Farm Stay Turkey: Our Rural Tourism Guide

AEGEAN TURKEY:

Aegean Turkey is a treasure trove of big tourism destinations and of ancient Greek and Roman history, almost too much of both to mention here. Scattered casually around you will find such historically weighty names as Troy, Aphrodite, Ephesus, Athena and Assos, and you can walk on ground that such figures as Aristotle, Plato and Alexander the Great once walked on long before.

And if such thoughts makes you feel unworthy, a hot summers night spent with the masses in resort cities like Bodrum, Marmaris or Kuşadası might just make you feel a lot less bothered by such issues.

Much of the Aegean coast has been horribly built up in to a package holiday monstrosity that fills to the brim in summer, or maybe used to fill to the brim in summer, with tourists from all over Europe. And though it is getting increasingly harder to find a place to call your own, some areas are so far relatively untouched. A lot of the Datça Peninsula for example is beautifully rugged, wild and sparsely populated. If you have your own transport you can explore its windy mountain roads, swim at its hidden beaches and coves and wonder sadly to yourself how long exactly it can remain this way.

In the north of the region, just above Troy and Assos, there is Kazdağı or Mount Ida and its corresponding national park, a ruggedly beautiful escape that has some great hiking and used to feature strongly in ancient Greek legend as a sacred mountain. It was from here that, according to Homer, the Olympian Gods looked upon the Trojan War and where Hera tricked her husband Zeus to help the Achaeans conquer Troy.

The coast around the major metropolis of Izmir, Turkey’s third biggest city, can be nice too. Çeşme has been on the tourist trail for the rich and famous, and people who want to look rich and famous, for years now and though a nice enough place if you want to fit in you may find your face gets a bit sore from all the pouting.

On the way to Çeşme from Izmir a right turn will take you up around Karaburun, a much more low key area with maybe a more alternative vibe. There you’ll find some nice quiet beaches and good hiking. Karaburun (And not Çeşme surprisingly!) is famous for its Narcissus flowers, named after the Greek legend of the same name, with a big flower harvest happening there every January. You’ll find a few small organic crop farms and farmers markets around that area too and as far down as Urla on the way back to Izmir.

The interior of the Aegean region is very much less visited apart from the thermal waters of Pamukkale and the historical Greek ruins of Hierapolis. Outside of there the interior is un-touristy and strongly agricultural, and can give a nice insight into ordinary village and farm life. A lot of olives are grown here as well as tobacco, figs, grapes and cotton.

Farther south around Muğla is where the Aegean region meets the Mediterranean and is another hot tourism area, though you can find some nice, very rural areas too. The town of Akkyaka is very well known for wind surfing and especially kitesurfing and it is around there too that the world famous Lycian Way hiking trail begins.

Moving south with the Lycian Way you will pass by tourist towns like Fethiye and smaller more secluded places like Ölüdeniz, Kabak and the Kelebek Vadesi or Butterfly Valley, and all around there you’ll find yourself amongst some really spectacular scenery as the Aegean is left behind and the Mediterranean region begins.

MEDITERRANEAN TURKEY:

Mediterranean Turkey, land of the ancient Lycians, has in modern times transformed itself into a tourism monster. Up until Turkey’s political woes started to affect visitor numbers its capital, the city of Antalya was stuffing a staggering 20 million tourists through its airport every year, most of whom would be picked up and dispached to all inclusive resorts along the coast especially the stretch from the city east to Alanya. The scale of development along the Mediterranean coast can be quite extreme, and even if these days the tourist numbers are down,  you may be disappointed by the lack of natural beauty until you make the effort to explore off the beaten track. Once done you will find the region also has a lot to offer those who seek a quieter more rural holiday. The world famous Lycian Way hiking trail runs all through here after all, and you’ll find rock and mountain climbing in abundance.

And if you are looking to stay in a city or town but Antalya or Alanya don’t appeal there are other choices too. Kaş for example, to the south west of Antalya, is a laid back small city with a good nightlife that has somehow insulated itself from mass tourism, while smaller villages like Patara and Çıralı, though they too are fairly full of tourists, are peaceful, relaxing places that didn’t require the total destruction of the local environment to make you feel at home.

