Cycling through Turkey’s Taurus Mountains
Explore this sparsely populated region’s wild mountain rivers and ancient ruins

They rise just north of the sprawling coastal resort of Antalya, but Turkey’s western Taurus Mountains are a sparsely populated “hard-bitten corner of the Mediterranean hinterland”, home to timeless villages and “barely explored” ancient ruins.
With few hotels in the area, tour operator The Slow Cyclist had to “improvise” in planning its week-long guided group trips, says Tim Moore in House & Garden, arranging stays in “clean and comfortable” local homes, where meals are “vivid” feasts of local produce, often served outside under cherry blossom by “three generations of the hosting family”. The result is a deep sense of immersion in the region’s life, while the cycling is great fun, with electric bikes to take the “spirit-sapping” slog out of the journey.
Known as Pisidia by the ancients, this area enjoyed “a millennium of bustle and prosperity” until the fall of Rome and a series of earthquakes dented its fortunes. Its cities were “reclaimed by nature”, and people returned to farming.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Leaving your bike and hiking off road, you can wander “in awed silence” between temples and amphitheatres “lost in the trees”, where the forest floor is strewn with ancient pot shards. The scenery is “muscular and tirelessly strange”. Jagged, snowcapped peaks tower over valleys “stacked with bulbous grey mounds of conglomerate rock, like elephants sleeping in a heap”, and laced among them is an “arcadia of wildflowers and junipers”, and of fields and orchards fragrant with lavender, apples and almond blossom.
There are chances to swim in wild mountain rivers along the way, and particularly “magical” is a night spent in a remote valley, where the trip organisers have set up a campsite of bell tents equipped with “proper beds”, candles and Turkish rugs.
The trip costs from £3,350pp, excluding flights (theslowcyclist.com).
Sign up for The Week’s Travel newsletter for destination inspiration and the latest news and trends.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
What to know before 'buying the dip'
the explainer Purchasing a stock once it has fallen in value can pay off — or cost you big
-
Fast and furious zombies, serial killer sharks and a matchmaking conundrum in June movies
the week recommends Danny Boyle is back with '28 Years Later' and Dakota Johnson has a Sophie's choice to make in 'Materialists'
-
Is Hollywood losing its luster?
Today's Big Question Television and film production is moving, leaving Hollywood to ponder its place in pop culture
-
Ancient India: living traditions – 'ethereal and sensual' exhibition
The Week Recommends Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are explored in show that remains 'remarkably compact'
-
6 well-preserved homes built in the 1930s
Feature Featuring a restored 1934 colonial in Arizona and a cold-storage warehouse turned loft in New York City
-
Things in Nature Merely Grow: memoir of 'harsh beauty' after loss
The Week Recommends Chinese-American novelist Yiyun Li's 'devastating' memoir explores the deaths of her two sons
-
Sirens: entertaining satire on the lives of the ultra-wealthy stars Julianne Moore
The Week Recommends This 'blackly comic affair' unfurls at a 'breakneck speed'
-
Mrs Warren's Profession: 'tour-de-force' from Imelda Staunton and daughter Bessie Carter
The Week Recommends Mother-daughter duo bring new life to George Bernard Shaw's morality play
-
Critics' choice: Steak houses that break from tradition
Feature Eight hours of slow-roasting prime rib, a 41-ounce steak, and a former Catholic school chapel turned steakhouse
-
Tash Aw's 6 favorite books about forbidden love
Feature The Malaysian novelist recommends works by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and more
-
Film reviews: Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning, Lilo & Stitch, and Final Destination: Bloodlines
Feature Tom Cruise risks life and limb to entertain us, a young girl befriends a destructive alien, and death stalks a family that resets fate's toll.