Cappadocia to Ankara We were travelling north to Safrabolu which was a long 5.5 hour drive from Cappadocia. To go on a relaxing pace we stopped for a night in Ankara before moving on to Safrabolu the next day. On…
Day 20,21: Cappadocia
Cappadocia We planned for a three night stay at Vista Cave Hotel sited in Goreme in Cappadocia. We had chosen to stay in the town of Goreme as it was in the middle of various Cappadocia sights we intended to…
Day 19: Ihara Valley
Konya to Ihlara Valley From Konya to Cappadocia was a pretty straight route on D300 highway which was a four lane state road. A direct drive to Cappadocia would need about 3 hours, but we planned for 2 stops. The…
Day 18: Kilistra & Konya
Egirdir to Kilistra to Konya Our final destination for the day was Konya where we stayed a night. Driving directly from Egirdir to Konya was about two hours, but we took it easy and made two stops on the way,…
Day 17: Egirdir
From Pamukkale to Egirdir After Pamukkale our next must see destination in Turkey was Cappadocia which was more than 8 hours drive away. It was a long drive and we found two places in between that deserved a night stop…
Day 15,16: Pamukkale
Antalya to Pamukkale Since leaving Istanbul two weeks ago, we had be travelling along the coast of Turkey. We travelled westward to Canakkale a coastal town and moved southward hugging the coast all the way to Antalya. From Antalya we…
Day 13,14: Antalya
Gelidonya to Antalya It was a 1.5 hour drive to Antalya not a very long journey. We had two days in Antalya, during these two days we had planned to visit two destinations, Manavgat Waterfall and Köprülü Canyon National Park.…
Day 12: Gelidonyas
Kas to Gelidonya Kas to Gelidonya was about 110 km, along the way we stop at ruins of Myra Ancient City. Again there were several ruins along the route but we chose only Myra Ancient City as it seemed to…
Day 11: Coastal drive to Kras
Dalyan to Kras After Dalyan we drove southward to Kras a town by the coast. The distance was 170km and there were many sites along the route to stop and visit. We stopped at only at three of these “many”…
Day 10: Daylan
From Bodrum to Dalyan There were two ways to get to Dalyan, we could do a complete journey by land or at Bodrum Harbour we boarded a car ferry to Datca and then carried on to Dalyan on land. The…
Day 9: Bodrum
Sirince to Bodrum From Sirince to Bodrum was a 2.5 hour drive over about 176km. The drive was nice, the highway was good and easy to navigate. Bodrum was more “upmarket” than we thought. Modern white villas stacking up the…
Day 7 & 8: Selcuk Sirince & Ephesus
Ayvalik Before we left the old town of Ayvalik we drove to an island, Alibey Adasi. It was tbe largest island of Ayvalik and was linked by a bridge. Immediately once we crossed the bridge we were captivated by the…
Day 5 & 6: Canakkale – Ayvalik
Canakkale and Ayvalik We stayed one night at Canakkale and visited ancient Troy the next day. Canakkale was a long way from Bursa, the distance was about 275 km. We took our time on the road, stopping for sights and…
Day 4: Bursa
Bursa Bursa was about 2 hours drive away from Istanbul and it had the world longest cable car line. We thought it would be worth exploring. We left Istanbul after breakfast at our hotel and drove on to Bursa. The…
Day 1-3: Istanbul
Flying from singapore to Istanbul We flew premium economy on Singapore International Airlines into Istanbul. The cost of the return trip was about 50% more than the standard economy seats. Since it was a direct nonstop 11 hour flight through…
Spain & Portugal Summed up
Road trip for 53 days How did we decide that it was a 53 day road trip to explore Spain and Portugal and not a 20 days or a 70 days? We started by looking at pictures of scenic destinations…
Day 52 & 53: Going Home
Summary We were on the final leg of our road trip. Wow! It was 53 days ago when we first picked up our Citroen car at Tolouse and soon it was about time to return the car to the same…
Day 51: Montserrat
Summary Our last destination in Spain was Montserrat (saw tooth mountain) and the famous abbey that sat on it. It was a short drive from Barcelona to the mountain. We stayed for a night in a hotel next to the…
Day 48, 49 & 50: Barcelona
SUMMary We had three days in Barcelona. Barcelona was our last Spanish city and it seemed pretty big with many attractions so we gave ourselves three days instead of the usual two. We stayed in a hotel just outside the…
Day 46 & 47: Valencia
Summary We had two days to explore Valencia. It was a lovely place and one of the places in our itinerary we were looking forward to visit was the “grand old market”, which was not the typical modern supermarket. “The…
Day 45: Monasterio de Piedra Natural Park
