The Least Practical Way to Get to Istanbul

Most people traveling from the South of France to Istanbul would book a flight, pack a bag, and be there in a few hours.

Apparently, we are not most people.

Instead, we’ll spend 5-ish days driving across France, Italy, and Greece, before eventually crossing into Türkiye, with our dog Bindi in the backseat.

The reason for all of this is not glamorous. We need to go to Istanbul for administrative reasons, the kind of things that, when you live abroad, eventually pile up until they can no longer be solved online. Passports, residence cards, family documents, etc. The unglamorous realities of international life.

But Istanbul is also one of the places I love most in the world. So while this is technically an admin trip, it’s still exciting, even if I’m dreading the journey to get there.

Why are we doing it this way? Well, we know we’ll have to be in Istanbul for at least a few weeks. Finding a pet sitter for that long is nearly impossible, plus at Bindi’s age, we don’t want to leave her too long anyway. She’s too big to fly in the cabin, and we promised we’d never put her in cargo again. So the only real option is to drive.

There are essentially two options for the drive. We’ve done them both before, and there’s a clear winner. The first involves driving through countries that are both Schengen and EU to minimize pet import requirements. That means France, to Italy, to Slovenia, to Hungary, to Romania, to Bulgaria, to Greece, and then finally crossing into Türkiye.

We did this once, and I do not recommend it. Depending on your stamina for long drives, it’s a minimum of 5 days, driving 8ish hours per day, mostly through long roads of nothingness.

The second is driving from France to Puglia, Italy, taking a ferry to Igoumenitsa, Greece, then driving across Greece and entering Türkiye. This is the clear winner. Even though it takes roughly the same amount of days, the ferry cuts out a lot of driving, and the overnight stops being in Italy and Greece mean good food, and dog-friendliness are pretty much guaranteed.

The ferry has its own drawbacks and quirks, which I think I’ll dive into in a future post, but it’s still the clear winner.

The next task is planning how to get Bindi into Türkiye. While pets can travel pretty freely within the EU, taking them outside the EU and making sure they’re cleared to re-enter requires some planning.

The first time we did this journey, this was part I was most worried about. I stressed for weeks, worrying that we would somehow miss a requirement and Bindi wouldn’t be allowed to re-enter the EU.

​We did everything by the book, all the appointments, the health certificates, the shots, and when we got to the border, no one cared in the least that we had a dog with us. No documents were checked, and the hours (and euros) we spent on her paperwork were kind of useless.

​However, I’m still pretty risk-averse, so we’ll do it all by the book again this time. The requirements are frustratingly inconsistent and vague depending on which source you consult, but the basic consensus is a vet check-up 24 hours before departure, a valid EU pet passport, and a rabies titre test completed 3 months before travel. After the vet gives the all clear, you then have to bring the documents to a special government building to have them stamped, and then you are ready to cross.

​Packing for a trip like this can be a challenge, but it is also a reminder of what you really need - and spoiler alert, it’s not much. I think back to my first trip to Istanbul almost 15 years ago, when I flew from DC with a huge purse, a carry-on, and a massive checked bag for a two-week trip! Today, that sounds absurd to me. If that’s how you like to travel, go for it, but struggling through old streets with an oversized suitcase and a dog is not my idea of a good time.

​These days, no matter how long the trip is, I only bring what fits in my carry-on. Bindi, on the other hand, has her own bag packed with her bed, food, medicine, a selection of toys, and whatever else we’ve accumulated after traveling through 20+ countries with her. I honestly think Bindi’s bag is bigger than mine.

And that is more or less the plan: five days, three countries, one ferry, too many documents, and a dog who has no idea how much of this itinerary revolves around her.

It would be easier to fly, cheaper too. It would be simpler to live a life that fits neatly inside one country’s systems.

But that’s not the life we have built.

So we’ll drive. We’ll stop in Italy. We’ll eat some pasta. We’ll get on the ferry. We’ll have freddo cappuccinos in Greece. I’ll check Bindi’s paperwork twelve times even though no one may ask to see it. We’ll cross Greece, eventually reach the Turkish border, and if all goes well, arrive in Istanbul very ready to spend the summer in one of our favorite cities.