After my Turkey border crossing I headed to Istanbul. I could not find any campsites per say but most websites a parking apps recommended the LIGHTHOUSE ON SEA parking lot on Kennedy Street.

Traffic was, well, apocalyptic. It made a bad day on London’s M25 look like a walk in the park. I eventually got to the parking. There is a boomgate where you get a ticket, and you pay Lira 30 per day (around €4.60 at current exchange rate) to the man in the booth upon exit.

It’s just an open space with a park on the one side and plenty of people fishing off the pier on the other, but it felt safe and friendly. I had no issues during my 3 day stay here and there were other motorhomes as well.

(still, I locked up very tightly and left visible signs the alarm was on and doors chained etc)

There is a decent running / walking track along the ocean here which was good to discover.

I had to get to a few places in the city and simply took an Uber. Apart from really cheap, they are super luxurious and most are Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans converted to luxury VIP space.

It immediately gave me a idea re the interior of Rayquaza, and I discovered most of the taxi interior conversions are done in either Bursa, or Antalya, both places I was going to visit!

More about this in another post.

Istanbul is an insanely large and busy city, but strikingly beautiful at times.

After three days however I was ready to leave and wow, the road towards Bursa was incredible. The scale at which they do things here is hard to describe. Huuuuuuge as someone would say.

The highway was fantastic and a pleasure to use, but I must say driving a motorhome through the heart of Istanbul is not something I’d want to do every day..

Overall, a great visit and yes, I can recommend the parking on Kennedy Cadassi.