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Cyprus and Southwestern Turkey: Travel Recommendations Sought

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    Cyprus and Southwestern Turkey: Travel Recommendations Sought

    Mrs Distel and I plan to spend two weeks in Cyprus and Southwestern Turkey next July and are seeking info on the best ways to build an itinery. How many days would Cyprus be worth relative to the Southwestern Turkey region? I'm interested in archaeology and food but can't do too much walking in high heat and would want to be able to drive fairly easily between stopovers.

    All advice welcome.

    #2
    Kaş (sw Turkey) would be worth considering. It's a resort town, but not in the way (say) Bodrum is, so it's comparatively quiet and not overdeveloped. There's a ferry there which does day trips to the Greek island of Kastellorizo, and a few archaeological oddities (mostly Lycian, although there's a Greek amphitheatre there as well)

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      #3
      Avoiding high heat in Turkey and Cyprus in July is going to be tricky.

      I will write a few thoughts later

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        #4
        We've been to Cyprus a few times. From what I recall there're ancient sites dotted all round the coast, but the better preserved stuff is at the Paphos end. Agia Napa is mostly Brits on the piss and boat cruises.

        In Turkey we went to Bodrum in 2013 and stumbled across the ruins of one of the original seven wonders of the world, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. It really is ruins now, there's probably less left than in the Forum in Rome and it's not even signposted on the street it's on. Undeterred, we're going again in three weeks to stay up the coast in Kusadasi, where you can get a day trip to the quite well preserved Roman ruins at Ephesus. Sadly there appears to be even less left of their "Seven Wonders" one - the Temple of Artemis - than was left of the Mausoleum, but what's left of the rest of the town looks quite cool.

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          #5
          Ephesus is awesome and I would recommend it very highly. The ruins of the library are particularly amazing and it's also a holy site for those who believe the Virgin Mary died there.It's a profound experience to see the pilgrims honoring her shrine:

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_the_Virgin_Mary

          We will definitely do Kaş - Kastellorizo,

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            #6
            Ephesus is indeed amazing, but I would not visit in July. It's like an oven.

            I've only been to Northern Cyprus and it seems like there are ruins and archeological sites down every side road. In the north the place i'd most recommend visiting is Girne (Kyrenia in Greek). Beautiful little harbour and interesting castle. the other major place would be Famagusta which has a couple of fascinating buildings in the old town and castle (where much of Othello is set). Lefkosa is also interesting but probably much more interesting is walking over the border into Nicosia

            In the SW part of Turkey, Oludeniz was very nice when i visited (but this is getting on for 30 year ago so pinch of salt necessary. Pamukkale is an amazing site too, the calcium cliffs and the roman bath at the top.

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              #7
              Can you go from EU Cyprus to Northern Cyprus now? Last time we went it was still a no-no but I think relations were thawing.

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                #8
                Yes you can cross with little trouble.

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                  #9
                  Don't have anything to say on border crossings, but when I went 30 years ago I thought Ephesus and Pamukkale were fantastic, though (particularly the former) they're not very close to Cyprus. Only really went to those two and Alanya (meh) in SW Turkey, so can't comment outside of that.

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