Turkey
Introduction
Turkey is a beautiful country, and you definitely don’t need to be afraid to set out there by car. We’ve already been to Turkey twice. The first time was even our very first trip—if you don’t count a short test drive to Poland.
In this article, we’ll share some tips and experiences from Turkey that you won’t see in our videos.
First, let’s look at the journey itself. We’re not full-time travelers, so our trips are always time-limited. But that doesn’t mean we rush through Turkey in one go. Even with time constraints, we recommend looking for interesting places along the way. And trust us—there are plenty.
The Journey
If you choose Romania’s Transfăgărășan like we did on our first trip, you won’t regret it. The climb to the mountain top is an experience in itself. From the summit, you get breathtaking views down into the valley. And once you cross the peak and descend the other side, you may find bears begging by the roadside. Seeing these predators up close is awe-inspiring. But please, enjoy the sight only from the safety of your car—they’re still wild and dangerous animals, no matter how cute they look.
Continuing further, you can also stop in Bulgaria at the Black Sea.
Another option is to take a slightly longer route through Greece. We also went through Romania and Bulgaria that way and found many great spots to sleep and explore. In Romania, there’s Bigăr Waterfall; in Bulgaria, the Ledenika Cave or the Rupite thermal pools; in Greece, you can visit Varvara Waterfall or the Eleftheron hot springs.
We wouldn’t really recommend driving through Serbia. It might be the fastest, but it’s just highways, so you won’t see anything of the country. Plus, Serbian tolls are quite expensive. Speaking of tolls—Romanian and Bulgarian vignettes cost very little. In Bulgaria, they’re sold as weekend passes rather than daily, which is interesting. But keep in mind that you’ll need one even for first-class roads.
Border Crossings
There are several border crossings into Turkey. We can’t say which one is the best, but generally speaking—the smaller the crossing, the faster the processing.
We have experience with Malko Tarnovo. There, we had to wait several hours. The Bulgarian customs officers were fine and fairly quick, but the Turkish side was incredibly slow and chaotic—sending us back and forth between checkpoints even though we had all our documents in order.
At Turkish border control, you’ll go through three inspections—and at Malko Tarnovo, even a fourth. First, you show your passports and they take your photo. Second, you present vehicle documents and your Green Card. Note: the Green Card must be printed; showing it on your phone is not enough. Third, they physically inspect the car and may ask you to unload everything. After these three steps, you should be allowed through—but at Malko Tarnovo, there’s a fourth step where they repeat the first two checks before finally letting you in. That’s where the chaos began: first, they said our passports weren’t okay, then our car documents, then the Green Card. Each time, it turned out everything was fine, but we had to go back again and again. Pure chaos.
On the other hand, crossings like Edirne or İpsala were smooth—no problems, and the whole process took about 30 minutes.
Fuel Prices
We’ve already talked about tolls and vignettes. Now let’s look at fuel prices. I won’t list exact numbers because they change constantly, but in general: it’s cheaper to refuel in Bulgaria, where diesel costs about 5 CZK less than at home. It’s even cheaper in North Macedonia—about 3 CZK less still. On the other hand, in Greece or Hungary, just buy the minimum you need—diesel there was around 10 CZK more expensive than at home.
Driving in Turkey
Back to border crossings. From Malko Tarnovo, you’ll most likely head towards Istanbul. It’s a massive city of 16 million people. If you enjoy large cities, you’ll definitely find it fascinating. For us, it wasn’t what we were looking for, so we just drove through—and even that took more than three hours.
If you enter through Edirne or İpsala, you’ll likely head toward Gelibolu and Çanakkale. We found this route much more pleasant, as it avoids the big cities. To cross the Dardanelles, you can choose between a bridge or a ferry. We tried both—and the ferry is cheaper.
That brings us to Turkish highways and fuel. Crossing the Dardanelles bridge cost us about 750 CZK (though I don’t recall the exact amount). The ferry, however, was about half that price.
Turkish highways come in two types (at least from our perspective). The six-lane highways are toll roads. You can either buy a highway pass, register in a mobile app, or pay at each toll gate. The tolls themselves aren’t expensive, but given how vast Turkey is, and the fact that there’s a second type of highway that’s free, it hardly makes sense to use them.
The second type is four-lane roads, similar to our D1 highway. Turks seem to consider them just first-class roads, and they’re free. You pass through towns and see more of the country. On these roads, don’t be surprised to encounter donkey carts, fruit stands by the roadside, or even a tractor driving the wrong way because it’s the shortest route to a nearby field.
And then there are the ordinary single-lane roads. Along the coast or in tourist regions, they’re fine—but elsewhere, they can be quite rough.
Fuel prices are one reason traveling through Turkey is so easy. It’s not hard to find a gas station where diesel is up to 15 CZK cheaper than at home.