Summary We drove a long way to visit Monasterio de Piedra Natural Park. It was a tedious 3 hour 15 minute drive over 266 km. This Natural Park was so out of way and we were not sure how to…
Day 44: El Escorial & Segovia
Summary We drove from Madrid to San Lorenzo El Escorial and stopped there to visit its famous Monastery. It was a monastery that looked more like a fortress and a palace. After visiting the monastery we drove to Segovia where…
Day 42 & 43: Madrid
Summary We had two nights in Madrid and we stayed in an apartment in Madrid Centro. From Toledo to Madrid was an hour drive. We knew that Madrid Centro had restricted entry non-resident cars so we were very carefull not…
Day 41: Toledo
Summary We visited Toledo a beautiful ancient city just an hour drive from Consuegra. It was definitely a city that deserved a one night stay, staying a night gave us the opportunities to experience the old city in both daylight…
Day 40: Consuegra
Summary We drove from Cordoba to Daimiel Tablas wetland, unfortunately the weather was horribly hot so we did not get out of our air-conditioned car to explore the wetland. We drove on to Consuegra to see the amazing windmills. The…
Day 39: Cordoba
Summary We went from Granada to Cordoba. At Cordoba our main focus was Mezquita-Catedral de Cordoba (Mosque Cathedral of Cordoba), this building looked magnificent from the outside but it was its interior that took our breath away. It was so…
Day 38: Granada
Summary We had one night in Granada. We started our journey from Colomares Castle and drove 187 km to Granada. Midway we stop at Frigiliana a beautiful white Spanish Village for coffee break. We reached Granada at about 3 pm…
Day 37: Caminito Del Rey & Colomares Castle
Summary We drove north east to visit Caminito de Rey and then south east to Colomare Monument. At Caminito de Rey we joined a 8 km guided walk through an incredible beautiful gorge of the Desfiladero de los Gaitanes, where…
Day 35 & 36: Ronda & Setenil
Summary We stayed for two nights in Ronda, a famous Spanish White Village with a awesome bridge, Puente Nuevo. On the first day we drove for about 130 km from Seville to Ronda, near the last part of the journey…
Day 33 & 34: Seville
Summary We had two nights in Seville, on the first evening we went to a local tavern to see the “Flamenco” (spanish dance). After the dance we visited Las Setasvisited de Sevilla a magnificent modern architecture. The next day was…
Day 32 & 33: Algarve
Summary We left Arrifana at about about noon driving towards the western tip of Algarve. We decided not to stop at Bordeira’s beach as it would be similar to Arrifana beach we drove ahead to the “Lighthouse of Cabo de…
Day 31: Lisbon to Algarve
Summary We had two and a half days for Algarve which was a southern most region of Portugal. The first day was focused on getting to Algarve. We drove about 250 km from Lisbon to a small town on the…
Day 29 & 30: Azores
Summary We arrived at Ponta Delgada of São Miguel in the middle of the night. São Miguel was the largest and most populous island in the Azores group of islands. The group had nine volcanic islands located in the North…
Day 26, 27 & 28: Lisboa
Summary We stayed in Lisbon for two nights. We left Sintra and arrived in Lishon in the late afternoon. We drove directly to our first destination, Tower of Belem. After the tower, we were off to our “stay” located in…
Day 25 & 26: Berlengas & Sintra
Summary In the morning we drove to Peniche, a major fishing port on the west side of Portugal. From there we took a boat ride to Berlenga islands which was about 16 km west of Peniche. We spent the entire…
Day 24: Batalha Monastery & Obidos
Summary Our next destinations for the rest of the day were Batalha Monastery and Obidos Town. We drove for about 173 km for close to 2 hour to reach Batalha Monastery. The Monastery were pretty large and grand and in…
Day 23 & 24: Serra da Estrela Natural Park
Summary Our next destination in Portugal was Serra da Estrela Natural Park. On the first day we explored Necropole de Sao Gens, Cabeca do Velho and Senhora da bao Estrela and along the way we stopped at two reservoirs/dams. We…
Day 22: Costa Nova & Aviero
Summary We did not travel far today. We visited two destinations, Costa Nova and Aveiro. Our stay for the night (one night) was at Aveiro. Both destinations were very scenic and unique in their own ways. Costa Nova It was…
Day 20 & 21: Porto
Summary From Folgosa (Douro River) we drove east to Porto (old town) which was about 161 km away. On the way we made a detour to explore “Shrine of Our Lady of Remedies”. In many ways this cathedral was similar…
Day 18 & 19: Douro River
Summary We had two days at Douro River on the Portugal side. We stayed two nights at a BnB in Folgosa (parish) that was sited by the bank of the Douro River. On the first day, on our way to…