Nature, trails and camping

Walking in Türkiye

Türkiye is one of the least-known walking countries in the region, which surprises people who arrive expecting only beaches and ruins. The country is sea on three sides, steppe through the middle, and three-thousand-metre ranges in the east — and it has more than forty waymarked long-distance routes, most of them established over the past twenty years largely by volunteers.

Trails use the red-and-white horizontal blaze familiar from the French GR system, painted on trees, rocks and posts. Two stripes stacked: the route continues. A stripe bent into an “L”: turn. A red-and-white cross: wrong way, go back.

The main long-distance routes

The Lycian Way — Fethiye to Antalya, roughly 540 km. Türkiye’s first and best-known long trail. It links the ancient Lycian cities along the coast — Patara, Xanthos, Olympos, Phaselis — and climbs and drops constantly between sea level and about a thousand metres. Walking the whole thing takes 25–30 days; most people take a three- to five-day section. Spring and autumn are the seasons. July and August on this coast are genuinely too hot.

The Carian Trail — a network of about 820 km around Muğla. Quieter and less trafficked than the Lycian Way, threading through pine forest, olive groves and coves.

The St. Paul Trail — Perge to Yalvaç, roughly 500 km. It heads inland into the Taurus Mountains: higher, harder and far emptier than the Lycian Way.

The Kaçkar Mountains — between Rize and Artvin, less a single marked route than a web of highland pastures and passes. Yayla settlements (Ayder, Pokut, Sal, Elevit), glacial lakes and peaks approaching 3,900 m. The season is short — July to September — and cloud and rain arrive without warning.

The Phrygian Valley — between Eskişehir, Kütahya and Afyonkarahisar, with rock-cut monuments and canyons. Geology reminiscent of Cappadocia, almost without visitors.

Cappadocia’s valleys — Rose Valley, Red Valley, Ihlara. Not long-distance, but day walks among the most visually extraordinary anywhere in the country.

For official route maps, GPS tracks and current trail conditions, see cultureroutesinturkey.com.

National parks and protected areas

Türkiye has more than forty national parks, plus hundreds of nature parks, nature conservation areas and natural monuments, all administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Some charge an entry fee and a separate vehicle fee; others are free.

Notable ones include Köprülü Canyon (Antalya), Saklıkent Gorge (Muğla), Yedigöller (Bolu), the Kaçkar Mountains, Mount Nemrut (Adıyaman), Göreme Historical National Park, the Munzur Valley (Tunceli), the Dilek Peninsula (Aydın), Kuşcenneti bird sanctuary (Balıkesir) and Ilgaz Mountain (Kastamonu).

For site-by-site visitor information, fees and any temporary closures, use tabiat.gov.tr.

Camping: where, how, and whether you need permission

Three different situations get confused with each other:

Organised campsites. Run inside national parks and nature parks. Toilets, water, sometimes electricity; a fee is paid on site. The simplest and safest option.

Wild camping in forest. Outside designated areas, camping in forest is restricted in summer because of fire risk. Between roughly June and October, many provinces close forest access entirely by governor’s decree. Lighting a fire is prohibited in almost all circumstances. The decision changes every year and differs by province, so check the relevant governorate’s current notice before you go rather than assuming last year’s rules.

Highland pastures and villages. In yayla regions such as the Kaçkars, pitching a tent is ordinary practice. Asking at a highland house or guesthouse and camping in or beside their ground is both safer and more in keeping with local custom. In rural Türkiye the question of whose land it is gets answered by asking, not by reading signs.

Military and border zones. Parts of the east and southeast are restricted military areas. Near any border, camping and drones will cause problems. If in doubt, ask the jandarma; they do not mind being asked.

Safety: what not to underestimate

Water. Summer temperatures across the south and interior reach 35–40 °C, and long stretches of trail have no water source. Three to four litres a day is normal on the Lycian Way. Mark springs on your map in advance.

Heat and shade. Walking the Mediterranean or Aegean coast in the middle of a July or August day is a real risk, not a discomfort. Starting at 06:00 and stopping at 11:00 is the local habit, and it is the correct one.

Changing weather. On the Black Sea coast and in the east, conditions turn within the hour. Fog, rain and 5 °C are possible in the Kaçkars in August. A waterproof layer and one warm layer stay in the pack regardless of season.

Shepherd dogs. Kangal and Akbaş dogs guarding flocks are working animals and should be taken seriously. Do not run, do not hold eye contact, walk a wide arc around the flock, and keep moving calmly and deliberately. If you can see a shepherd, call out — they will recall the dog.

No signal. Much of these routes has no mobile coverage. Download offline maps (OsmAnd, Gaia, maps.me), carry a paper map and compass, and tell someone where you are going.

Emergencies: 112. All emergency services in Türkiye answer on a single number. Mountain search-and-rescue is handled by AKUT and jandarma teams. Being able to give your position as coordinates makes a large difference.

Connecting to the places on this site

Filtering the map by the mountain & highland and forest, lake & river categories will show most of the areas described here — Ayder in the Kaçkars, Saklıkent, Uludağ, the Ihlara Valley and others. Each place page carries coordinates and a note on how to get there.