Guide to Southern Turkey (Anatolia): Why Visit / Itinerary

This guide summarizes why to visit, when to visit, safety, visas, how to get in, how to get around and a sample two-week itinerary. Excellent news, there are many reasons to visit southern Turkey. Everybody, from young to old, history buff to nature lover or foodie, will find plenty.

Why visit Anatolia?

If you are looking for a region with outstanding history over the last few millenia, excellent food, natural scenery with few, if any, Western tourists, south-eastern Turkey is the place for you. The history spans a few millenia with Hittites, Frygians, Parthans, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders and Ottomans all making their mark in religion, culture, cities and food. In south-eastern Turkey you can actually see the remaining of their civilizations within a few hours drive from each other. All without crossing any borders in a stable and safe environment with relaxed visa requirements. In addition, the flight/coach/bus/minibus transportation is excellent. There is a broad spectrum of accommodations for any budget. Food is varying and outstanding. There are few foreign tourists, and people are nice to you.

No masses of Western tourists or tours are creating two outstanding effects.

(1) Anatolia is inexpensive

Firstly, the area is inexpensive and great value. You can find a dorm bed for $10 or less, and a quality 3* hotel room for $20, which would easily be at least twice the cost in western Turkey. This is still a region where there is no double-tier pricing system for tourists. You will not be charged five / thirty times the local rate (hello Indonesia park entry tickets). There are also few venues geared towards the Western guests with the usual tourist traps. A glass of excellent refreshing limonata in Sanliurfa perfect to quench your thirst will still cost you $0.15 regardless if you are a tourist and easily recognizable as one.

(2) Not over-commercialized yet

Secondly, most of the time you will be treated in a “normal” way and not as a potential source of overcharged prices. It seems that most people will want to talk to you because of the genuine interest in this random Western tourist, who ventured off-the-beaten track to visit their city. Because there are few foreign tourists, especially after the pandemic, you will be appreciated that you came to southern Turkey. You will be invited to tens glasses of tea with the customary questions:

• “do you like Turkey?”
• “do you like <insert the current city here>?”
• “what do you like in <insert the current city here>?”
• or, the slightly sensitive one, “is our food better than in <insert the next major city>?”.

And the weird thing is that this will be in many cities there, not just one. Of course, there will be differences but, in general, a breath of fresh air after the standard heavily commercialized tourist heavens.

Please go and visit. And please go and visit now. Before the waves of the Western tourists descend.

When to visit Anatolia?

The climate in south-eastern Turkey is chilly winters and scorching hot summers. The best time is mid-April to mid-June and late September to early November.

Guide to Turkey: Safety

I have not had any uncomfortable encounters, even though I was frequently walking late at night. I have not witnessed any attempted thefts or any aggression on the streets.

Guide to Turkey: Visas

Tourists from the EU, United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and many others are “exempted from visa up to 90 days in any 180-day period”. Citizens of the United States, Australia, People’s Republic of China do need a visa.

A comprehensive country list with the corresponding visa requirements is attached in this website of the Turkish Ministry for Foreign Affairs:

https://www.mfa.gov.tr/visa-information-for-foreigners.en.mfa

A link to the evisa website is attached below. The evisa application is relatively straightforward, with three steps (application, payment, visa download), credit card payment is enabled. You will receive the visa emailed to your address.

https://www.evisa.gov.tr/

Guide to Turkey: Get In

All major cities in Anatolia have good transportation links:

(1) Fly

Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines, Corendon Airlines and SunExpress are the major airlines in Turkey. Turkish Airlines is a more premium offering with the remaining more similar to Southwest, Spirit and Frontier in the U.S. or Ryanair in Europe.

Major cities have their own regional airports differing in the distance to city center. The transportation choices to the city center are usually (a) Havas airport bus, (b) shuttle bus, (c) taxi (unfortunately, no subway or train connections). Please find the detailed information in the corresponding city sections.

(2) Coach / Bus

Turkey has a well-developed long-distance bus / coach system. Especially on the longer-distance connections, buses / coaches are modern Mercedes / etc. vehicles with air conditioning, wifi and a stewart serving tea (unlikely on Greyhound, National Express or Megabus!). Instead of the 2+2 seat arrangement prevalent on the U.S. and European buses, many buses have a 2+1 setup.

The long-distance coach bus system is run not by one centralized company, but many local enterprises competing on overlapping routes. Some long-distance coach stations are conveniently located in the city center (e.g., Denizli), but many are miles away (e.g., Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir), and you have to take a minibus (e.g., Diyarbakir, Mardin) or a city bus (e.g., Sanliurfa) for approximately $0.30 one way.

The individual coach companies are hub-based (e.g., Mardin Seyahat, Oz Diyarbakir). Therefore, the coaches from the local company start on time with no delays as they do not connect from another city. After I had waited for a coach delayed by two hours at midnight in Kayseri, I have always tried to take a local hub coach just starting its ride.

There are differences among various coach companies in punctuality, comfort, wifi speed and seat arrangement (2+1 vs 2+2). The prices are generally similar, but higher for the higher-quality companies by up to 10-20%. I liked for example Kamil Koç or Ben Turizm.

Be prepared, Turkey is a vast country and the distances are long. In the end, I considered a 2-3 hour bus ride short, 4-5 medium and anything over 8 long. A special mention to some overnight buses with unstable air conditioning and blasting local music at 4am.

(3) Minibus (dolmus pronounced “DOL-moosh”)

An efficient system popular in the region of e.g., Mercedes minibuses, which depart when full. If your dolmus is not going where you want to go, there will be another one (or three), which will get you exactly where you want to be. It might be annoying that they are actively searching for additional passangers on the road and you might feel they are stopping every 60 seconds. On the other hand, they will drop you off at any point you wish (well, probably not exactly at a roundabout but almost anything else works).

(4) Train

Unfortunately, there is no well-developed train system in south-eastern Turkey. A similar setup as in e.g., Izmir in western Turkey, would be welcome.

Guide to Turkey: Get Around

(1) Walking

By far my preferred method of transportation in south-eastern Turkish cities. Suppousedly excedingly healthy, environmentally-friendly and relatively cheap. Probably most importantly, the best way to observe and meet the people and “soak the local atmosphere”. Those Mesopotamian cities are thousands of years old, so they are relatively compact and walkable. Also, many/most historical sites are within the old city limits or the existing city walls (e.g., Diyarbakir).

(2) Minibus (dolmus)

Same logic as above, no prior reservation required. You might have to be a bit patient but a dolmus (or three) will get you to wherever you want to be. Even in the smallest village in Anatolia.

(3) Taxi

Available everywhere, most in the familiar yellow color. Always determine the approximate cost before (rome2rio.com a good start).

NEVER enter a taxi BEFORE agreeing on the total cost to your final destination. This includes your luggage. Do not let it be put into the trunk BEFORE you agreed on the price.

Negotiate / haggle if you think overpriced. This is expected, do not disappoint the drivers by accepting inflated prices. You will also do a disservice to the other tourists in the future.

South-eastern Turkey Itinerary (2 weeks)

Nemrut Dagi – Sanliurfa (Urfa as is commonly known) – Mardin – Diyarbakir – Gaziantep (Antep) – Hatay (Antakya / Antioch)

Day 1-2: Guide to Nemrut Dagi, Turkey (2022)

Day 3-5: Sanliurfa and Göbekli tepe (11,000 years old!)

Day 6-7: Mardin: ancient Silk Road town

Day 8-9: Diyarbakir

Day 10-12: Gaziantep (Zeugma mosaics and best food in Turkey)

Day 13-14: Hatay: kunefe desert and Greek mosaics