Early in 2021, my wife and I took two weeks in a destination often overlooked for Overlanding. I had been living in the country for a few months and started some exploratory small weekend outings, and it seemed like too much of a missed opportunity to go without spending a few weeks together on the trail here. Turkey is one of the best countries I have ever visited for this sort of travel, and overall really shocked me. The west often views it as a cheap destination for a typical resort holiday or, even worse, as some sort of dangerous land not worth visiting. In reality, Turkey is affordable if you're making western wages and using western currency, but the experience is anything but "cheap." We enjoyed some of the best food, the finest views, and the happiest times with local people while on our trip, and that sentiment only further extended during my year in the country.

There are miles upon miles of tracks and hiking trails taking you anywhere so long as your truck is capable. The laws on what dirt tracks you can find and explore are nearly non-existent, with the only exception being clearly marked military zones. I hope some of the imagery here will convince a few more folks to see the value in this incredible destination. This story will be less of a guide about what all it has to offer and more about how I spent two weeks giving Hannah, my wife, an intro to the area.

Cesme port after a day of Turkish Tea and fine dining in town

Tracks along the coast out on the Cesme peninsula

Views from the mountains above Izmir, a prime spot for Sunset views

Hannah flew into Izmir, where I was living at the time, in early March. After a few months separated, we spent the first two or three days here enjoying the city, eating food, and getting some much-needed personal time together. Izmir is a larger city on the western coast known for "Kahvalti," or breakfast spreads, and for being a somewhat westernized city like Istanbul compared to destinations farther east on the border with Georgia. Nearby is the port town of Cesme, a quaint spot with some beautiful little tourist spots to visit and enjoy. If you take this trip or end up in this area, I would not miss spending a day out to Alaçatı/Cesme for the views and food. Additionally, even with this area being very developed, there are still plenty of opportunities for offroad and viewing the city from less traditional places. The mountains surrounding Izmir are littered with tracks, and most beaches along the coast can be accessed one way or another, so on our way South, we made sure to hit some of these spots and nab a few images before pushing down to Bodrum and Ölüdeniz.

Some of the coastal road views South of Ölüdeniz

We camped on a part of the Lycian Way, a gorgeous long-distance hiking trail stretching from Antalya to Fethiye. I would love to go back and hike this one day as just a few of the stops we hit along it where the trucks could reach had stunning views of Ölüdeniz and Butterfly valley, so I can only imagine the scenery along the entire trek. After shooing off a few hogs in the night and getting breakfast, we traveled to Butterfly Valley and then up to Babadağ, a mountain and popular paragliding launch spot in the area. The mountain has a road leading up but can also be accessed on the back side by winding through the valleys on a few tracks if your Gaia skills are up for it.

We took a series of tracks and roads along the coast from the mountain, exploring the Fethiye/Muğla region. It's really up to you to spend time on google/Gaia to build out a track or series of them, depending on how long your rig can be off the pavement and separated from society. I can't stress enough that the options are endless. From mountain passes to beach camps down to historic sites and little cafes, you could spend months along the western coast of Turkey having the time of your lives for a minimal sum of money.

Once we passed into Antalya, we quickly made camp for a few nights in a gorgeous area called the Patara Sand Dunes. Here you can camp on the dunes overlooking a magnificent beach in front of you with tons of mountain tracks just an hour away. This is just a taste of what Turkey can offer; there is a massive region of forested mountain tracks to explore across the coast of the Black Sea, the hot air baloon experience and the old town feel of Cappadocia, Istanbul, Van Lake, and so much more. People who travel to Turkey usually see it as a passage country and less of a destination, but my wife and I can't wait to find our way back to spend some real time exploring the countryside.