Canakkale, Turkey, Canakkale, Turkey (B)

During my two-week tour around Turkey with G-Adventures, our final night’s stay was in Canakkale. Canakkale is a seaport on the southern coast of the Dardanelles with a population of nearly 200,000. It is a good base for those wishing to visit Troy and Gallipoli.

When in Canakkale, stay at the Bogaz Hotel. The reception is friendly and speaks English. The rooms are clean, the Turkish breakfast buffet is reasonable, the internet worked, and it is only a short walk to the pier. All nice qualities for a low price.

Definitely walk to the pier and stroll along the harbor. The breeze coming off the Dardanelles is lovely. And of course it is always fun to look at the different boats. Boats express so much of the surrounding culture.

Also, along the boardwalk is the Trojan Horse used in the movie Troy starring Brad Pitt. The horse was donated to Canakkale after the filming was completed. 

The “wooden” horse is enormous! It is actually made of iron struts and fiber glass. The horse stands 11.4 meters high and weighs 11 tons. It is a major tourist attraction in the city, and our guide said it is more realistic than the one at Troy which includes windows for photo snapping tourists to climb inside. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).