organised travel

A Muslim Mom’s Travel Tips to having a blast in Kuşadası

Here’s an ideal holiday destination if you want to balance beach bliss and sightseeing!

It’s not as well known to people outside Turkey, but this is one of my favourite beach destinations in Turkey – it has much more natural feel and has lots of history and things to see.

I’d say you could get : Resort (70%) + sightseeing (20-30%) which is perfect for me with two kids under 7.

Sightseeing :
1. Ephesus ( ancient city and ruins) – full post on this here

2. House of Mary (May Allah be pleased with her). I didnt know about it, so it was fascinating and heart warming to visit.

3. Castle / town centre walk – for the castle there is small climb up, sweeping views. Covered spots. Worth it to discover a new view and beautiful setting. The town walk is short, but it was still nice to stroll through and get an ice cream to cool down.

4. Marina and Boat ride – 1 hour trips gives you a lovely view of the seaside and town. It was lovely and cool on board. There are several boats along the walkway so we just chose the first one leaving as they are all similar prices.

Next time: I’d like to check out a water park in Kusadasi to add a different activity to the resort stay.

Duration: 3-5 days for a relaxed break in this city to check out the sites and to relax at the hotel. (we would jump into the pool every day after touring!)

How to get here: Fly to Izmir, 1 hour drive to Kusadasi

Alhamdulillah, though it was so hot mid July, we had a blast. I’ll share a longer blog post on Maryam AS house soon 🙂

So if youre looking for a little adventure and history besides beach fun , I hope you add Kusadasi to your Turkey summer ☀️ itinerary Insha Allah!

What’s your ideal summer coastal holiday split between beach and sightseeing?

What to see and do in Ayvalik for a beach break with small kids

Subscribe to continue reading

Subscribe to get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content.

Ertuğrul Gazi tomb: This ain’t a movie site- so go, but go with correct intention!

Yes, it finally happened!

I’ve always wanted to go to Sogut to visit the burial place for Ertugral Gazi and some of his family members. But I didn’t manage to for the past 5 years living in Istanbul because:

a) it felt like my intention wasn’t right – this is a graveyard for a real person, not a movie set for Engin (The Turkish actor who plays his role in the hit series Diliris Ertugral)
b) the distance of 4 hours to drive with two kids to this remote town had zero appeal to me.

Until last year, Alhamdulillah we got an out of the blue opportunity to go with our friends visiting from South Africa who had hired a car and driver and wanted us to join the road trip! So having great company (and no kids!) and travelling in comfort made it all the more worth it (even if some of us dozed for most of the ride!). I also managed to correct my intention to remind myself that I was going to visit the resting place for a great Muslim personality in our rich history. Although not much is known about him- what we do know is that he raised one of the greatest leaders in modern Islamic history, Osman Gazi who founded the Ottoman Empire- one of the most powerful states in the world.

It took us around 4 hours (one way) with one comfort break at a petrol station. Total duration for the whole trip with lunch stop 10 hours- we left around 8am from Besiktas and we made it back home for kids bedtime.

What to see at the tomb site


What’s to see at the site:

– Tomb and burial sites for Ertugal, Halime Hanim, Turgut Alp and others. We made dua here and walked around the site.
– There are some Alps dressed in traditional gear to give you some movie vibes- but that’s it – don’t expect more
– Souvenir shop with plenty swords, IYI tribe gear and houseware and gifts which was great to check out.
– Sadly facilities are linited for toilets and food. Small snacks and drinks you may find only.

Length of visit : 1 hour maximum

What I learnt from the visit:
I was quite touched at the site, thinking back to what it must have been like in those days to fight for land and rights and how these amazing leaders had a vision for their people that they managed to fulfil. It’s really remarkable what they achieved and its important to teach our children about this important part of our muslim history.

Read more on this site in Sogut here

Lunch in Sapanca



What’s to see around there:
There are some other things such as Ertugrul Gazi Museum and the house of Sheikh Edebali. We stopped at Sapanca for lunch on way back to Istanbul because we really needed to pack in more value for this rather this long day out! You could drive to Bursa to make it a longer trip with overnight stay.

So is it worth it to go to or not?
No easy answer from me, sorry! I am glad I went, there is alot of significance for this site – if you are willing to read up or watch the series even for inspiration. In my case, there was a bigger picture of spending time with my friend as well for a couples outing after ages, but everyone’s motivation is different so you need to decide whether you would want to spend your time and energy on this trip out to Sogut!


Have you been, what did you enjoy about your visit? If you haven’t, been yet, is this on your bucket list?


Belgium….and our Islamic history!

Salaams
I have just come from a weekend visit to Belgium, and from that trip something comes to mind that I’d like to share. 
Belgium is known for its delicious belgian waffles, fries, chocolate…but one thing I realised is that whats most remarkable about the place is their preservation and marketing of it! Everywhere you go you are reminded of their national ‘treasure’ the little bronze fountain sculpture, and they have museums for everything you can think of. They combine entertainment and learning in places like Mini Europe, which is all about the great achievements of European countries, and the European Union.
The thing is as Muslims we know how much we have contributed to civilisation, how we have been the first to discover key things in science, astrology, biology, everything! We have so much of a rich history and wonderful achievements. This trip made me realise how important it is that a)  we preserve our Islamic history, and make it exciting and interesting and  b) how as Muslims we should visit places with rich history like Turkey, Spain, Palestine if we can, take our children and learn and teach others!
Inshallah
🙂
M4Life