Does anyone know how long it would take to travel to turkey from england? Has anyone tried this, if so, what is the quickest or easiest route to take?
monkeymaj Sun 24/08/08 15:06
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I assume that you mean overland, rather than by air.
If so, ViaMichelin (which is the best routefinder on the web) gives the driving distance between Calais and Istanbul as 2850km (1771 miles), with a total driving time of 27 hours 8 minutes. Allowing for getting to Dover and across to Calais, you're probably looking at 4 days journey with one driver and not stopping (other than overnight) to visit anywhere en route.
However, Turkey's a very big country. You'd need a further day's travel to get to the 'Turquoise Coast, around Dalaman.
Plan your route here:
http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/gbr/t pl/hme/MaHomePage.htm
Chris
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No idiotic question.
This is a route still travelled by the hugely expensive private train companies that market as 'orient express' experiences. I travelled it buying tickets on ordinary train lines, 2 years ago. It is very straightforward - I took my time over it but to telescope what I did would equal:
Paris Gare du Nord to Vienna - overnight
Vienna to Budapest - couple of hours
Budapest to Bucharest - overnight
Bucharest to Istanbul - overnight
So 3- 4 days total, depending on how to choose to get to Paris. If you are in SE england this is very easy with eurostar, but being in the north I flew to Paris on a budget airline. There is a train from Charles de Gaulle airport directly inot the heart of Paris and in addition, this route puts you directly in the heart of Istanbul at the end. The train goes directly round the outside of the Topkapi Palace, by the Bosphorus. HOWEVER.....the last two legs were at the time I travelled very very taxing on the traveller. The Romanians appeared to have no concept of 'the customer' and we were actually locked into our railway carriage, with filthy communal 'bathroom' and no air con, and a six-inch square of opening window, with temps in the 40s centigrade.
The train was eight hours late into Istanbul, and no refreshments were available on board. We knew this in advance and were prepared with grub and water but the heat and the filth were trying, as well as the carriage attendant who seemed to have trained in the Gulag.
There were numerous border checks, often in the night, by guards who were not used to democracies and seemed to want one to be in awe of them, but that could be said of many folk in uniform the world over.
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(continued)
I flew back from Istanbul.
I'd say this is a great adventure to do, especially spending time along the way in the towns you change at - apart from Bucharest which had little to recommend it but some very persistent taxi-bandits. If you choose to do do this route I recommend you travel with a buddy, keep your luggage in view at all times and buy a 6-bed couchette to yourselves as much as possible. A bike lock to keep your luggage in place while you are asleep can be very useful
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Sounds really attractive LOL.
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If that is so lovablemrkno
then the joke is on you,because YOU are the idiot!
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