We spent almost five weeks in Turkey, starting off in Istanbul and then heading pretty much in a circle counter-clockwise, ending up in Van. Although there’s still plenty we didn’t get to see, I feel like we saw a lot and have a good idea of what the country is like and what it has to offer the traveler. Here’s my recap and final thoughts on our trip to Turkey.

Where We Went

We started off in Istanbul, a fascinating place worthy of weeks of exploration. ("Istanbul, not Constantinople…", pictures here and here.)

From there we took an overnight bus down to Selcuk to see the ruins of Ephesus. ("Slow-paced Selcuk", pictures here.)

Next we went inland to Pamukkale to see the travertines and the ruins of Hierapolis. ("Pamukkale", "Day 19…", pictures here.)

Then we hit the Mediterranean, stopping at the beautiful city of Fethiye for a few days. ("Sailboats & British holidaymakers, a.k.a Fethiye", "Don’t Laugh at the Sensitive Meatball!", pictures here.)

Chilling out at Olympos was our next stop, and as happens to most people, we stayed there longer than planned. ("Olympos - The best place in the world to do nothing at all", "The waves of Olympos", "Chimera - The Burning Mountain", pictures here.)

Following our several days of doing little, we journeyed our farthest inland to Cappadocia, using Goreme as a base to explore the interesting area. ("The wonderland of Cappadocia", "The old man and the donkey", pictures here.)

After Cappadocia we left the heavily-touristed areas of Turkey and started our venture out East. Our first stop was Malatya, our base to see Mt. Nemrut. ("We’re finally being stared at - Malatya", "Mt. Nemrut", pictures here.)

We broke up the long journey to Sanliurfa by first stopping in Gaziantep, where we sampled the local baklava, reputed to be the best in the world. ("Getting out of Gaziantep")

The interesting Sanliurfa, or Urfa, kept our interest for a few days. ("Holy and Hospitable Sanliurfa", pictures here, pictures of Harran here.)

From Urfa we entered the southeastern corner of Turkey, a traditionally Kurdish region. Our first stop was the walled city of Diyarbakir. ("The Black Walls of Diyarbakir", pictures here.)

We visited Mardin on a day trip from Diyarbakir. ("Overlooking Mesopotamia at Mardin", "Backgammon - The Ancient Game", pictures here.)

After Mardin it was on to the modern city of Van, situated on beautiful Lake Van. ("Van, city on the lake", pictures here.)

Our last stop was Dogubayazit, just near the border with Iran. We came to see the views of Mt. Ararat and the Isak Pasha Palace. ("Wonders on the Frontier - Dogubayazit", "The Market in Dogubayazit", pictures here.)

You can look at a detailed google map of our path here.

Final Thoughts

I think if you’ve read any of these pages, looked at the pictures or watched the videos, you’ll know that we had an awesome time in Turkey. The people are amazingly hospitable, there is so much to see and do you could never get bored, and the food is awesome.

Five weeks is a long time, but we could have easily spent more time. There are several regions of the country we didn’t get to explore, and of course you can never see or do everything in the places you do get to. If you ever have a chance to visit this fascinating and beautiful country, do it. You won’t regret it.