Hoping to be in Turkey this July and would like to explore the area from Istanbul along the coast to the Turquoise Coast. Drive options, guide suggestions for day trips, places to stay? Wanted to hear about anyone going to Cyprus from this area? Ferry? North or south part of the island best to explore?
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Denver, CO, USA
1610 posts
Do a search and you will find lots of posts on Turkey and what to see/suggestions.
Cyprus is a small island and if you have the time you should be able to do both the northern and the southern part. Obviously, if you are traveling from Turkey, you will only have transport options into N. Turkey. Once you get to Nicosia, you can walk across the green line and enter S. Cyprus - you just need your passport and they will give you a separate sheet of paper with a stamp on it.
Do check out the flights from mainland Turkey into Ercan (N. Turkey airport a short distance outside of Nicosia) - last year when I looked at this the flights were not too expensive. I believe if you take the ferries, you will land in Famagusta.
We did an independent tour of the Middle East last year - we ended up flying into Larnaca from Tel Aviv and on the return home flew from Ercan to Istanbul and then connected onto N. America. One point to note - if traveling on a non-EU passport, if you enter through N. Cyprus, you will not be allowed to depart through S. Cyprus (i.e. Larnaca). You can get more info on this issue on the Thorntree forum on the LP website. Hope this helps.