So You’re Traveling in Turkey During Ramadan

The first summer I lived in Turkey, I had one plan: get the heck out during Ramadan.

Ramadan (or Ramazan, as it’s known in Turkish) is the Muslim month of fasting, where observant Muslims do not eat, drink, or smoke between sunrise and sunset. The second-to-last call to prayer is the signal to eat, and that fast-breaking meal is called Iftar. Sometimes, this is marked by the shooting of a cannon, though I’ve never heard it in Istanbul.  Instead, in the pre-dawn hours I’ve heard wandering drummers banging percussion instruments to wake everyone up to eat the morning meal before the day’s fast begins. This year, Ramadan begins on June 17 and lasts until July 17.

I had no idea what to expect that first year. With visions of shuttered shops and daytime hunger, I planned my escape and traveled to Georgia, Armenia, Serbia, and Montenegro.

And yet I didn’t completely escape Turkey. Between the Caucasus and the Balkans, I passed through Kars in the east of Turkey and Istanbul in the west, and was happily surprised to discover that my Ramadan expectations were off. In Kars, my friend and I were easily served dinner before the Ramadan cannon sounded; in my Kadikoy neighborhood in Istanbul, vendors still sold water and snacks on the street and the cafe sidewalks were lined with midday beer drinkers.

The following year, thanks to the residence permit issues that kept me trapped in Turkey, I spent most of the Ramadan month all over the country: in Turkey’s conservative southeast, biking through villages around Lake Iznik, and lounging on the beach in Kabak Valley in Turkey’s touristed southwest. Every experience was different and again, not what I expected.

To begin with: Turkey is technically a secular republic, though it is majority Muslim, so Ramadan is not universally observed. This means that how it will affect your trip depends on where you are.

In Istanbul, this varies neighborhood to neighborhood. While some of the more conservative neighborhoods might be more shuttered by day, touristy areas (like Sultanahmet) and more liberal areas (like Kadikoy, Beşiktaş, and Beyoglu) generally carry on as usual. While it’s good to be mindful that the people around you might be fasting, you don’t have to fast yourself: most restaurants and cafes (and bars) will be open. Many restaurants will offer a fixed-course Iftar meal, which is worth taking advantage of whether you are fasting or not– but it definitely helps to go in hungry.

THE SOUTHEAST

I imagined Turkey’s southeast to be nightmarish during Ramadan (and yet I went anyway! Livin’ on the edge), but it was not so bad at all. Ramadan began the day we left Urfa and I traveled through Hasankeyf, Mardin, and Diyarbakir after it began.

Hasankeyf posed the biggest problem, since the town is so tiny. The first day, our new local friends treated us to a feast in the mountains before sunset; on other days, we struggled to get food before sundown. I believe we managed to scrounge up a sandwich eventually. After sunset, though, the town came alive; it helped that the daytime was so hot that we barely moved midday, electing instead to read in hammocks or nap in the shade.

In Mardin, the most beautiful city in Turkey, it was fairly easy to find food. Most shops were open and restaurants began serving well before the evening call-to-prayer. Lucky us, since the food in Mardin was so divine. My friend Will and I decided to splurge on a fixed-course Iftar here, and it was a delicious decision (even if we were fit to burst by the end).

Diyarbakir, at first blush, seemed easy to find food in, but here I encountered another Ramadan problem: the grumpiness. Of course fasting, especially in the summer heat, can make people irritable; I didn’t realize how much this affected my experience in the city until I returned months later.

AROUND LAKE IZNIK

I didn’t expect this leg of my trip to be difficult for food: after all, Lake Iznik isn’t so far from Istanbul, and I assumed the area would be as liberal as the big city on the Bosphorus.

I was wrong. Though we had no problem getting lunch in Yalova, our jumping-off point, every stop after that caused problems.

The little towns and little cities we passed through are not places that expect tourists, and they were not equipped to handle two hungry foreigners on bikes. Often, we’d get into cities in the evening and have to wait until the sun set to be served. More problematic was lunch time, which was mostly nonexistent. Small convenience stores were open– we were always able to get snacks and bottles of water– but nuts and chocolate, while sustaining, are not lunch. In one town, we sat in the shade with fruit juice and mixed nuts to re-energize before the next leg, and were shooed away by the old men sitting across the square. I understand, of course– they ARE fasting– but it made the days much longer when we couldn’t get a proper break (or caffeine). Even in Iznik, the most substantial city we stopped in, we couldn’t find an open restaurant before sunset. Luckily the supermarket in town was open, so the next day we stocked up on meat and cheese and bread and fruit and had a picnic lunch in the woods on the side of a random road. My recommendation if you want to recreate my bike trip? Don’t do it during Ramadan.

KABAK (and the southwest)

Turkey’s Mediterranean coast is a popular vacation spot for Turks, Brits, and others, and that is obvious during Ramadan. I was only in Fethiye briefly, but I saw more restaurants selling bacon than anywhere else I’ve ever been in Turkey.

Kabak is fairly isolated and felt completely removed from Ramadan—I don’t think I could even hear a call-to-prayer in the valley. This meant that meals weren’t affected at all. I was staying at a camp that included breakfast and dinner; lunch was easy to come by at many other camps. These areas generally aren’t catering to observant Muslims, rather to the secular and liberal youth who populate my neighborhood. Beach towns on the Turkish coast shouldn’t be problematic during Ramadan.

My advice to you, if you are traveling in Turkey during Ramadan? Be respectful and mindful, and don’t worry too much. This country is always fascinating, even (perhaps especially) during Ramadan.