Coach Class

Turkey has a great national coach network with so many competing companies. You board in Istanbul near the Black Sea at 7pm and alight in Antakya 500 miles away on the Mediterranean at 10am the next day. And all for about 25 Euros ($40), including bike.

There are even minibus connections from various points in the City centre to get you to the main out-of-town bus terminus. And it all works. They even held back the coach for 10 minutes as they struggled to get me through the heavy traffic caused by the torrential rain.

The coaches are modern and you stop at well equipped service stations every 3 hours.

The best on is at 7am: a large wooden Alpine style building surrounded by snow covered mountains, with huge condors (OK, big birds) soaring high above on the air currents. A quick breakfast of soft pastries and some Turkish coffee, then back on the bus to head down into the southern plain.