Having visited several cities on Turkey's southern coast, I made my way up inland, getting the bus from Adana. Having been dissuaded from anyone I had ever spoken to about visiting Ankara on the basis of it being an incredibly boring city, I was curious to see just how dull a metropolis of over 5 million people could be.
Airbnb always seems to be a bit hit and miss throughout the country and my experience in Ankara was no different. Depending on how long you're staying, you may want to consider a hotel for ease of convenience where the prices seem to be pretty competitive. I spent a week in the Kahya Otel Ankara which was a great place to explore the city from.
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New legislation
Recent changes introduced by the Turkish government has made short-term rentals for under 100 days more restricted. Keep an eye on Reddit threads for up-to-date assessments of how the new legislation is impacting short-term rentals in practice.
There's a strong selection of places to work from across the city with national chain Workinton operating in several places. I personally loved the time i spent at Ancowork which I've written about beneath.
Ankara was great value for both eating out with prices similar to those in Istanbul and the rest of the country for food, drink and coffees.
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The yen is currently at a 34-year low
While this is undoubtedly a negative for the Japanese, it makes for an exceptionally good time to visit Japan from abroad. Although this trend is unlikely to reverse significantly in the short term, it's still worth checking before visiting.
Read moreFrom everything I heard about Ankara before visiting, I was expecting it to have the ambience of a graveyard. I was pleasantly surprised. While it will always fall short compared to Istanbul, I found the area around Çankaya to be a great place to stay—lively and engaging throughout the day, with lots to explore for food, coffee and nightlife. There’s comfortably enough to keep you entertained for a month
Turkey adheres to GMT+2 in summer, reverting to GMT+3 in winter due to the absence of daylight saving time practices.
I've written a guide on how to structure your day to get the most out of the time difference.
Without doubt, being able to speak Spanish with a degree of fluency is a huge asset when visiting South America. I had always put off visiting the continent due to my Spanish skills not extending beyond requesting a "cerveza grande".
But even with my incredibly primitive linguistic capabilities, it was not in any way to the detriment of the trip. English is spoken sparsely, but armed with a few phrases, some polite enthusiasm and a translator, it shouldn't deter you from visiting.
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Republic Day celebrations outside of a kebab shop in Çankaya.
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Autumn time in Dikmen Valley park. Perfect and moderately flat location for running in the centre.
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