Lakes District Voyage Tips and guide

Contents

The Lakes District (Turkish: Göller Yöresi) is a region within Mediterranean Turkey, some 120 km north of the coast.

37°57′36″N 31°0′0″E

Map of Lakes District

• 37.76666730.551 Isparta the region's chief city is surrounded by rose fields and produces Attar of Rose for the perfume industry.
• 37.87501430.8302592 Eğirdir is a pleasant lakeside town, a stop-off for hikers on the St Paul Trail.
• 37.71666730.2833333 Burdur has old mosques and museums, with Sagalassos in the nearby hills.
• 37.68666731.7305564 Beyşehir has a UNESCO-listed mosque and Hittite ruins.
• 38.35916731.4163895 Akşehir was home town to the fabled Nasrettin Hoca, a 13th century offbeat wit.
• 38.331.1833336 Yalvaç is by the ruins of Antioch of Pisidia

• 37.67805630.5194441 Sagalassos in the mountains is the ruins of a Roman / Byzantine city.
• 37.57516130.9853112 Adada is the ruins of a Pisidian city amidst striking mountain scenery; there's a stretch of Roman road nearby.
• 37.46374931.33 Yazılı Kanyon Nature Park 20 km southwest of Sütçüler is a national park centred around a 10-km long, 100- to 400-m deep canyon. The canyon has Byzantine-era hermitages and canyoning opportunities.
• 37.550829.68334 Lake Salda has white sandy beaches and azure, crystal clear waters, but they're alkaline.

"Tectonic lakes" are formed when the land is distorted along fault lines. This throws up mountain ranges while disrupting the drainage in the valleys, so the rivers back up into long lakes; if flow is limited and evaporation is high the lake water becomes saline. The Lakes District of Turkey is a good example, with the large lakes of Eğirdir and Beyşehir, a dozen medium-sized, and a couple of dozen smaller lakes. Some 30 have dried out during modern times, mainly through agricultural draw-off.

The beach resorts of the Med are only two hours drive to the south but the lakes have relatively little tourism and recreational use, even from within Turkey. The saline lake waters are gloopy and sting your eyes, but even freshwater Lake Beyşehir is not much developed.

The district is more or less equivalent to the ancient kingdom of Pisidia, so here and there are Hellenistic and other ruins. Administratively it corresponds to Isparta and Burdur Provinces and the western edge of Konya Province.

By plane: Antalya Airport (AYT ^IATA) is about 120 km south of this region and has year-round budget flights from across Europe - most of their travellers are on package deals, but you can buy flight-only. Domestic flights are from all the major Turkish cities and from Ercan in Northern Cyprus. Occasional flights are from Egypt, the Gulf and central Asian cities, but for transatlantic travel fly via Istanbul (IST ^IATA).

37.86530.3819441 Isparta Airport (ISE ^IATA) has flights several days a week from Istanbul, but that's all. It's 31 km northwest of Isparta town with no public transport.

By train the best plan is to take the YHT fast train to Konya from Istanbul or Ankara, then switch to bus.

Göller Ekspresi ("Lakes Express") lumbers once daytime and once overnight from Izmir Basmane, via Izmir Airport, Selcuk (for Ephesus and Kuşadası), Aydın, Nazilli and Denizli (for Pamukkale) to Isparta, 10 hours. These trains only have seating, no sleeper berths

By bus: These run several times a day direct from Istanbul (10 hours), and at least daily from Ankara, to all the major towns in this region on their way to Antalya or Izmir. From Konya take a dolmuş.

The Saint Paul Trail is a 500-km marked hiking trail loosely following the first missionary journey of St Paul the Apostle. It starts from Perge east of Antalya and heads via Yazılı Kanyon, Adada and Eğirdir to cross the lake to Antioch of Pisidia near Yalvaç, its northern trailhead.

Buses and dolmuşes link all the towns. Many sights are within waking distance of their town centres but you need your own wheels for outlying sights, which are impractical to reach by public transport. Overseas visitors should hire a car at their arrival airport.

• Eşrefoğlu Mosque in Beyşehir is a wooden mosque from 1296 AD, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Antioch of Pisidia is an ruined city at the edge of Yalvaç.
• Sagalassos ruins are in the mountains 20 km south of Isparta.

• Skiing on Mount Davraz: the skiable domain is from 2250 m down to 1650 m. The resort village Çobanisa is 28 km east of Isparta.
• Hamams - traditional Turkish baths - are found in all the towns.
• Water activities: not as much as you'd expect for a region of lakes. The problem is that most are hypersaline and alkaline, so the water stings your eyes and any raw spots. Beyşehir is best choice as this lake has fresh water.
• Tell improbable tales: Nasreddin Hoca supposedly lived in the 13th century in Akşehir, issuing gnomic utterances and riding back-to-front on his donkey. He insisted it was the donkey that was wrong way round.

The towns all have inexpensive places with trad Turkish fare. There's a dearth of other cuisines.

• Hotels and cafes serve alcohol, there are no free-standing pubs.
• Tap water is safe to drink but is "hard", with high mineral content, so you may prefer bottled.

• Dress for the weather on the mountains, and in winter consider if you need to carry snow chains.
• Beware traffic and safeguard valuables same as anywhere else.

• Konya east is a major city with Seljuk architecture.
• Afyon north is dominated by its hilltop castle.
• Denizli west is the hub for visiting the thermal pools of Pamukkale.
• Antalya south is a major beach resort, and the way to reach a string of resorts along the Mediterranean coast.