Visa/Crossing the border
Arriving at the airport as a Westerner is pretty smooth, all you need is a passport valid for more then 6 months and you will be readily granted a visa for 1 to 3 months depending on your nationality. Since recently however, you'll have to pay for it. Things change regularly, latest news is that Americans pay 45 US$, Belgians pay 10 US$ and Germans and Canadians get in for free. Apparently, it depends on your countries requirements towards Turkish.
If you arrive in Turkey by bus and cross the border from Bulgaria at border point Kappikule-Kaptan Andreevo, you'll have a lot of bureaucracy, so about two hours waiting, but no complications (11/98).
The border crossing with Syria takes a bit more time, but still is pretty smooth. It took 90 minutes. See Syria chapter for more details.
Money matters
There is no black market. All western currencies are readily accepted, even the smaller ones like Belgian francs and Dutch Guilders, so there's no need to take US$ with you.
Don't change too much money at once, because money looses its value if you stay for some weeks. On my trip in 1986, I got 15.000 TL for 1000 BF. Nine years later I got ten times more.
The postoffices often give a good rate and you can find them almost everywhere. Most banks charge a commission on traveller cheques of about 1 to 2 %. There's 1 exception however, the Emlak Bankasi.
If you have a VISA -Card, make absolutely sure your bank authorizes its use in Turkey. There have been reports saying the card is not allowed in Turkey, because there have been too many scams, so VISA stopped allowing the use of the card.
Currency converter If you want to know how much the Turkish Lira is worth today, click
here to go to a currency converter.
Transportation
Flights within TurkeyTurkish airlines have regular flights to all major cities, f.i. Istanbul-Trabzon 1 flight in the morning and 1 in the evening, Istanbul-Van 1 in the morning.
Fur more details, check out their site at
http://www.turkishairlines.com/engindex.htmll Bus Turkey has an excellent bus system run by private companies who often compete fiercely. On the regular hauls, f.i. starting from Istanbul, you'll have no problems finding several companies willing to take you there at very regular intervals. In central Turkey you might have to wait once in a while because one bus is fully booked.
Given this competition, you might try to get a discount of about 10 % on the usual price showing your student card, or your membershipcard of the local stamp collectors, or whatever...
Prices are low for Western standards. For Istanbul - Ankara count on 11 US$, Ankara-Trabzon is 15 US$.
T
he buses are usually very reliable. The only drawback of all these different companies is that they don't know from each other when the other one leaves, so it's difficult to know whether you still have a connection the same evening, or whether you have to spend the night somewhere.
The Turkish are building new busstations all over the country. These are usually way out of the city center. This is the case for Istanbul and f.i. also Bursa. Inform yourself if you want to go there, so you go to the new busstation, otherwise you might get stuck at an old station with only few local buses.
For shorter distances, you have the smaller dolmus stopping everywhere to pick up passengers.
Train Jan Sura used trains quite often and thought they were running well. It is true that they are much slower than buses, but also much cheaper. With ISIC you have 20% fare reduction. You will meet much more locals in trains. For example night train from Istanbul to Ankara with comfortable Pullman reclining seats half of bus price and you save on hotel accomodation. There are often big differences in prices, the most expensive are Mavi Tren and Expressi. More information in LP.
We only took a train once, from Divrigi to Erzurum. It was uncomfortable and had a lot of delay, but this train can not be compared with the "express train".
Taxi Taxi's are not really expensive as long as you make sure they use their meter. Also be careful they use the day tariff instead of the night tariff. You can see the difference by the number of lights flashing on the meter: 1 for the day, 2 for the night which is between 12 and 6 am.
Renting a motorbike Renting a motorbike is a good option to explore parts of the country like Cappadocia. Be careful however, insurance coverage is not so clear. A couple next to us in our hotel had an accident (they fell because of a pothole in the road) and they had to pay all the costs themselves. Also medical care especially in central and eastern Turkey is not yet up to western standards.
In Cappadocia we paid about 20 US$ for a Vespa for 24 hours, plus fuel which was another 3 US$ plus a deposit of 20 US$.
Renting a car Some people prefer to rent a car instead of the bus. Count on 50 US$ per day for a small car. However, be extremely careful, there are a lot of accidents, and if the other driver is not insured, chances are very high you won't see any money.
It's not always better or cheaper to rent from a Turkish firm. Someone told me the price was the same as Avis, another one got indeed a cheaper price (230 US$ instead of 310 US$ for a week for the smallest car, Fiat 131). However, you will get an older car instead of a new one, and the contract will be in Turkish and sometimes you can not leave the car at another place then where you took it (prices 7/96).
Go on to "General info 2"
Article Comments:
| 07/23/2006 |
| Pushkar Chopra (1) |
|
I am planning to visit Turkey and a condo for retirement. I would appreciat if someone who has been to Turkey or lives there can tell me which is best place to retire in Turkey along the coast line and how much can an average condo cost ,two bed and about 100 sq mtr. What is cost of living there and how much money one would need to live per month. Are there lot of canadians?. Please let me know in details. My e-mail add is pushkartoronto@rediffmail.com and phone number is 416-6363694. Thanks and look forward to hear from someone..Pushkar
|
