We had something special planned for the second half of this year’s summer. A 5-6 week road trip to Georgia and Armenia and back to Slovenia. With our Defender converted into a camper, with 3-year-old Mila and then 6-month-old Leo. A nightmare for some, but an unforgettable adventure for us. From Slovenia, the route led us through Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria to Turkey, where we finally slowed down a bit. We arrived in Georgian Batumi on the 11th day since we started from Kranjska Gora. This part of Turkey impressed us with its wild, unfortunately often dirty, beaches and crazy hilly landscape, where we also found completely non-touristy plateaus, isolated forests and unique scenic mountain roads. We loved it. A lot. And the Black Sea is actually not as black as it sounds. Far from it. The Black Sea has very attractive turquoise shades, it is ideal for summer swimming, the towns along the coast are interesting and mostly quite charming. Although we didn’t manage to see everything, I will still mention other interesting locations in this post besides the places we visited. This way you get a truly comprehensive article about the Turkish Black Sea coast with its hinterland.
Places: Sile, Sofular, Agva Merkez, Natural park Akkaya Koyu, Amasra, Yradibi plaji, Amasya, Erbaa, Bayburt, Baksi museum, Anzer Yaylasi, Rize, Uckardes
How: with our Defender camper overland from Slovenia
Acommodation: wild camping, guesthouse, campsites, hotels
WE TRAVELED ALONG THE BLACK SEA COAST (TURKEY) WHEN MILA WAS 3 YEARS OLD AND LEO WAS 6 MONTHS OLD. READ MORE ABOUT THIS PART OF TURKEY WITH KIDS IN THIS POST.
Statistically, the BLACK SEA REGION is the greenest region of Turkey, but at the same time this means that it also receives the most rain, so the atmosphere is often humid and steamy. In addition, the differences in altitude are enormous here, from zero by the sea to over 3,000 m above sea level in the hills, where even in the summer months it is very cold at night, and in winter the landscape is often covered in snow. The sea was still at a pleasant temperature in August, ideal for swimming. As I have already mentioned, the coast with the sea, where the winters are also quite mild, is not the only advantage of this region, there are many other natural beauties such as waterfalls, rivers, lakes, forests and, of course, mighty mountains. In the summer you can go trekking and hiking, in the winter you can come skiing. There are also world-famous plantations of tea, tobacco, citrus and hazelnuts. So you won’t be bored as there is plenty interesting things to see and do.
VADI BEACH | first night on the beach between Sofular and Sile
Although we are already on the shores of the Black Sea, we are still officially in the REGION OF MARMARA. We spent our first night in Turkey on the beautiful sandy beach SOFULAR near SILE, north of ISTANBUL. Here we found a pleasant restaurant, next to which there was a PICNIC AREA – tables with benches and a roof, with sea view parking spots. Locals usually rent these tables for a couple of hours and prepare real barbecue feasts, but you can of course pay a little more and stay overnight. And this is what we did here.
We spent the afternoon on the beach, which was surprisingly clean, as the owner of the restaurant works very hard to collect and take away the trash. Our first swim in the Black Sea! Warm water, pleasant sun, a light breeze and an ENDLESS SANDY BEACH. That real holiday feeling. Not bad at all. We could have easily stayed another night, but we wanted to keep moving towards the east.
The sound of the waves, the gentle flapping of the sides of our bedroom, the warm orange rays of the sunrise. Our first night in Turkey was great. I admit, before leaving we were a little worried that it would be too hot. But it wasn’t at all. It was even more tolerable than at home. And that morning was wonderful. Peaceful. We had weeks of travel and a bunch of adventures ahead of us. On one hand, we couldn’t wait to experience everything, but on the other hand, I would prefer to stop time and slowly absorb every second.
While the first coffee was being brewed (thanks hubby), Leo and I already walked a good stretch of the coast. We made breakfast even though we usually just have coffee, but this spot was just so nice we didn’t want to leave just yet. We lazily treated ourselves to a little more swimming and enjoying the beach, followed by a long shower before we drove off.
