I have a job to Istanbul at the end of January. I have never been, only ever been as far as Sofia in Bulgaria. This job will be in a van not my usual truck, so any tips for general driving into Turkey?
Can I come too, jealous now, Turkey is no different to the rest of Europe, modern roads.
Service areas are a bit sparse of food and drink, mostly vending machines for coffee.
Expect 24 hour checkpoints, the police wave you in with a torch to the side of the road to check paperwork.
Or a full on checkpoint with a coned off area.
In Istanbul i saw a few Polish and Dutch aattics parked up by the river unattended, with their cab curtains not drawn.
If you get time off visit the Orient Express restaurant, the night time area where locals go on top the big hill with the antennas on it.
Its all lit up like a funfair, with bread snacks traditionaly made , stunning night view of the city.
Walk or drive over the bridge to Asia.
Visit the blue Mosque.
Drink strong coffee with the locals, men in only in the cafes.
Population London 8 million.
Istanbul 13 million and is four times bigger than London.
The pollution and smog can be bad as for traffic jams , they are big.
If you have spare time, numerous city tours for a good price, the night time tour is good on a mini bus.
Low employment rate so petty crime is low.
If your van is in the hotel it will have CCTV and maybe a night security man.
Maybe take a boat trip to see the millionaire houses by the river.
Cheers Toby, the van is staying, I’m being flown back &forth until the gig is over.
You probably already know it, but I believe you need a Visa before you go if you’re going for work or commercial driving, not like the tourist visa you get when you get off the plane, or the Visa we got for doing the Grand Prix.
When I went there the roads seemed quite good, but we were only going from the port to the circuit, which was all new motorways on the outskirts of Istanbul. But then you’d see a horse and cart coming the wrong way down the hard shoulder or loads of stray dogs running up and down them.
Driving into Istanbul to go to the hotel or airport was a different experience, give yourself time, seemed to be one permanent traffic jam and just a free for all if there is a gap somebody will drive into it.
It’s a shame you can’t spend a bit of time as a tourist, I always loved going there.
Muckles, I loved it there too mate. It is an amazing city, the people are friendly and leave you alone, I was surprised by the wide shopping streets and designer shops, with an array of top of the range goods on offer .
It is a shame that Big Vern is not venturing further inland to visit the Roman city of Ephesus, that is an amazing place, a whole day needed to appreciate it fully.
The salt mines of Pamulake is worth seeing, you can sit in streams of high flowing water, dip in thermal pools with healing properties , a bit like the Roman Baths in Bath .
With the winter , I doubt the tourist coaches will be running to these places, as you can do them from the South coast resorts easily in a two day coach trip with a hotel in Pamulake.
But that is in the tourist season, at this time of year, I would hire a car .
Lets hope that Big Vern can see a lot of Istanbul , you never forget the place.
I’m hoping the Mrs can come. Then we won’t fly back but will use the time the van is stationary to have a mini holiday.
We have a young Grandaughter to look after, so therein lies the problem!
BV, you have the choice of a few roads to use to transit Bulgaria, there is the much faster toll road motorway, or the slower paced and much more scenic old road before the motorway was built, with some mountain driving , the weather in January for Istanbul will be a cool 46 degrees, sun up about 08.30 , sun down 18.00 ish .
The sea temperature will be about 46 degrees, so pack the trunks for a dip in the rivers around the city, you may see the local kids tomb stoning off concrete blocks and off jagged bits of rusted out old junk from shut down factories or derelict buildings .
Bigvern, I have never been to Turkey but, reading some of tales from the Turkey and ex M/E hands, they say that when you enter the country with a vehicle, the vehicle details are put in your passport and you cant leave the country without exiting with said vehicle too!! It may well have changed nowadays, but if that’s still the case then you may have a problem driving in with a truck, park it up and flying out again! Of course, if you have two passports then all should be fine! Im sure your T/M will have it all in hand though, also, with regard to Muckles point about the separate type of visa!
Good luck, lets us know how it goes! Have you seen the film Midnight Express?? 
Will find out soon enough. Gotta do a mini tour of Czech first.
It used to be a form that you had to fill out at the border, they didn’t actually write the vehicle details in your passport. But it is true, it contained iirc any electronics you had on you as well. Or maybe I’m mixing it up with Ukraine or something, I think they had something similar anyways. Best ask someone who has been there later, than a decade ago 