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Turkey’s top 6 ski resorts as demand hits record highs
Turkey’s top 6 ski resorts as demand hits record highs
Turkey’s top ski resorts are almost fully booked as schools’ semester break kicks off on Jan. 18, Hürriyet's Burak Coşan reports. Click through for the top six ski resorts in Turkey, according to HDN’s Melih Uslu and Hürriyet Travel...
Uludağ: With half a century of experience, Uludağ in the western province of Bursa is the pioneer of winter tourism in Turkey. From suites with fireplaces to restaurants serving world cuisine, every detail seems tailored to guarantee a stunning winter holiday at Uludağ, which lies like a blazing mountain town in a sea of snow. (Photo: Yılmaz Savaş Kandağ - Alamy)
Kartepe: As one of Anatolia’s new winter sports centers, this is the ski resort nearest to Istanbul. On a peak rising on the shores of Lake Sapanca in the Kocaeli province, Kartepe has pistes for skiers at every level. It covers 19 kilometers of slopes with four ski lifts and has an elevation of between 1,300 and 1,700 meters. (Photo: - Suat Eracar - Alamy)
Erciyes: Twenty-seven kilometers from Kayseri Airport, Erciyes Ski Center boasts 13 runs from easy to moderately difficult. Four hotels operate at the center, which offers winter sports enthusiasts a chance to ski in view of the Cappadocia Valley’s unique contours. There are runs of varying degrees of difficulty at this center, which opened in December with one meter of snow. (Photo: Suat Eracar - Alamy)
Kartalkaya: At 45 kilometers from the Black Sea province of Bolu’s city center, Kartalkaya Ski Center appeals for its proximity to both Istanbul and Ankara. With six big hotels, this center in the Köroğlu Mountains is ideal for everything from skiing and snowboarding to tobogganing and motor safaris. (This photo: Cenap Refik Ongan - Alamy / The first photo of this gallery, which also shows Kartalkaya: Images & Stories Alamy)
Palandöken: There is a twin-towered ski jump platform in this resort in the eastern province of Erzurum, which successfully hosted the 2011 UNIVERSIAD Winter Games. Here, too, is Turkey’s longest piste with more than 10 uninterrupted kilometers. It is one of Turkey’s most easily accessible ski resorts, located approximately 15 kilometers from Erzurum Airport.
Sarıkamış: The final destination of the popular Eastern Express, which also passes through Erciyes and Palandöken ski resorts, is Turkey’s far eastern province of Kars, where you can also visit the Sarıkarmış Ski Resort. With its long pistes, it’s for those who would like to ski through forests and snowy plains of a breathtaking beauty. (Photo: Yavuz Sarıyıldız - Alamy)
Some 2 million Turks are expected to hit the roads in the first three days of the semester break and many of them preferred to ski in the first long holiday of 2019, which will end on Feb. 4.
Turkey’s Bus Operators Federation vice chair Mustafa Özcan said their members were struggling to keep up with the passenger demand especially from Istanbul to a series of locations, like the Kocaeli province where the popular Kartepe resort can be found.
The Erciyes Mountain resorts in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri have prepared to host some 70,000 people in the semester, according to Erciyes A.Ş. tourism company chair Murat Cıngı.
There is also a hiked demand from foreign tourists, he added, noting Ukrainian and Polish holidaymakers who increasingly prefer resorts like Erciyes, as well as Palandöken.
Occupancy rate in leading ski resorts and thermal centers are expected to hit 100 percent, Turkey’s Travel Agencies Union chair İbrahim Halil Kalay said. It corresponds to a 20-25 percent rise in demand compared to the same weeks of last year.
Story: Burak Coşan
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