AGVA MERKEZ | charming touristic town with water canals
The road took us past the slightly larger coastal town of SILE, to the charming village of AGVA MERKEZ. Here we were really surprised by the arrangement and the number of HOTELS and RESTAURANTS of a higher rank, everything seemed quite prestigious and really nice. Most of the accommodations are located by the WATER CANALS and it looked really romantic. We later found out that it is possible to book day trips to this place from Istanbul, and this is apparently a popular location for a weekend escape from the city as well. If we weren’t traveling with a camper, it would be really nice to sleep in one of the boutique hotels.
HAZELNUTS PLANTATIONS | countless hazelnuts plantations along the coast
Did you know that TURKEY IS THE BIGGEST PRODUCER OF HAZELNUTS IN THE WORLD? Well, I certainly didn’t. As many as 700,000 tons of hazelnuts are produced per year, followed by Italy, for example, with just under 100,000 tons. That day we drove through a landscape dotted with groves of hazelnut bushes and trees.
There is a lot of home production and family plantations, where every couple of hundred meters along the road the locals sell bags of delicious nuts on simple wooden stands. Of course, there are also many cooperative plantations where immigrants from poorer countries work. They often sleep right on the nearby meadows in tents and live very simply, to put it mildly. We see the most plantations right here in the Black Sea region, in the provinces of ORDU, SAMSUN, ARTVIN, GIRESUN, KOCAELI, SAKARYA and DUZCE.
AKKAYA KOYU | natural park with picnic spots
That day we decided to visit the AKKAYA KOYU nature park and spend the night at one of the so-called “ALANI PIKNIK” picnic areas, which are very popular here in Turkey. These are usually well-maintained areas in forests, parks, along main roads, near beaches and similar attractive locations, where tables with benches and barbecue areas are set up. The USE OF TABLES is sometimes chargeable, sometimes not, but just about everywhere you can STAY OVERNIGHT without any problems. It may be necessary to pay a few euros more for a night’s stay, but these are still minimal amounts. Here we had a really beautiful place by the water, the tables were partially even placed literally in the river, so we cooled our feet at the same time during lunch. Mila bathed and Leo splashed enthusiastically. With the exception of some mosquitoes in the evening, it was really ideal, we could even use the simple toilet at the nearby restaurant.
For the most part during the trip, we cooked LUNCH and DINNER like this, on our portable petrol stove. It was possible to buy various fresh vegetables almost everywhere along the road, so we mostly ate tomato and cucumber salads (fortunately, Mila is not picky, especially not when she gets another handful of these soup balls on top), vegetable “one pot” dishes with potatoes, pasta and risotto with peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, etc. We grabbed fresh bread from the BAKERY every day, the bakeries are always easy to find. In Turkey, we also found some good cheese and nuts, milk and plain yogurt in (SUPER)MARKETS, and for SNACKS and DESSERTS it was easiest to buy a small watermelon or melon.
If you lack culinary inspiration while camping, read my article with CULINARY IDEAS by clicking this button:
CAMPING CULINARY IDEASAMASRA | gorgeous coastal town with Mediterranean flair
Previous day, quite a few Turkish families used the picnic areas besides us, but we were the only ones who slept and stayed until morning. Hot coffee, a short walk and some play time, then quickly pack up everything and off we go. We were extra early and left around seven in the morning. So, a little before eleven o’clock, we already parked in the popular seaside resort of AMASRA. We really wanted to stop here, as the town looked very attractive from the photos online. And it really didn’t disappoint.
This city consists of a PENINSULA jutting into the Black Sea with two islets. The island of BOZTEPE is connected to the mainland by the KEMERE bridge, and on both sides of the bridge you can also visit the CITY CASTLE, which is called Sormagir Kalesi on one side and Zindan Kalesi on the other. There has always been an important PORT here, a larger cruise ship was anchored at the time of our visit.
We started our exploration of this cute place with almost 3000 years of history by walking past the city BEACH along the PROMENADE, where we stopped at a nice CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND, followed by a visit to the old town. Here, we devoted most of our time to the CEKICILER CARSISI area with the well-known BAZAAR, where there are many small shops with local products and handicrafts. Then we had some delicious SEAFOOD in one of the many restaurants right by the sea. We also stopped at the local BAKERY, where they kindly offered us tea, on the way back to the parking lot we took another scoop of ice cream and petted 376 dogs and cats.