Beside Çıralı in the slightly larger Olympos, you can wander for hours around some very inspiring ancient ruins, the remains of a 2nd century BC Lycian city that are scattered out around rocky hills that overlook the sea. The towns popularity has increased enormously in recent years though and it seems these days it can’t decide whether it should be some kind of cultural oasis or a semi formulaic backpacker party town and so now it seems to sit uncomfortably between both.

All around the area the sea moves through shades of blue and green and with the tall other worldly mountains behind, some of the views can really stop you in your tracks. And the Lycian history is never far away, you can see the ruins of their ancient capital Xanthos in the Eşen Çayı river valley, and that of their most important sea port of Patara just down the river by the village that still shares its name.

East of Antalya city has long stretches of cotton and fruit farms and much package tourism along the coast. But as you go east again from Alanya the Taurus Mountains run down to the sea in spectacular fashion putting an end to easy hotel development and from there on the terrain is wild and rugged until it breaks around the resort town of Kızkalesi whose beaches have been entertaining Turkish holiday makers for years under the shadow of two Byzantine castles, and with another legend filled 12th century castle standing guard out at sea.

Further east is the flat fertile delta of the Ceyhan river around and beyond which lie the cotton plantations, fruit farms and various industries of the Çukorova region and then the cities of Mersin, a popular seaside resort, and by the banks of the Seyhan River, Adana, a prosperous, busy city which is one of Turkey’s most important, and famous for amongst other things; oranges, and having probably the entire country’s best kebabs.

The Mediterranean region then turns a corner towards the Syrian border at the province of Hatay, a fertile agricultural area with a long and deep connection with the Arab world. It sees few tourists these days but throughout the ages many cultures, not only Arab, have came and left their mark, like at the ancient Roman resort of Daphne near the modern town of Harbiye. Or in the little village of Vakifli, reputed to be Turkey’s last surviving Armenian village.

 BLACK SEA TURKEY

 The Black Sea region, Karadeniz in Turkish, is a world apart from how most foreigners would imagine Turkey. It is a land of green hills and forests with a relatively cool, rainy climate, and a distinct form of music that hints at ancient Celtic origins.

The region starts to stretch out as a series of plains and low hills just east of Istanbul that runs eventually through great mountains and remote valleys that for centuries were almost impassable, and which in some parts left the people and the culture relatively isolated and preserved from some of the great empires that came and went over the centuries, from the Genoese and the Ancient Greeks (It was here that the legend of Jason and the Argonauts originated) to the Seljuks and the Mongols.

Though generally low on tourists, especially foreign tourists there are some places that get most of the visitors. Number one has to be the stunning Sumela monastery outside the city of Trabzon, but there is also the Unesco World Heritage listed city of Safranbolu, the ancient Greek Pontic capitals of Sinop and Amasya, and Amasra with its 14th century Genoese fort.

But beyond that the major attraction are the landscapes; Karadeniz is an area where you can lose yourself in miles and miles of untouched nature and get a sense of tranquility that is a distant memory in most of the tourist trampled South and West. The eastern part particularly is spectacularly isolated around the Hemşin Valley and the Kaçkar Mountains.

It’s not all wild country though, various forms of farming are strong here too, with the Black Sea region being especially famous for feeding two of the Turk’s most hopeless addictions; tea and nuts. So much of the country’s best tea comes from the province of Rize, while the mixed nut mafia are especially strong in the Trabzon area.

And on the subject of food, if you leave the region or indeed the country without tasting some of the very famous hamsi; Black Sea sardines, you may be stopped by customs at the airport and asked to explain yourself…Be warned!

ISTANBUL-MARMARA

Overshadowed by one of the world’s most important and iconic cities, the rest of the Marmara region really has a hard job even to remind people that it is there. And being honest, for the most part it is an unremarkable, unexciting area, but it is also big enough to contain some very nice places that savvy Istanbulites know to escape to when the big city threatens their mental health.

