Turkey has five long distance trekking routes and collections of shorter trails: The Lycian Way –opened in 1999,  The St Paul Trail –opened in 2004 and the Kaçkar trails –opened in 2008, were all made by Kate Clow.

The first two are  about 500km long. Kate Clow with help from Terry Richardson researched designed and implemented all these trails. Many other volunteers helped. Kate  produced the guide books and maps, assisted by Terry Richardson, who took photos, George Zsiga, who drew the maps and Ueli Aellig and others who took GPS readings.

Both long-distance trails are 'way-marked' with red-white paint flashes every 100m or less. The Kaçkar trails are not waymarked, since they are snow-covered for many months of the year. All are described in the guide books and maps. Before you walk, you can get up to date information on the 'update' pages of this web site.

The long-distance trails were authorized by the Turkish Ministry of Culture.

The new route, the Evliya Çelebi Way, runs from the Sea of Marmara (Hersek) to İznik, Bursa, Kütahya, Afyonkarahısar and Uşak, following the route and narrow paved roads used by Evliya as he set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1671. The route can be traveled by horse, as Evliya did, as well as on foot. The project was initiated and implemented by Ottoman Historian Caroline Finkel. The book and map will be published and be available on this website in May 2011.

The projects consist of:

Books - which give you background and historical information about the areas, and describe the routes in detail, with times and distances and altitude profiles.

Maps - included with each book - show key points on the route. Use the books to plan your walking holiday; the maps to check each day's walk.

GPS points - are downloadable from the Books and Maps page. They are in 3 formats - as a Google Earth file, so you can view the route before you walk, as a text file, so you can select just the sections you want, and as a Garmin gpx file that you can upload straight to your GPS.

The Way Marking makes it easy to follow the route. Paths are way-marked in red and white stripes to Grande Randonnee standards. Both long-distance routes have yellow and green signposts at the junction of the route with metalled roads.

Cultural Routes in Turkey:
Kate’s routes are not the only cultural routes in Turkey. From 2008, progress has been made on several new routes. Below is a list:

Independence Way - the trail used to supply arms to Mustafa Kemal’s fighters during the War of Independence, it runs from İnebolu to Kastamonu, northof Ankara.

Yenice Forest Trails - between Ankara and Istanbul, these easy, but beautiful trails through mixed forest can be walked or biked. An arboretum and canyons add variety.

Eskipazar Trail - an extension to the ruins of Hadrianoupolis.

Küre Mountain Routes - Canyon and Forest Trails through a National Park in north Turkey.

(All the above waymarked trails can be combined in a 500 km walk - there are guide books to all these trails).

Phrygian Way - a 400km trail through the heartlands of the Phrygian kingdom, passing royal tombs, fairy chimneys and using old roads. Currently being waymarked.

The Hittite Routes - 230km of marked trails suitable for biking and walking, in and around the Hittite National Park and sites at Boğazkale, east of Ankara. Opening on 15th May; waymarked with a book and maps.

The Sultan’s Trail - an ambitious international route from Vienna to İstanbul, following the steps of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Opened in 2011, a guidebook is available in Dutch.

The Abraham Path - the first part of the journey of Abraham from Urfa (his birthplace in Southeast Turkey) to Hebron and Mecca. This project is being developed by an international team.

[updated, april 2011]