SAFRANBOLU | historical capital of saffron
From the coast at Amasra, you could also drive to SAFRANBOLU, 100 kilometers away, which is famous for its beautiful old town center with many HISTORICAL BUILDINGS from the time of the Ottoman Empire (mosques, tombs, bridges, fountains, Turkish baths and residential houses), also protected under UNESCO. The city is divided into the old part and the new part, and it is known for, you guessed it, SAFFRON. This was an important center of saffron production and trade, and it is still cultivated around the village of DAVUTOBASI, not far away. We skipped Safranbolu because it would have meant an extra 3 hours of driving there and back.
YARDIBI PLAJI | amazing bay and beach among pine tree forests
Instead of going to Safranbolu, we continued east from Amasra for about an hour, where we found this beautiful PINE FOREST ABOVE A DREAMY BEACH. In cities, it is a little more difficult to sleep in our car, especially because we don’t have a bathroom or at least a toilet. Those with larger motorhomes can sleep in these public parking lots for a fee, but we always prefer to be somewhere in nature anyway.
At this point I can also say that we found most of our OVERNIGHT LOCATIONS on the p4n and iOverlander apps. Good friends kindly whispered the coordinates to us several times too. Of course, sometimes we also found a spot just like that, without help. With a little ingenuity, you can find beautiful places and this one was definitely one of the best we had in Turkey. One of those where you could easily stay for several days and treat yourself to a kind of mini-vacation with lots of relaxing on the beach.
With the sounds of the sea, we unfortunately only stayed one night, because we really wanted to devote most of our time on this trip to Georgia. We used the afternoon for swimming and enjoying the sun. Mila immediately found company, as there were a couple of Turkish FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN on the beach. Later, at an idyllic sunset, we shared sweet melon, Turkish cheese and grilled sardines with the other families, everyone brought something to the other ones and it was very nice. We weren’t the only ones who slept here, but we still had our peace. In the morning, of course, as usual, we were the first to get up and couldn’t resist another jump into the warm turquoise sea before we packed our things and drove on.
THE COAST BETWEEN AMASRA AND RIZE | Inebolu, Sinop, Samsun, Ordu, Trabzon, Sumela, Uzungol
We skipped driving along the coastal road between the towns of CIDE (near Yardibi beach) and IYIDERE (near Rize) and decided to take the faster road on the other side of the mountain range. In this chapter, however, I quickly mention the PLACES AND SIGHTS THAT YOU COULD SEE HERE if you stick to these coastal roads.
The first major town eastward is INEBOLU, known for its large number of old Ottoman houses and for having played an important role during the Turkish War of Independence as a point for smuggling arms into Anatolia. Next, even bigger one is SINOP. It lies in a strategic position on the peninsula and has a long history, so you can see many interesting buildings, walls and even an underwater tunnel here. Near the city, I also found a couple of seemingly beautiful locations for wild camping on p4n. Next two major cities with a rich history are SAMSUN and ORDU. From TRABZON, a historically extremely important port city, you can reach the world-famous Greek Orthodox SUMELA MONASTERY, which is carved into a mighty rock above the river valley, in one hour. The monastery is around 1,600 years old, but since 1923 no monks live in it. Over time, it was also destroyed and damaged several times, but today it looks like a well-kept, well-maintained historical tourist facility. I admit, I was tempted to visit, but it was really too far away for us. In addition, we read online that there are always lots of tourists, first you have to walk 4 kilometers from the parking lot or by tourist minibus, which you have to pay again (in addition to the already paid parking fee and entrance fee to the park and monastery). So with small children, maybe not the best scenario, on top of the extra kilometers of driving. LAKE UZUNGOL is another very famous tourist spot south of the coastal town of OF, which we easily skipped mainly due to the fact that the surrounding area is really very developed. Lots of hotels, restaurants, shops. The surrounding landscape looks beautiful, and the lake itself is certainly interesting – if we didn’t have the opportunity to sleep in the car, it might be a good idea to stay overnight for one night, but somehow it didn’t tempt us that way.