North of Istanbul, all along the Black Sea coast, is in many areas surprisingly un-spoilt with some nice beaches, forest areas, and small villages with a richly rural character. The beach towns directly above Istanbul can be quite built up though, and can get fairly busy in the summer but farther to the west coastal villages like Kıyıköy and Limanköy are more laid back alternatives, also popular, but not that popular that they are too over run with crowds. While to the east, from the popular resort of Şile towards Kocaeli the area is also beautifully rural with long stretches of typically Black Sea green hills and fertile farm land that continues all the way east to the mountains and eventually the Georgian border.

On the plains of Thrace, where Turkey meets Greece and Bulgaria, the city of Edirne was, before the conquest of Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and, even up the 1700’s, it was still one of Europe’s largest cities, with a cosmopolitan population that reflected its great importance as a trading centre. Today Edirne has stopped caring about all that and is a pleasantly unassuming city with a nice historical feel that still offers hints of its grand past.

The area around, Thrace, is generally flat and strongly agricultural with acres of farmland producing, amongst other things, much of the country’s sunflowers and rice. The Thracian coast though generally short on nice beaches, has the village of Erikli and its surrounds which have some very nice beaches, along with what is reputed to be the cleanest water in the region. In the middle of the sea of Mamara too the island of Avşa is fairly popular for swimming.

The area below the Sea of Marmara, from the peninsula of Gallipoli and Çanakkale south towards the Kazdağı mountains is a great area to explore, with some beautiful coastline and in the less visited rural interior, rolling farmland, small villages, forests and mountains. A large amount of, almost exclusively local, visitors make their way to the island of Bozcaada every summer which despite the tourists is a laid back and relaxing destination that, having been Greek for centuries, has much in common with its neighbours just across the sea. It has a nice old town and a few good beaches, though be warned the water is ice cold.

To the south east of the Marmara Sea, hidden among the forests, the extremely popular tourist resort of Yalova struggles to maintain its composure as hordes of visitors both Turkish and foreign make the short ferry trip from Istanbul to enjoy its thermal springs and then to walk around in circles eating ice cream while trying not to bump into each other.

South of there again, Bursa is one of Turkey’s major cities and is a fairly pleasant place with an important history. And it is guarded to the south by the Uludağ mountain, the region’s highest mountain and its corresponding, very popular, national park where there is skiing to be had in winter and some good climbing and hiking at other times through its many forests and meadows. Though on Summer weekends if you have a phobia of other people’s extended family barbecues you might want to plan your route carefully.

CENTRAL ANATOLIA:

In terms of outside visitors Central Anatolia might have been an almost completely overlooked stretch of semi arid land were it not for Turkey’s founding father Atatürk’s decision to build the capital of the new Republic in Ankara and the fairies decision to build their giant chimneys in Cappadocia.

From all the millions of visitors to Istanbul if they are going somewhere else in Turkey a big proportion will make the journey to Cappadocia to see how wind, water and volcanic lava can with time create unique, eerily beautiful, natural art forms.

And it is a place where human hand has, for a change, at least in ancient times, only added to the beauty, with a striking series of churches and monastic dwellings, dating back at least a thousand years, blended carefully into the rocks by early Christians.

Just outside Cappadocia and the city of Kayseri is the towering ex-volcanic mountain of Erciyes, one of Turkey’s highest, and as well as being a popular climbing spot, is also a major winter sports centre.

Outside of that Central Anatolia is surprised to see any tourists at all though some might visit the city of Konya, a byword for the conservative and religious heartland of Turkey, but also with a rich history; Once the capital of the Seljuks it was also the home of the 12th century Sufi mystic Rumi, (Mevlana in Turkish) the inspiration behind the famous Whirling Dervishes (Mevlevi) a performance of which is usually the highlight of a trip to Konya.

Others might make the journey to the very much under appreciated former Hittite capital of Hattuşa, with temples and forts dating back well over two thousand years, which, though technically in the Black Sea Region, is just a short drive north from Ankara.

Tourist attractions may seem to be lacking if we need to steal Hattuşa from the Black Sea but overall Central Anatolia isn’t a place where you should travel with an itinerary. It is generally an unassuming, deeply rural, traditional region where you might meet with more sheep and goats than with the area’s always welcoming people. And though travel in some places is difficult, and distances are long, the joy is in the journey.

EASTERN ANATOLIA: