Turna.com: Your Gateway to a Seamless Travel Experience

Planning your dream vacation should usually be one of the most exciting and hassle free experiences. With hundreds of possible destinations and numerous travel...

Activities in Ayvalık for the Adventurous and Active

Ayvalık boasts beautiful blue water, lovely sunsets, and plenty of beaches to relax on, but its range of nature also provides no shortage of...

Assos: Turkey’s Best Kept Aegean Secret and Once Home to Aristotle

Aristotle, roasted almond mezes, and a tortured history… Of all Turkey’s hidden treasures, Assos (Behramkale in Turkish) is an insiders’ favorite, conveniently located between...

Off The Beaten Path: Rumeli Hisarı

Although the Bosphorus is the real star of Istanbul, its beauty is accentuated by the city’s monuments, those sturdy shapes that mediate between the...

The Lazy Olive: Book Your Mountain Getaway Near Olympos and Lycia’s...

We created the Lazy Olive (Tembel Zeytin) as our special getaway from living in the heart of Istanbul’s concrete jungle. It’s a spacious four-bedroom...

Thermal Baths: The Ultimate Winter Holiday

Now, we all enjoy a good Turkish bath. They are very much part of the tapestry, or should I say the kilim, of the...

Weekend Getaway: Bursa

If you need something new to suppress the bad-weather blues or you just want to get out of Istanbul and into your ski boots,...

Lost in Turkey: Artvin Highlands

The Black Sea region of Turkey is somewhat of a misnomer. Better known for its rainforest-like climate, highland pastures and traditional culture, the seaside...

Cave Escape: Nimara Mağarası

Nimara Mağarası is a fascinating, Neolithic era cave near Marmaris, in southwest Turkey. Though close to home, I’d only fantasied about this tactile wonderland...

Mardin: An Old, Poetic City With Authentic Roots

Although I've never been to the city of Mardin, this article is an attempt to give an idea to both myself and those who...

Archaeology Spotlight: In Conversation with Professor/Dr. Mehmet Gürbüzer of Amos Ancient...

2021 marked the first official season of legal excavations in Amos Ancient City near Marmaris, Muğla. This ancient settlement dates back to roughly 3,000...

PCR (Covid-19) Testing in Istanbul: Laboratories, Prices, & Experiences

The COVID-19 pandemic has definitely changed the way we travel... if we travel at all. Most yabangees live far away from their families and...

Anatolian Travel Archives: Mustafapaşa

In the midst of all the fairytale magic of Cappadocia, there lies an overlooked jewel embedded in the valley known as Mustafapaşa. Despite its...

Anatolian Travel Archives: Stratonikeia

Aside from the yet to be excavated ancient settlement near my home in Turunç (near Marmaris), Stratonikeia was my first, official, ancient city experience...

Anatolian Travel Archives: Çatal Höyük (Fork Mound)

Sometimes it’s the unseen that is the most fascinating. The imagination can drift back to a time far before we existed to wonder about...

Anatolian Travel Archives: Hattusha/Hattuşa

Once there was a time when Hattusha was reached by foot, through a dense forest that flourished near the Red River or Kızılırmak and...

Anatolian Travel Archives: Eflatun Pınar

We raced against the sun to reach the spring before all light had gone, Seçkin at the wheel and me biting my nails with...

Anatolian Travel Archives: Zelve

The Zelve Valley is an extraordinary landscape located in the Cappadocia Region of Central Anatolia. Dusty, rose-colored spires with knobby crowns balance against a...

Anatolian Travel Archives: Aphrodisias

In a vast, seemingly endless field near the village of Geyre, west of Denizli, the white marble structures of Aphrodisias seemed to glow hauntingly...

Touring Turkey with Kids in a Camper Van

We are an English-Turkish family and we travel around in an old Mercedes bus that we converted ourselves to a camper van. A year...

Nine Tips to Have a Mindful, Peaceful Journey

On my recent trip to Egypt, I found myself sitting next to the Nile River--watching, listening, and smelling the city. I felt the warm...

Get the Hell out of Dodge: Valentine’s Day for Singles

Christmas is famous for causing a spike in suicides for the depressed; this long-term single would be curious to see the stats on the...

Göbeklitepe: The Zero Timeline

The summer of 2018 has been a dive in history and this dive would have been incomplete had I not visited the archaeological site...

Turkey’s Hidden Paradise: Maden Deresi

To anyone who begins reading this, I would like you to be absorbed by the magnificence of a serene song or melody that is...