A WINTER JOURNEY TO TURKEY

Don Madge
January 2012

This is Don's account of his motorhome journey with Maureen from the UK to their winter hibernation in a cottage near Fethiye, on Turkey's Aegean Coast.

Don is the Doyen of the UK's Motorhome Forums.

We left home on 1^st December to have a pre-Christmas family weekend in Worthing and to celebrate our 52^nd wedding anniversary.

I've put together a few notes that some might find useful, as I believe there are a few heading this way in the New Year.

We have rented the same cottage at Keciler, near Fethiye, that we had in 2010, as we have reached the stage in life now where we prefer to rent and use the van as a runabout. We have toured Turkey extensively in the last 10 years, so now we just sit in the Kaya valley and watch the world go by.

We used the Channel Tunnel for the first time and were very impressed with the service.

Route

Calais, Lille, Namur, Luxembourg (cheap fuel), Strasbourg, Basel, St Gothard Tunnel, Milan, Bologna, Ancona and Bari Port.

Night Stops

Fort Philippe Aire.  N51.00622  E2.11417   Large tarmac car park with toilets.

Arlon Aire.  N49.69024  E5.81882  4 places. Max 48 hours. Free electricity, water, grey disposal.

Chalampe.  N47.81386  E7.54086  Rhine-side parking on outskirts of village. Intermarche for fuel and shopping.

Somaglia Service area.  N45.14258  E9.63356  On A1 20 miles south of Milan. Autogrill restaurant, toilets and showers available.

Vomano Service area.  N42.67194  E13.93961  On A14 north of Pescara. Autogrill restaurant, toilet and showers available.

Vergina Aire N40.48514 E22.31957 170 miles east of Igoumenitsa. Tarmac car park, owner very helpful. €4 per night, electricity available if required.

Alexandroupoli municipal site N40.84686 E25.85617. €17.50 per night. Free wifi in 30 minute sessions. Good site before crossing into Turkey. Easy walk into town from site.

Diesel Prices

French Supermarkets €1.42 per litre

French Autoroute €1.55 per litre

Luxembourg €1.22 per litre

Italian Autostrada €1.66 per litre. Many people now use the self-service option, which can be up to 8 cents cheaper than the attendant service. LPG available on many service areas. Note by MagBaz: in December 2011the Shell services on the A1 near Lodi refused to supply LPG for our motorhome, though we had no problem at the next (Esso) services.

Greece €1.52 per litre (this is just an average).  

Tolls

France - A4 Strasbourg €19.10

Switzerland - SF40 for vignette for vehicles up to 3500 kgs (we paid €35 for the vignette at a service station just north of Basel on the A5).

Italy - Swiss border to Milan €4.60. Milan South to Bari North €56.60 (this included 2 night stops on the Autostrada). Note by MagBaz: For comparison, our toll from Milan South to Ancona North, with one night en route, was €26.20, in a larger vehicle.

Greece - A2 Igoumenitsa to Alexandroupoli €30.20. This is a 400 mile trip across northern Greece.

Ferry

We used the Ventouris Ferries overnight crossing from Bari to Igoumenitsa. Depart 1900 hrs arrive at 0730 hrs. They will allow you to use the van overnight. A good tip when you board the ferry is to wait until the mad rush by the cars to get on is over before you board. Make sure that you are on the top (open) deck and look out for the refrigerated trucks that also park there. We have used this service a few times and the loading crew have always been very helpful. This is mainly a truck ferry, food is basic but cheap. We booked a deck passage and campervan (6 metres long) for €146. Try to avoid a Saturday crossing in either direction as they get very busy with trucks; any other day is a lot quieter.

Entering Turkey from Greece at the border post near Ipsala

At the first kiosk you come to, just present your passports and vehicle registration document. Then drive into the main complex and in front you will see five lanes.

Don't go down the lanes until you have got your visa from the second kiosk on lane 5, marked “VISA”. The visa must be paid for in cash in hard currency (£10 Sterling or 15 Euros per person, in cash).

Take your passports to the passport control kiosk in lane 1 or 2, then drive to the other end of the lane which is the customs kiosk. Here they will need your registration document, green card and driver's passport. Once you have your documents back, take them to the kiosk opposite for another check and stamp. Once you have finished there you drive out of the main complex and present all your documents to the last kiosk, then you are free to go.

On entering the main complex we usually park on the left in front of the market/currency exchange building, which also has an ATM at the currency exchange counter.

We completed all the procedures in about 15 minutes. The Turks have really got their act together and we can only assume they are trying to pull themselves into line with the EU.

The registration document and a Manual GREEN CARD are required to enter Turkey. Make sure the Green Card covers Asian Turkey, as some insurers only cover European Turkey.

A point worth remembering is that the vehicle details are entered in the driver's passport and under normal circumstances the driver will not be able to leave Turkey without the vehicle.

Before you leave the border complex check the date by which the vehicle must be exported. It is the stamp next to the visa. Usually the vehicle has 6 months (unless your insurance runs out before that), though the personal Tourist Visa is valid for 3 months only. A few years ago Margaret & Barry Williamson (Magbaz) were only given 1 month's allowance for the vehicle. This was only noticed when they tried to exit Turkey for Cyprus and it caused considerable trouble!

This info is correct at 14/12/2011 but could change at any time.

Speed Limits in Turkey

Built up area 50 kph

Outside built up area 90 kph

Motorways 120 kph

The 90 kph speed limit applies to all roads outside the built up areas. You will find 6 lane dual carriageways where the 90 kph still applies. There are many radar traps, usually on the open roads. Speed limit signs are few and far between so be very careful.

There are very few 50 kph signs marking the start of a built up area. Bear in mind that dual carriageways often run through a town /village but the 50 kph still applies.

Motorway tolls must be paid by smart card. We used the motorway from Izmir to Selcuk and bought the card at the Selcuk turn-off. The toll was TL 2.20, so we bought a card and had TL10 credit put on it. The card costs another TL 5 for admin costs. As we plan to stay in one place for 3 months, we decided TL 10 would be sufficient for our needs. It is quite easy to top the card up at any pay station.

Fuel

Diesel ('Motorin') works out at about £1.35 per litre using an exchange rate of TL 2.88 to £1.

LPG is about £0.80 per litre.

Currency

In the popular coastal areas (Kusadasi, Bodrum, Marmaris and Fethiye) where the ex-pat Brits live, HSBC cash dispensers usually dispense £ Sterling and Euros, as well as Turkish Lira. Over the years we have found we can get Sterling from the cash machine (£2 handling fee) and then exchange it for Turkish Lira at a very good rate at one of the money changers in the town. Recently in Kusadasi we got TL 2.88 for £1, as against TL 2.67 for the small amount of Turkish currency we bought at the post office before leaving home.

We had a stopover at Camping Onder (free wifi) in Kusadasi. Prices have increased but the better exchange rate has evened things out a bit. It cost us TL 24 per night at the campsite. The facilities are not great, the hot water is by solar power (so, no sun no hot water). The site is conveniently situated on the sea front opposite the Marina. It is an easy walk into town. If you plan to stay, there's an excellent fruit & veg market on a Friday which is well worth a visit. There's a general market on a Tuesday as well.

General Information

Free camping is not a problem in Turkey. We often use the service stations when transiting from A to B and this is a very common practice with motorhomers.

The Turks are a very warm and welcoming people and will go out of their way to welcome you. They treat their flag with great respect and expect you to do the same.

Rural areas of Turkey are policed by the Army Military police, the 'Jandarma'. They set up road blocks but usually wave you through when they see you are a tourist. Don't under any circumstances park or camp in the vicinity of a Jandarma Post as they will move you on. The posts are marked with plenty of white paint, large Turkish flags and soldiers with guns. The coastal posts are usually situated in very picturesque spots and it is very tempting to park/camp near them just for the views.

We have always found the Jandarma to be very correct and polite. The rank and file are conscripts, the officers and NCO's are usually the only ones who speak English. They also have a traffic division. The town/city police (blue uniforms) are usually a scruffy lot compared with the Jandarma.

For any first timers looking for a tour of some of the ancient sites in Turkey, the account of a trip we did in 2002 might be a good help.

See http://www.magbaztravels.com/content/view/716/30/

Observations

We have got to the stage in life where we do things for comfort/convenience rather than economy. The route is tried and tested over the years, though we have only used it in December/January, and we have never had any security problems wherever we have stopped for the night. The lowest temperature we had this year was +4ΊC so there was no problem with freezing water pipes/tanks.

We arrived at Keciler near Fethiye, our home for the next 16 weeks, two weeks after leaving the UK. We had an excellent trip and the weather was very kind to us. We got out of Greece and into Turkey with no problems at all: we just got a nod on leaving Greece.

New Tourist Visa regulations in Turkey come into force on 1^st February 2012. See http://www.fethiyetimes.com/expat-zone/visa/6770-turkish-tourist-visa-changes-to-come-into-force-on-1st-february-2012.html. To get around the new regulations we have applied for residency permits, which will allow us to stay in Turkey for longer than the 90 days of the Tourist Visa.