Turkey is a leading global player with regards to top class vacation facilities. However, recently a new trend has emerged and nicely adds ever more choice to the former: leave the comforts and luxury of your home away from home (or hotel) for a while behind you and head to a camping site either near or afar. Expected outcome: sheer enjoyment as long as we consider a few vital issues before departing town.
Granted: when our daughter told us that she and a friend plus sister and parents are taking off on a camping adventure my initial thoughts were: ‘what, in the middle of summer, with soaring temperatures?’
Not someone who easily takes no for an answer she quickly calmed me down and detailed where and what exactly the group of five were up to. The mini tour group traveled by family car departing from our shared southern Aegean shores and embarked on a weeklong journey all around the coast ending up in Antalya’s Kemer district for their last stop.
Spending a night here and there and once extending their stay to two nights because they had many interesting activities nearby lined up such as watersports or forest hiking they were constantly in touch via social media and their cellphones. Here is their impression, and a daddy’s evaluation, and your friendly columnist’s suggestions for your very own camping holiday.
First things first: connectivity. Like everywhere else and despite the perfect coverage with high-speed internet and mobile phone networks anywhere in this fine country there are inevitably some black holes. It can be in a forest or even on the coast depending on your operator and whether you are roaming or using a local SIM-card instead. This happens to me regularly in the United Kingdom or other European countries whilst off the beaten track so no reason to complain. Just keep your friends and family informed of where you are planning to visit and give estimates of departure and arrival times. My daughter regularly sent location coordinates and upcoming intended destinations. All in all connectivity was wonderful though, without perhaps only one half day touring without a very good or any signal. Please remember to fully charge your handsets before leaving the campsite and ideally carry at least one or two small power-banks with you in case your battery runs flat.
Second, pack reasonably; reasonably as in do not carry your whole wardrobe but suitable items for an outdoors experience. Even in a large five seat car space is limited so careful considerations of what type of clothing you need is a must. Besides, in summers you need socks or leggings should you head into one of the splendid forests as there are of course insects who not automatically agree that we human invaders conquer their cherished green lands, and take sneakers or trainers and not only flip-flops. Anti-mosquito repellant in small doses should be bought before taking off, too. Our group took medium-warm clothing for late night sunsets and forest walks, and normally spent the day swimming in one great beach after another. Remember you will sleep on a mattress in a tent or you bring your own sleeping bags.
Third, many campsites allow you to arrange for your own food or barbeque. What my daughter said is that stocking up each day with fresh food items and in particular on very hot summer days makes sense. All the campsites she stayed on had at least a well-stocked mini-mart, some even an on-site restaurant.
Fourth, personal safety; I often wrote about how happy and safe my family feels being here in Turkey and ever more so whilst raising children. Think about never-ending stories about knife crimes back home and you soon understand what I want to say. Turkey is still, and hopefully remains so, a nation where older folk can count their cash on the sidelines of a busy thoroughfare in any Turkish town or city without fear of being mugged, not even mentioning stabbed. Turkey is simply a safe country to live in or to holiday in. All campsites had a supervisor on duty should any unwanted (or unregistered) people try to invade and infringe upon the safety or peace and comfort of those staying on their grounds.
Last not least, money. Always too tight to mention here is a piece of advice: carry a mix of hard cash and its plastic variety. No need for credit cards as Turkey is both ATM and cashless paying paradise; local bank cards work as well as international debit card options and are usually much cheaper to use than credit cards. But you might want to equip yourself with a daily amount of cash for just in case as one or two places did not accept electronic – transactions!
Why did we choose that subject for an article? Because little is written about the fact that Turkey has a well-developed network of campgrounds and not just along our southern Aegean or Mediterranean shores. And we are not talking about a handful either, quite the opposite is true and numbers are increasing.
Final point: of course you need at least one or two tents for a family of five to sleep in comfortably. And a little practice in how to actually setting it all up in a non-collapsing manner yet this could be learned whilst still at home.
Verdict: a fantastic, affordable, enjoyable, memorable camping trip. And no, these are not my words but live commentary from two young adult teenage girls who normally interpret summer vacation as spending their nights in brick-solid comfortable accommodation. Daddy shall follow in their footsteps soon.
