My first trip to Amsterdam wasn’t originally supposed to be a proper visit at all. I was already in Europe for work, and I extended the trip by a few days specifically to add Amsterdam on rather than heading straight home. Once I made that call, I ended up staying five nights total, enough time…
Amsterdam is one of the easiest cities in Europe to gamble on during a long layover. Schiphol Airport has a railway station sitting directly underneath the terminal, and trains reach Amsterdam Centraal in around 17 minutes, several times an hour. On paper, that makes leaving the airport look almost effortless. The train ride is only…
When you look at Istanbul on the map, the first thought is, “Hmm, I can easily navigate through this.” You see Sultanahmet, Galata, the Bosphorus, the Asian side, it all looks close enough to fit into one ambitious day if you’re planning from your laptop months in advance. Then you actually get here, and you…
A lot of people assume that adding a Greek island to a Turkey trip means flying through Athens. It doesn’t, not if you’re anywhere along Turkey’s western or southwestern coast. Several Greek islands sit remarkably close to the Turkish shore, close enough that a proper ferry crossing takes less time than your morning coffee. Kuşadası…
Paragliders drifting down toward Ölüdeniz beach are already a normal part of the beach, most days between April and November you’ll see them without trying. During the Air Games, that changes completely. Acro pilots, wingsuit flyers, paramotors, base jumpers, hang gliders, and more all fill the sky at once, and for a few days the…
The first time someone told me Istanbul was split between two continents, I pictured a clean line, Europe on one side, Asia on the other, pick a team and go. It’s not really like that. Each side is really a handful of neighbourhoods with their own personality, and the decision that actually matters isn’t “Europe…
Istanbul is a city split across two continents by open water, and the first time you look at a transit map here, it looks like it should be a nightmare to get around. It isn’t. Once you understand the shape of the system, one card, a handful of lines, and a ferry network that turns…
Every time regional tensions in the Middle East flare up, I get some version of the same message from friends and family: “Wait, isn’t Turkey right next to all that? Is it actually safe to go?” It’s a fair question, and it deserves a better answer than a flat yes or no. Turkey is a…
Most “biblical Turkey” guides hand you a map dotted with seven ancient names and call it a plan. What they don’t tell you is that those seven cities are scattered across hundreds of kilometres of western Turkey, and figuring out which ones fit into your trip, and which don’t, is the real problem. Here’s how…
Ask most people what there is to do in Kuşadası and they’ll say Ephesus, and honestly, they’re not wrong. But Ephesus is technically over in Selçuk, and I’ve already written about it in detail, so I’ll link that here rather than repeat myself. What I want to get into is everything else, the stuff that…
