I’m off in just over a week to a country I’ve never been to before and I couldn’t be more excited.

I decided to plan an early-summer trip to Turkey for three reasons:

1. There are cheap flights from Cape Town (R6000 return on Turkish Airlines, direct to Istanbul)

2. South Africans don’t need a visa

3. In a nutshell, Turkey looks pretty awesome

I’m travelling with my boyfriend, and we’re spending two (short) weeks traversing a small part of this huge country. We’re flying into Istanbul, where I hope to gorge myself on Turkish delight, figs, cheese and all the amazing dishes I can’t pronounce, marvel at beautiful mosques, steam it up in traditional hammams, check out some contemporary art and find the city’s best coffee shops.

Then we’re flying to Kayseri in Cappadocia, where we’ll stay in cave hotels and take a hot-air balloon flight over this magical fairytale-like landscape of chimneys and caves.

A big fan of road trips, I’ll always drive rather than fly. Instead of budget airlining to the coast, we’re renting a car and making our way south to the turquoise coast on the Med, where we’ll spend a blissful week exploring the (hopefully) less-touristy coastal towns between Cirali and Dalaman, swimming in the warm water, doing boat trips to Greek islands, visiting ancient ruins, hiking in hills overlooking the sea, and eating in fish markets.

 

I’ve got my travel books packed: Birds without Wings by Louis de Bernieres and Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk.

 

 

And I’ve found pre-trip food inspiration in the form of a Tumblr, Eating Turkey.

All I need now is some tips! I always prefer to ask people on blogs or social media for suggestions on what to do/where to eat/what to drink rather than read an outdated guidebook written by one person.

If you’ve been to Turkey please share your suggestions below or tweet me @SarahDuff!

 

Istanbul photo by ModenaDude, Cappadocia  and feature photos by Moyan Brenn, coastal photo by the_junes, baklava photo by Eating Turkey.

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