[soh]

hi weve just got back from our final visit to kus for this year and have decided to make next summers visit a trial retirement by going out for 3 or 4 months to see how we get on with turkish life in a non 2 week holiday mode.we always fly out by ba from gatwick when going for 1 or 2 weeks but have decided driving accross europe or going by rail will make it more of an adventure.has anyone out there done either of these?any advice on transport or long stay visits would be most welcome thanks in advance soh.

[**claire**]

hi,
have a look at this thread there are some useful links & tips on there

[soh]

thanks for the link,cant belive there are so many negitive thoughts on driving over, what happened to the british sense of adventure?my idea was to take a meander over 2 weeks or so nt try for a record 30 hours.plus having the car in kus will allow us to see a lot more of turkey during our stay.

[**claire**]

I think if you are going over for longer, like you are planning, driving is definatley an option, i think cost is a big thing, as obviously petrol costs, road tolls, ferry crossing (if you take that option) it all adds up pretty fast, not to mention the cost of petrol in Turkey. (more than in the UK)

[joy]

I have heard you can get a train down to Italy from ? french port not sure which...you can take your car on board and its a nice journey and not expensive.
Then ferry from Italy to Cesme and 1 hour drive down to Kusadasi.
I have not looked into this but worth a search if you are bringing you car...saves a lot of driving and border crossings which can be dodgy in Bulgaria.
Link www.seat61.com/motorrail.htm

http://www.seat61.com/

[toshnali]

Hi, we'd love to do this drive one day too, been looking at the auto planner routes and it's 3500km from my home near sheffield to my home in kus and according to them i can do it in 39 hours!!! Easy eh!!
I tried getting onto the link above for the train from france to italy but keep getting error message, does anyone know how to access it?
All I can say to you Soh is GO FOR IT!! I wish we were going with you for support!! Make sure you let us all know how you got on if you do go by car.

[puwer98]

joy- the only thing dodgy about Bulgaria is the really bad roads

[**claire**]

I just found this ..

Motorail trains to Greece & Turkey: www.optimatours.de

If you are travelling further afield, Optima Tours run Motorrail trains from Villach in southern Austria to Bulgaria, Macedonia (Skopje), Greece (Thessaloniki), and Turkey (Edirne), with departures on various dates from May to October. See www.optimatours.de for dates, times and booking information.

the website is in german tho (I couldnt find an english option)

also this ...

Belgium to Italy: www.ttconline.nl

The motorail services from Brussels to Italy operated by the Belgian national railways stopped running in December 2003, but a new privately-run motorail service was due to start in 2007 from Denderleeuw (near Brussels) to Bologna and Alessandria in Italy. The train will run overnight with sleeping-cars, couchettes and restaurant car, outward on Friday nights from late June to early September, returning northbound on Saturday nights. Denderleeuw is 90 minutes' drive from Calais, 45 minutes from Zeebrugge. Prices start at £270 one-way for car+driver in shared couchette, £405 one-way for car+driver+passenger in private 2-bed sleeper. Fares & times will be shown on www.ttconline.nl, or in the UK, contact www.railsavers.com (01253 595555) for details.
* Latest news (summer 2007): Regrettably, not only did TTC not get the arrangements for their new Brussels-Italy Motorail train sorted for the summer 2006, but they didn't manage to start up in summer 2007 either. They now plan to start this service in summer 2008, with bookings taken from winter 2007/8.
Germany to Italy: DB AutoZug website

German railways (Deutsche Bahn) run excellent motorail trains from places such as Düsseldorf to certain cities in Italy. For details, see the DB AutoZug website.
Netherlands to Italy: www.autoslaaptrein.nl

A private company, www.autoslaaptrein.nl, runs a weekly motorail train June-September from s'Hertogenbosch (in the middle of the Netherlands, a relatively short drive from the Channel ports of Hoek van Holland or Rotterdam) to Bologna in Italy. The train runs overnight with couchettes (4 & 6-berth) and sleepers (1, 2, and 3 bed) southbound on Friday nights, northbound on Saturday nights. Their website is currently only in Dutch, but you can contact them for details.
Car-carrying trains within Italy...

Motorail trains carrying passengers' cars operate on many routes within Italy, including Bologna-Palermo & Bologna-Catania (Sicily) daily year-round, Turin-Bari weekly all year and daily in summer, Bolzano-Bari weekly year-round, Rome-Sicily weekly, and many summer-only routes. See www.trenitalia.it and to book in the UK contact motorail experts www.railsavers.com (01253 595555).

[joy]

Originally Posted by toshnali

Hi, we'd love to do this drive one day too, been looking at the auto planner routes and it's 3500km from my home near sheffield to my home in kus and according to them i can do it in 39 hours!!! Easy eh!!
I tried getting onto the link above for the train from france to italy but keep getting error message, does anyone know how to access it?
All I can say to you Soh is GO FOR IT!! I wish we were going with you for support!! Make sure you let us all know how you got on if you do go by car.

Hi when you press on the link you will see under the error bit a web page to be re directed to...hope this helps!!!

[toshnali]

That's great, got it now Joy, thanks a lot.

It's not looking cheap, just been on the ferry site and according to their calculation it's going to be somewhere around £1200 just for the ferry crossing from Brindisi or Ancona to Cesme. Thats with 2 adults, 1 kid and one dog and my van. Cant get a price at mo for journey down from port or Paris to Italy. Does anyone have a set journey planned with costings??