AMASYA | historical city by a river
That morning we headed east from YARDIBI BEACH, as usual, without a real plan. But as said, the coastal road was taking forever to drive and we decided to cover a few more kilometers and hurry towards the Georgian border, so we turned right onto the winding road D759 at CIDE, which led us through a beautiful hilly landscape with fragrant pine trees. After a couple of hours of driving, we arrived at the place called TOSYA, where we turned onto the E80 highway towards the famous city of AMASYA, where you can see the famous TOMBS CUT INTO THE ROCK. The province, whose capital is Amasya, is also famous for its sweet APPLES, which you can buy everywhere at roadside stands. We also stopped by one of the many meat restaurants known for their koftas and bought some meat to take away for later.
ERBAA | spending the night in a city park Vadi
We still had a little time before the evening, so we decided to drive a little further and spent the night in the otherwise less spectacular town called ERBAA. Probably not many tourists come here, but we found a really big and well-kept VADI PARK, with a children’s playground, a parking lot right next to the picnic areas and a public toilet. We quickly prepared a picnic with some vegetable couscous salad, but if we had the right ingredients, we could also make a barbecue feast in one of the wooden pavilions with tables and benches. These were completely occupied by 7pm – such PICNIC AREAS are really popular among the locals and the city park was literally flooded with families in the evening hours, as if it were a city festival and not just an ordinary Thursday evening.
It wasn’t the most romantic place to spend the night, I admit, but sometimes that’s just the way it is. Despite the fact that we listened to loud music, the locals talking until at least midnight, cars coming and going, we didn’t feel unsafe at any point. It’s really not a problem and nothing unusual to sleep in a parking lot like this in Turkey. But SLEEPING IN CITIES comes with other sounds too, like the muezzins calling from mosques, barking dogs etc, so usually these were not our best nights regarding the quality of sleep.
BAYBURT | once an important city on the Silk route
Since we made lots of kilometers the previous day, it was slowly time to return to the coast and continue the last part of the journey along the sea. But again, we were undecided about which roads to take. First, we made a short stop at the university town of BAYBURT. We could have continued along the D915 road to the coast, but due to the infamous Derebasi Turns section, which supposedly makes this road the MOST DANGEROUS ROAD IN TURKEY and even one of the most dangerous in the world, we quickly changed our mind. So we took the D050 instead. This one led us to the extremely interesting BAKSI MUSEUM.
BAKSI MUSEUM | a unique museum close to Bayraktar village
We discovered this unique museum completely by chance, and its story attracted us so much that we immediately decided to visit it. In the nearest village BAYRAKTAR, the old name of which is BAKSI, there are only about 80 houses left today. The initiative to build the museum, practically in the middle of nowhere, was given by Mr. Hüsamettin Koçan, an artist and academic born in these area, who wanted to bring life back to this region. Because in recent decades so many locals have emigrated to other parts of the country and also across the border. With the help of various foundations, artists, creators and other volunteers, he succeeded in 2010 and today we can visit this architectural gem in the middle of a beautiful wild landscape. There are spacious ART EXHIBITION HALLS, MUSEUM, rooms for various WORKSHOPS, LIBRARY and also a RESTAURANT and GUESTHOUSE.
In addition to historical handicrafts and other works of art, visitors can see more modern guest exhibitions by various artists, and CULTURAL TOURISM, which has developed here with the establishment of the museum, helps the surrounding residents with new jobs and different projects in which the local community is closely involved. That is why the Baksi Museum is not just an ordinary museum, but much more – it is a place that preserves old traditions and customs, a place that attracts younger generations from larger cities back to the country, a place that stands out for its uniqueness and mission.
YONCALI | adrenaline drive up to Anzer Yaylasi plateau
The original idea was that we would spend the night here at the museum’s parking lot or somewhere around. But somehow, there really wasn’t anything to do here, except for the museum, which we already visited anyway. Therefore, we decided we still have a little time to move on before the evening. I really wanted to visit ANZER YAYLASI plateau, which is located halfway to the coast, but I wasn’t sure about how the access. An alternative would be to continue along the D050 almost to the town of ISPIR, and then branch off onto the D925, which leads to the seaside town of IYIDERE. In the museum, I tried my best to get information about “my” plateau, but unfortunately, even with the help of Google Translate, we didn’t get very far because nobody knew anything about how the roads are up there. From the internet, I only had information about access from the other side, that is, from the coast. The road there is really great and asphalted almost to the top. But from our side… who knows. But even this short journey from the main road to the museum was absolutely spectacular and we really wanted more mountain views like this.
