Middle East

When you tell your friends and family that you plan to travel to the Middle East, you can expect the same remarks: “what about terrorists?”, “isn’t it super dangerous there?”, “are you crazy?!” It’s always best to do your own research and while some areas of this region aren’t traveller-friendly, for the most part it’s one of the safest and rewarding places you can travel. Ignore everyone else and find out for yourself.

Middle East Travel

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Backpacking Eastern Turkey – Van, Kars & Ani

We arrived in Van in the evening and checked into our hostel we had booked. Had a quick bite to eat and were off to bed…totally exhausted after the hotbox of a bus ride! The next day we went to see the Van Castle, set high up on a massive rock overlooking the lake. There ...
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Backpacking Mt. Nemrut & Diyarbakir, Turkey

After our amazing experiences in Sanliurfa and Harran we set out on a convoluted journey to Mt. Nemrut. As with most of our backpacking days, it was a very long travel day!  It took us 4 sweltering hot buses to get to our hotel near the summit and luckily at 2150 meters above sea level ...
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Backpacking Harran, Turkey – Beehives & New Friends

Sanliurfa is a beautiful city in Eastern Turkey with a lot to see and do. Unfortunately Turkey is such a big country so we had to really start moving a lot in hopes of covering more area and seeing more sights. Instead of spending day 3 in the actual town of Sanliurfa we took a ...
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Gaziantep & Sanliurfa – Exploring Eastern Turkey

The further East we headed in Turkey, the more like travelling it became. Cars were replaced with donkeys, western tourists replaced by Kurdish people, bars and restaurants replaced by side of the road eateries, the English language was dropped and only Turkish and Kurdish spoken and the whole atmosphere went from a tourist trap to ...
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Backpacking Cappadocia, Turkey – Flintstones Meets Mario World

Sometimes when backpacking you come across a place on the globe and you think “how could I have not known that a place like this existed?” Cappadocia Turkey is one of those places. We arrived to the small town of Gerome on a 12 hour over-night bus from Olympos. I was awoken by the first ...
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Backpacking Olympos, Turkey – Chillin In Treehouses

Sleeping in a treehouse, sounds like a childhood dream…or in this case, an adult reality! We arrived in Olympos and were planning to stay in one of the infamous treehouses that the area is known for. They’re technically not built in trees, they’re more like platform huts set high up with a ladder to get ...