Turkey: The rough haven

In July 2012, we travelled for almost 700 km along the southern Turkish coastline, and what a great trip it was. In fact, for those people who have not been to Turkey, the historical sites, fascinating scenery, wonderful road networks, delicious food and of course great shopping makes it one of the best places to visit. What is more fascinating is that in such a place, with all the above, you can have the most expensive, or a simple budget holiday, and in both cases, have a wonderful time.

On the move
Is there a catch here? Did I forget to mention something? Yes! All is not rosy when it comes to dealing with the Turkish people. I have to emphasise that, although in many cases we had very good experiences, when travelling in Turkey for a longer period of time, and outside of the closed resorts meant for tourists.

During our road trip, we used both public transport such as buses, and private transport - taxis . The first mode of transport was cheap and quite comfortable and mostly used by locals, hence it was very frequent. Buses move on scheduled plans between all the cities of Turkey, air conditioned during summer and with heating in wintertime, making frequent stops at resting areas where passengers have access to food, drink and restrooms.

Private taxis are quite expensive compared to buses, but also cheaper than many other European countries, they are fast and reliable.

Short-changing moments
However, when at one point as a big group of friends and family, we decided to hire a private mini bus, we faced the inevitable harassment of traffic police on the roads and highways, this was definitely a party spoiler.

Outside the comfort boundaries of well-prepared tourist resorts and areas destined for mostly European and American tourists, it was the real deal, especially if like our group you wanted to bargain the prices down! First the mini bus offered was not the one that was shown to us the previous day, an hour of arguing with the hiring company and a few insults later, from them, the mini bus was upgraded. The group used the services of a travel agent in one town to hire two big family villas on the beach town of Mersin. Once there, we were instead offered one small flat in a concrete jungle of apartments, not even close to the beach. It was a disaster! Night was approaching, with children and elderly members in the group, a frantic search to accommodate 20 tired people began and yielded no results, Mersin was fully booked. We spent a terrible night on long chairs on the beach!

Moved to a better place
Next day we were directed to another city with a resort where North European tourists went to, luckily there were enough rooms for everyone and life was good again.
Along the way one met extremely kind and helpful people but many times, those trying to take advantage of tourists left very unpleasant memories.

That said, the recent political events in Turkey ache my heart, there are enough countries with problems around us, hoping this haven will stay well, but will politics and greed allow? Time will tell!

MERSIN
Mersin does not have the huge volume of tourists enjoyed by neighbouring Antalya or the Aegean coast, but Turkish people do come to this coast, especially now that the hotels have air-conditioning, and perhaps more to the mountain country behind where there are healing mineral water springs. In summer the hills are a popular retreat from the high humidity and extreme heat on the coast. West of Mersin includes bays, and little islands. Yacht touring is a tourism income in these areas.