However, since we are not alone and we are responsible for two small creatures in the back seats, we of course did not want to unnecessarily push ourselves into some tricky situation. The most rational decision was to go along the proven road towards Ispir and sleep overnight at one of the locations we found on the p4n application. Not a single location was marked for the area of “my” plateau. I think this is an excellent sign though, because it means that the place is not touristic. So here we really had a bit of an internal struggle between responsibility and the desire for adventure.
From the museum, we drive back towards the main, nicely paved road. We turn right to the east, already determined to continue along the proven path. A few hundred meters later, I see a sign for a fish restaurant in the village of YONCALI, which I know is located on the way to “my” plateau. We drive another kilometer or two. And Charlie says “so what now, do we go back and try it?” Then I answer “I don’t know, I would, but…” And he says “let’s go, we can always turn around”. That’s true. So we turned the car around.
We drive that kilometer or two back to the junction and turn up the hill. The road turns into gravel, but it is wide enough and for the time being it is still completely normal. We pass the first fish restaurant, then the second, then the third. Apparently they like trout here. Wikipedia says that only around 200 people live in these places. We ask some of them after Anzer Yaylasi. They say something to us and wave, but we don’t understand them because no one speaks English. We ask again a few hundred meters further. In the very last cluster of houses, we meet a group of young people taking photos of the pasture. We stop and to our delight one of them speaks perfect English. Charlie discusses with him about access to the plateau, and five girls huddle around our Defender, giggling and waving at Mila and Leo. We find out that we are on the right track. They warn us of the cold, of a bad road, of an area without a signal. It was a nice sunny day, but we are going above 3000m above sea level, into clouds of fog. At the same time, they assure us with certainty that the route is totally doable with our car. Ok let’s roll!
As long as we could still see something around us, we had unique views. Insanely beautiful. Although we have not been there yet, it feels like we are in Kyrgyzstan. We reached the pass safely, then the road began to descend sharply again. It was really cold, the wind was blowing, we didn’t meet a living soul, not even any sheep or goats. Just us and that crazy landscape. Moments like these are worth gold. You feel so small towards nature. You feel so alive here. And thankful for the little things.
ANZER YAYLASI | secluded not-tourstic mountain plateau with Ballikoy village
The more we descended, the more houses appeared. Obviously, we have arrived at our destination, this beautiful non-touristy mountain plateau, which is called “yaylasi” in Turkish. In addition to isolated farms, we met a whole bunch of beekeepers – here they produce a WORLD FAMOUS HONEY, called ANZER BALI, a kilo of this honey costs around 80 euros. There are a lot of ENDEMIC FLOWERS growing on the surrounding slopes, meaning they only grow here, and besides, there are no trees around. Therefore this high-quality honey has a really special taste, and should be consumed carefully and in small doses.
The day turned into evening and our only mission was to find a CAMPING SPACE. Of course, we didn’t want to be too close to houses or on private land, so we politely asked the only hotel in the village if we could spend the night on their lawn. The owner’s daughter welcomed us with open arms and, of course, didn’t mind as long as we order dinner from them and thereby contribute a little to the family budget. Excellent, after a busy day we didn’t feel like cooking anyway.
We were the only guests that day. Quite possibly also the only foreigners on the entire plateau. We parked the car and made ourselves comfortable, the neighbor’s girls ran up to us and played with Mila, we literally put on all the layers of clothes we could because it was really cold and enjoyed the view of the surrounding hills, shrouded in mist. As we were sipping our first round of sweet Turkish tea, the owner of the hotel, a smiling woman and her husband, arrived. A few minutes later, their daughter ran up to us and excitedly waved the phone in front of us.
