by Dennis | March 12, 2016 | Eat, Shop, and Stay, Spring, Summer, Yildirim
We love Turkish breakfast, and we’ve sung its praises before. We also stand by our suggestion that Cumalıkızık is probably the neatest place in the Bursa area to get an authentic, traditional Turkish breakfast in a genuinely Ottoman-Turkish village atmosphere. We...
by Dennis | February 27, 2016 | Bursa's Neat Places, Culture and History, Osmangazi, Spring, Summer
“This must be it,” my friend Ahmet told me as we pulled up to the edge of the centuries-old stone-walled cemetery in Bursa’s little Armutköy village. “But it looks more like a çınar to me.” Bursa is famous for its collection of 600 and 700-year-old çınar (plane)...
by Dennis | December 5, 2015 | Bursa's Neat Places, Fall, Nilüfer, See, Do, and Play, Summer
The Bursa Zoo (hayvanat bahçesi) is a nice little animal park located in Bursa’s Soğanlı neighborhood next to Bursa’s spacious Botanik Park. Situated on 20 hectares of tree-shaded green space, the zoo houses 700 animals representing nearly 100 species from all over...
by Dennis | November 7, 2015 | Fall, See, Do, and Play, Summer, Travel Tips and Visiting Info
**Download this article to your iOS device now with the GPSMyCity article app! Planning on visiting Bursa with your children? Bursa does not usually rank high on lists of kid-friendly Turkish cities for family travelers. With UNESCO’s recognition of Bursa as the...
by Dennis | August 30, 2015 | Bursa's Neat Places, Fall, Kestel, See, Do, and Play, Summer
Nestled on Uludağ’s mountainside a dozen kilometers above the town of Kestel lies the hidden little village of Saitabat (Güvercinlik). Surrounded by plane tree forests, fruit orchards, and honey farms, the village itself is a sleepy little burg consisting of not much...
by Dennis | August 15, 2015 | Fall, Spring, Summer, Travel Tips and Visiting Info, Winter
One of the questions I often get asked by friends who live outside of Turkey is, “What’s the weather like in Bursa?” Some people immediately follow with another question: “It’s a lot like a desert, isn’t it?” When I respond by saying no, they sometimes look a little...
by Dennis | July 24, 2015 | Osmangazi, See, Do, and Play, Summer
“What do you think, should we go to the horse farm tomorrow and ride horses?” I asked the kids as we tucked them into bed one Saturday night. “Yea!” was their collective response in excited, near-perfect unison. The next morning, we hopped out...
by Dennis | July 15, 2015 | Bursa's Neat Places, Nilüfer, See, Do, and Play, Summer
Under the shade of sprawling plane trees on a warm summer afternoon, my family and I sat at a table in the cobblestone village square with our friend, Murat, who had graciously offered that day to take us for a drive through Bursa’s countryside. There in the square we...
by Dennis | July 9, 2015 | Bursa's Neat Places, Osmangazi, See, Do, and Play, Summer
We rolled out of bed one summer day off with nothing really on our agenda. Our kids suggested we head for the local pool or the little indoor amusement park at the shopping mall, both good options. But while thinking about it over my morning cup of coffee, a better...
by Dennis | June 26, 2015 | Bursa's Neat Places, See, Do, and Play, Summer, Yildirim
It was a sweltering hot mid-summer day down in the valley. The kids were wasting their time lazily lounging on the sofa in the salon under the steady flow of artificially cooled air from the A/C. My wife and I were getting tired of being cooped up in the house. And we...
