. Most of the cheaper hotels and restaurants are in old Ankara, a km or so north-east of the train station.

back to top

Ephesus
Of Turkey's hundreds of ancient cities and classical ruins, Ephesus is the grandest and best preserved. Indeed, it's the spunkiest classical city on the Mediterranean. Ephesus was Ionia, a flourishing cultural centre during the Greek Empire, and a busy provincial capital during Roman times. Ionia's Temple of Diana was counted among the Seven Wonders of the World, and the city was generally renowned for its wealth and beauty. Sts Paul and John took up the quill in Ionia and the Virgin Mary is said to have spent her twilight years here. A walking tour of the ruins will take at least half a day, and if you're here in summer, start early, because it gets stinking hot by high noon. Places you'll come across include the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers in which seven persecuted youths slumbered for two centuries, then woke up and ambled down to town for a meal; the colossal Harbour Gymnasium; the grand marble-paved Arcadian Way; the impressive Temple of Hadrian and a scattering of fountains, pools, brothels, libraries and public toilets.

Sel�uk, a town of 25,000 people with more than its fair share of nagging touts, is the main tourist centre for the region. There's a beautiful museum in the centre of town and a fair swag of Roman, Christian and Muslim sights including the St John Basilica and a Byzantine Aqueduct. Izmir is the closest transportation hub. Frequent trains and buses trundle the 1 hour trip to Sel�uk which is a mere 3km (2mi) from Ephesus.

back to top

Bodrum
Bodrum is the South Aegean's prettiest resort, with a yacht harbour and a port for ferries to the Greek island of Kos. Palm-lined streets ring the bays, and white sugar-cube houses, now joined by ranks of villas, crowd the hillside. Boating, swimming, snorkelling and scuba diving are prime Bodrum activities. At night Bodrum's famous discos throb, boom and blare, keeping much of the town awake until dawn. Both Turkish and foreign visitors complain about the ear-splitting cacophany, but the local attitude seems to be, 'If you wanted peace and quiet, why did you come to Bodrum?'. If this sounds like your kind of town, you can grab a bus to Bodrum from just about anywhere - it's 4 hours to Izmir by road. There are frequent ferries to Kos in summer, and a hydrofoil to Rhodes between May and September.

back to top

Antalya
Antalya is the chief city on Turkey's central Mediterranean coast. As well as several km of pebble beaches and a historic Roman-Ottoman core, Antalya is a good base from which to explore the quieter beach towns and more spectacular ancient cities of the region. Side, 75km (47mi) east of Antalya, is the increasingly popular beach town once chosen by Mark Antony and Cleopatra for a romantic tryst. Alanya, 115km (71mi) east of Antalya, is another sea-sun-n-sand joint with a mini-Miami feel. Patara is a party town a few hundred km south-west of Antalya. The beach here is a simply splendid 20km (12mi) long and there are Roman ruins in amongst the dunes. You'll have to do your sunset-watching elsewhere, however, as the beach closes at dusk to give sea turtles access to their nests. The towns along the Mediterranean coast are all linked by bus and dolmus services (especially frequent in summer).

back to top

All you need for Turkey travel, we provide information on Turkey, Map of Turkey and Turkey hotels; directory of discount Istanbul Hotels online reservations.

Find accommodation Thailand that suit with your travel style at E-Biz Travel, we provide discounted hotels in Bangkok, luxury hotels in Bangkok and more hotels in Thailand other destinations; visit us for cheap rates Thailand hotels.