The translation on Google Translate read something like this: “Dear friends, since you have small children, I cannot allow you to sleep in a cold car. Welcome to our plateau, please take one of our hotel rooms, of course free of charge. Dinner will be ready in half an hour, and tomorrow you will have breakfast.” We were confused. Are they really offering us a hotel room? Just like that? We are already used to getting free bread for children in bakeries. Or some candy and fruits. But a free hotel room? Well, this was a first!
First, of course, we said that it was really not necessary and that we are used to sleeping in the car, despite the fact that we do not have heating, we will be okay. But the smiling lady insisted, so we gave in and took our things to one of the three spacious double rooms with a bathroom. For the first time on this trip, after ten days, we slept in a real bed and took a hot shower, and I must admit, it felt good.
Also, DINNER was delicious! Unfortunately, the photos don’t do the food proper favors. We barely ate it all, but somehow we managed. Soup for Mila, then grilled meat, salad, finger-licking melted cheese in butter, fresh cow’s milk and biscuits. Since we were the only guests, we were served from all sides, Mila and Leo were running around or carried around by different family members, so Charlie and me actually ate dinner in pure peace. We slept like a rock. All four on one double bed.
*And I’ll add this: please, don’t expect something similar to happen to you here or anywhere else. For us it also only happened here and of course, we paid for both dinner and breakfast, added a little bit and bought some local products before moving on.
I don’t know if it wasn’t even colder outside in the morning than in the evening, but as soon as the sun rose from behind the mountains, we were pleasantly warm, and even if otherwise we usually only drink coffee for BREAKFAST, we couldn’t wait for this table to be covered with goodies that morning. It could hardly have been more idyllic, we ate like kings, said goodbye to this lovely family with a heavy heart and drove on. Such nice people. We would love to come again. The way to the coast was quite different from the one the day before. We could see that although the ANZER YAYLASI Plateau is still quite unknown, there are already guided day trips up here from the coastal towns. There are signs everywhere, many locals sell honey by the road, and the road is paved almost all the way to the village.
RIZE | Turkish capital of tea
Our destination was the city of RIZE, famous as the TEA CAPITAL OF TURKEY. The city seemed really well organized, even surprisingly clean by Turkish standards. First we visited the famous TEA BAZAAR, with many small shops, and then we drove through the surrounding hills dotted with TEA PLANTATIONS. We could have seen a few more locations in the city, including the city castle, but it was already quite hot and our little ones were tired.
TEA IS HUGE IN TURKEY. Turks drink the most tea per capita in the world. And considering what we managed to see this good week, this information does not surprise us. Tea is really one of those constants in Turkey, we must have drunk at least one every day. After lunch in restaurants, they often automatically bring it to you. Along the busier roads, there are special stops everywhere where you can rest and drink tea (by the way, tea is called cay in Turkish, and it is pronounced exactly the same as in Slovenian), the smoke from the fires can be seen from afar. They usually serve it in two jugs, stacked one on top of the other called caydanlik and small glasses in typical rounded shapes. There is boiling water in the lower jug, and strong boiling tea in the upper one, so everyone can mix it the way they want it in the glass depending on how strong the tea they like. And now we found ourselves right in the part of Turkey where it is grown! In my travel history, I have admired tea plantations in many places, from India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam, Uganda, Seychelles and elsewhere, so these views were nothing new to me, but I was still surprised by how exotic it all seemed.
Our plan was to visit one of the TEA HOUSES, where they offer TEA TASTING and have lunch on the wonderful view terraces, but since the children fell asleep so nicely in sync while driving along the winding steep roads, we settled for a PANORAMIC DRIVE BETWEEN THE TEA PLANTATIONS in the end. That alone was pretty awesome. I recommend making a reservation to visit the tea houses, because we met a lot of minibuses with tourists on the way and I must also mention that the roads here are very narrow and winding, so I do not recommend visiting with a larger (longer) camper. We already had to reverse a few times when we were avoiding oncoming vehicles on bends and we have just a car.
