Turkish delight

Sailing on a wooden gulet in the Aegean Sea is a relaxing way to while away a few days.

G'day mate! It's the sort of greeting you would expect to hear in Australia, but if you're a Kiwi travelling in Turkey, it's the Turkish way of making you feel welcome.

The Turks have a special fondness for Kiwis and Aussies. The country has great respect for our soldiers who lost their lives in the Gallipoli battlefields during World War I.

The Gallipoli National Historic Park is a full-day trip from the Turkey's biggest city, Istanbul. You can get a guided walk of the historical battlefields, trenches and tunnels and see the war memorials and museum.

My husband and I entered into Turkey via the port town of Kusadasi after 10 days in the Greek Islands. Kusadasi is unashamedly touristy but it is a good base from which to visit the ancient city of Ephesus, the World Heritage-listed travertine pools of Pamukkale and the Roman spa city of Heirapolis.

Ephesus is the best-preserved classical city in the eastern Mediterranean and, on the day we visited, swarming with American cruise ship tourists. Regardless of the hordes, this is definitely a must-see. The nearby town of Selcuk also has an excellent museum displaying some of the artefacts from Ephesus.

You'll need your sunglasses to visit the gleaming white calcium formations of Pamukkale. The ‘Cotton Castle' was formed when warm mineral water cascaded over the cliff edge, cooling and depositing its calcium into natural shelves, pools and stalactites.

Years of overuse mean the pools are no longer available for bathing, but you can bathe at the nearby Pamukkale Termal in Hierapolis. The water feels like warm Perrier and you can lie back and soak amid fallen Roman columns.

It was in the small town of Koycegiz that we experienced our first real taste of Turkish hospitality. While hotels are plentiful in Turkey, if you're travelling on a budget you will probably stay in a pension – a cross between a hostel and bed and breakfast. The Tango Pension put on a fabulous traditional Turkish meal and provided after-dinner entertainment in the form of a male belly dancer.

Koycegiz is perched on the end of a large lake joined to the Mediterranean via the Dayan River. From there you can take a boat cruise to the Sultaniye hot springs and mud baths, the ancient ruins of Kaunos and Iztuzu Beach, which is home to the endangered loggerhead turtle. Above the river you can see the facades of Lycian rock tombs that date back to the fourth century BC.

Soaking in the mineral waters of the Sultaniye hot springs is said to be good for skin complaints and rheumatism, but we opted to give ourselves a body pack of mud at the smaller mud baths. I never thought getting so dirty would feel so good.

Further south in Fethiye we boarded a gulet for a four-day cruise of the Aegean Sea. Turkish gulets are beautiful wooden yachts fully equipped with showers, toilets and comfortable cabins. Swimming in a sea of cobalt blue and lying on a deck soaking up the sun's rays with a good book is the ultimate in relaxation.

Turkey has some amazing beaches and Oludeniz, southeast of Fethiye, is no exception. One of the great attractions here is a sheltered lagoon where you can relax on the beach with mountains soaring above you.

Further along the coast we spent a night in a tree house camp in the ancient city of Olympos. The highlight of this stopover was an after-dark visit to The Chimaera, a cluster of spontaneous flames that blaze from the crevices on the slopes of Mt Olympos.

On our way to Egirdir we stopped at the ruined city of Termessos. It's quite a hike to get up there but it is worth the opportunity to sit in an ancient theatre against a backdrop of mountains.

From Egirdir we continued east towards Cappadocia, enjoying a stop at the Sultanhari caravanserai (camel stop) on the way. Originally built in 1229, it has since been restored and features a beautifully carved entrance, prayer room and stable.

Nothing prepares you for your first glimpse of the volcanic landscape of Cappadocia. Over many millions of years, volcanoes, wind, rain and ice sculpted the land. As it eroded, the basalt stones remained and formed conical structures sometimes reaching as high as 45 metres. The locals call these unique rock formations ‘fairy chimneys'.

We based ourselves in the village of Goreme, staying in another family-friendly pension where the rooms were carved into the rock, which was a fantastic escape on a hot day.

If your budget stretches to it, this is a fabulous place to take a hot air balloon ride, but we settled for a bus tour of the region's highlights.

These include the Derinkuyu underground city where tens of thousands of people lived for months at a time to escape persecution by the Ottomans, the Selime Monastery (reportedly where the first Star Wars movie was filmed), and sunset over the fairy chimneys in the Zelve Valley.

Our last day in Cappadocia was a real treat. We spent the morning haggling for a Turkish carpet over apple tea, followed by a Turkish shave for my husband and a visit to a hamam (bathhouse).

The Turkish barbers use a cut-throat razor, shaving twice before burning the nose and ear hair off with a piece of cotton. You can finish off with a head, neck and upper back massage if you choose.

In the hamam you wear a cotton wrap and lie on the marble slabs in the steam room to work up a sweat. You are then taken off to a private room where you are given a loofah scrub, which takes off the top layer of dead skin, followed by a vigourous massage that leaves you feeling like a million dollars.

We finished our Turkish holiday in Istanbul. It is a busy, bustling city but very easy and affordable to get around by taxi – as long as you set a price with the taxi driver first!

The highlights in Istanbul are many, including the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya and Topkapi Palace. The ornate beauty of the harem at the latter took my breath away, but I'm sure this was no consolation for the concubines who were enslaved here for almost four centuries.

You can't go to Istanbul without shopping at the Grand Bazaar - a medieval shopping centre with more than 4500 shops. We had great fun haggling for souvenirs to send home to the family.

Our last day was spent on a ferry trip out to the end of the Bosphorus Strait which divides Europe and Asia. We enjoyed a picnic lunch with spectacular views out towards the Black Sea from the ruins of a medieval castle.

If you're a foodie you'll love the Turkish food – pide (pizza), kebabs, dolma (stuffed vegetables) and baklava – honey-soaked flaky pastry stuffed with walnuts and pistachios. And there's always the coffee, apple tea and raki, Turkey's national drink made of twice-distilled grapes and aniseed, otherwise known as ‘Lion's Milk'.

*Istanbul is currently considered a high risk destination by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism following a terrorist attack in the city in 2016, however tours of the country can be arranged through most travel agents.

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