Prices in Turkey
It’s not just fuel that’s cheaper in Turkey. With one exception (due to religion), everything is about one-third to half the price compared to home. The exception is alcohol. There’s little variety, and what’s available is very expensive. A bottle of cheap wine that costs under 100 CZK at home goes for about 300 CZK there. A regular beer (which isn’t even good) costs 80 CZK in the supermarket, and much more in restaurants. Once, I didn’t realize the conversion and ended up paying 450 CZK for a single beer in a restaurant in Bodrum.
But that’s the only expensive thing. Everything else is much cheaper: a delicious sweet melon for 2 CZK per kilo, a loaf of bread for 6 CZK (though smaller than ours), three cans of tuna for 50 CZK. The taste is incomparable to what we buy at home. We often bought fresh fish—a kilo of sea bream cost about 200–250 CZK.
If you head to a village, prices drop even more. In Salda, I paid 6 CZK for two loaves of bread and a kilo of tomatoes—by card! Eating out is also affordable: menus for around 80–100 CZK including drinks are common.
Clothes, shoes, watches, etc., are also cheap, especially at local markets (Pazar Yeri). Of course, branded clothes are usually knockoffs, but still. You can also find camper batteries for great prices. We needed one due to electrical issues and bought a 100Ah LiFePO4 battery for 3,500 CZK—while at home, they’re around 10,000 CZK.
To give a few more examples: ice cream cones for 10 CZK, a full fishing set with a 3m quality rod for 1,500 CZK, and so on. Some tourist attractions are overpriced, though. Entry to Bodrum Castle was about 800 CZK per person, and Pamukkale was similar. But Knidos ancient city was just 80 CZK, and many sites are free.
One more expensive item: dog food. A kilo of kibble costs around 400 CZK. Since there are so many stray dogs and we fed them everywhere we stopped, it was cheaper to cook pasta (3 CZK) and mix it with canned tuna.
Safety
We heard many warnings before going: that we’d be robbed, that it’s unsafe. But no—it isn’t. Nothing bad ever happened to us. We even left our chairs, table, and umbrella on the beach and went away for half a day, and everything was still there when we returned.
People in Turkey are generally very kind and friendly. At Lake Bafa Gölü, when our starter battery died and we couldn’t leave, nearly the whole village came to help.
We did encounter one scam attempt: on a free four-lane road, a man followed us, honked, and gestured for us to stop. At first, I ignored him, but then I thought, “an old man—what harm could he do?” He claimed our rear wheel was loose and offered to help, with a jack and tools ready in his trunk. He wanted to take us to a service. But when he saw I had my own tools and checked it myself, he asked if I was a mechanic. I said yes, and he just waved and left.
This was the only negative experience. In general, there are many police and military checkpoints, but as tourists, we were never stopped. Overall, you’ll feel safe and welcome in Turkey.
Phone & Internet
On our first trip, we needed internet and phone access. You can buy a prepaid SIM card, but you must present your passport, and they’ll register you in the system. Also, as foreigners, you’ll be charged double the advertised prices. That applies to both Turk Telekom and Vodafone. For example, 10GB of data listed at 450 CZK cost us 1,500 CZK. Their motto seemed to be: if you need it, pay up.
On our second trip, we used eSIM from Airalo instead. You can choose from several plans based on data or days. Prices start at about 100 CZK for 1GB, up to unlimited data for 775 CZK.
Stray Dogs
Turkey is known for its many stray dogs. We knew this before going, but we didn’t expect so many. Wherever we stopped, a pack of at least ten dogs came running. Each begged for food, and the braver ones even for a pat. We cooked for them every day. Some were skinny, and the females often had sagging teats from frequent litters.
At each place, we found a “friend.” Some were clowns, others were cuddlers. None were aggressive—they were simply grateful for a moment of attention.
If you follow us, you know about one special encounter: at a beach, a four-month-old puppy from a twelve-dog pack climbed into my lap and fell asleep. That night, she slept in our van. In the end, she stayed with us. We got her an international vaccination passport, had her chipped, and brought her home. It was the best decision—we have a grateful and happy dog, even if she can be mischievous.
So here’s our heartfelt request: if you travel to Turkey, please help them. Bring some kibble, and if possible, adopt one. They can’t change their fate themselves—but they will repay your love with theirs.
Conclusion
The only real downside of this beautiful country is the incredible amount of litter. Roadsides are lined with trash thrown from cars, there are illegal dumps, and even beaches and nature are full of garbage. Sadly, this isn’t caused by campers or tourists—it’s the locals. More than once, we cleaned up the area around where we stayed.
We’ve been to Turkey twice already and seen quite a lot. But we’re not experts. What we do know is that we’ll return again—there’s still so much to discover, and it’s a camper-friendly country. You don’t need to be afraid—you can enjoy Turkey without worries.
Hopefully, this article has given you some useful tips and maybe even sparked your desire to visit.
You can watch everything we experienced on our YouTube channel, where you can join us on our journey and see the amazing places we’ve discovered. All the spots we visited or camped at are also on our map. Please just be patient with our 2024 videos—it was our first season, filmed and edited on phones, so the quality is lower. Only this year, 2025, did we get better equipment and professional editing software.