COUNTRYSIDE AROUND RIZE | waterfalls, castles and mountain plateaus
In the hinterland of the city of RIZE, there are a few more spots that could be worth a visit, but we skipped them this time. I can mention ZILKALE CASTLE (it seems to me that we have a lot of similar or more beautiful castles in Slovenia), AGARAN, PALOVIT, GELIN TULU, MENCUNA WATERFALLS and others (but again, we also have beautiful waterfalls in our country and we didn’t feel like driving the extra killometres), but above all, there is probably the most famous mountain plateau in this part of Turkey, AYDER YAYLASI. We read a lot about it online but somehow it didn’t appeal to us, mainly because we already had one really unforgettable authentic experience visiting the Anzer Yaylasi Plateau and somehow it seemed to us that this one would not be able to surpass that experience by a long way. This plateau is indeed very touristy. Shops, hotels and whatnot. Not exactly to our taste. The scenery is certainly beautiful, but the experience is completely different. There are still many other plateaus around here, and you can definitely find some that are more isolated. The easiest way to find them is on the map under the name “yaylasi“.
UCKARDES | our last stop before Georgia
In the last week of wandering around Turkey, we experienced a lot of beautiful things and now we were really ready for a new country. Since we started relatively early in the morning from the village of Ballikoy, we still had a couple of hours in the afternoon before nightfall, and for the last night in Turkey before crossing the border, we chose the AKASYA RESTAURANT parking lot in UCKARDES, right before the border. On the terrace of the restaurant, we first enjoyed a seafood lunch and one last ice-cold beer. We kindly asked if we could spend the night in their parking lot. Sure, no problem. But we were still a couple of hours away from sunset, so we quickly grabbed our towels and walked to the beach just below the restaurant.
One last swim in Turkey for a while. And while we were watching the sun go down on the beach we felt so grateful for everything we experienced in Turkey, excited for everything that is coming and really happy that we made it this far. We are almost in Georgia. In Georgia! With our car. All four of us.
FINALLY, SOME QUICK STATISTICS AND GENERAL USEFUL INFORMATION FOR (FAMILY) TRAVELING BY CAR IN THIS PART OF TURKEY.
It took us exactly 7 DAYS to travel from Bulgaria to Batumi, Georgia. In one week, we got to know the Turkish coast of the Black Sea as best we could, we drove over 2000 KILOMETERS, and spent around 500 EUR.
Right on the border with Bulgaria, we bought the so-called HGS TAG and loaded 30eur. We used this to pay HIGHWAYY TOLLS in Turkey. We previously arranged an eSIM online with the provider Saily, so we had immediate access to the internet. When we ran out of data, we simply topped it online. THE PRICE OF DIESEL per liter was a little over 1 EUR.
We slept in a hotel once (for free), we camped wild twice (1x on the beach and 1x in a city park), twice we camped at picnic areas (1x on the beach and 1x in a natural park in the forest), where we paid a small fee to use the picnic tables, once we slept in the parking lot of the restaurant where we ate lunch. WILD CAMPING is allowed in Turkey and any form of camping is extremely popular among the locals.
We ate out a few times, but mostly we cooked for ourselves. FOOD PRICES in stores are currently quite similar to those back home in Slovenia, but fresh vegetables, fruits and snacks at roadside stands are much more affordable. Everything from food to cosmetics, diapers and medicine can be found in the larger supermarkets. Alcoholic beverages are not available everywhere. However, there are natural water springs where you can fill the tanks if you are traveling with a camper.
We felt completely SAFE everywhere. TRAVELING WITH CHILDREN in this part of Turkey is unique, the Turks are extremely hospitable and we were more than welcome everywhere. We really don’t have a single bad experience. Perhaps it’s worth pointing out that in Turkey, it’s not unusual for complete strangers to want to take your little one (especially babies) in their arms, take pictures with them, kiss or pinch them on the cheeks. If this bothers you, communicate this clearly in advance and everything will be ok.
We communicated in English, or with the help of the Google Translate application, sometimes also just with our hands. If you like to walk barefoot or have small children who are on the ground a lot, it is important to be careful, because there is often a lot of (dangerous) GARBAGE, even on the beaches. There are also many non-aggressive but barking STREET DOGS, with which we have not had any bad experiences.
So the first part of our overland journey from Slovenia to Georgia and Armenia and back ended great and everything worked out for us without any problems. In the next post, I’m taking you to Georgia!
